Evening capital., May 23, 1884, Image 1

About Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910

Image provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

                
EVENING W&mm CAPITAL
VOL. I. NO. 11.
AMBLING AMONG WOMEN.
NOVEL OAUBLISfO PLACE IST THE
METROPOLIS.
m* Inaiemnnt Noinfl *•%% 1 <rk so*
<-l*ty I mti* limliilk'* In —I 4 Club
llunM-*’ Ktrlunltelr for Women.
A Western paper recently gave a de
iption of a gambling house engineered
y patronized ly females. Since then,
the Mew Vrrk World , the existence
such institutions in various other cities
k boon made known. The most promi
nt and noteworthy of them all, how
i r. has been overlooked.
It is located in a cozy, quiet-looking
1 mansion of the stately and monu
intal New York tyje and within two
,( ks of the Brevoort house. To all
tward appearances the place is
iv one of the many resi
itVes of aristocratic elegance
lich line the street. All the windows
• heavily curtained and a face is seldom
t*n there. Even at night it is rarely
lited in the front. So quietly and un
trusively has the business of the estab
hment been carried on that, although
luislieen in existence for months, its
a character has never licen suspected,
ie proprietress of the house was origi
lly the friend of the proprietor of one
the most famous gambling houses in
is city. She quarreled with ami left
m. Finding herself thrown on her own
sources ami owner of a vast collec
rm of jewels, she determined
profit by her experience. She hired a
irnished house, the same in which she
rw carries on her trade, and after in
ducting two or three of her intimate
[:quuintanees in tin; mystery of dealing
nd nmaipnlating cards, began work
litli their ass stance. The place was ex
■nsively advertised as a “Ladies’ Club
ouse,” and soon quite popular,
10 more so as no men were admitted!
oulette and faro, as well as occasion;#
unes of rouge-et-noir were at first dejiu;,
it the gaming soon resolved itself into
ro alone. Heavy playing has taken
aee in this house. One lady is known
i have carried oIT over $5, COW a re
lit of a day's luckv play. fe
ale won upon three days in succession
1,800.* The bank was so low’ at one
mi* that the proprietress contemplated
using, and would have done so but for
ie appearance of a creole gamestress,
[*sh from New Orleans, who lost over
1,000 in money and jewels at a sitting
id so replenished the nearly empty coi
rs. For the past few months the
iiank” is said to have enjoyed an al
ost unexampled run of luck, scarcely
ler losing.
For obvious reasons the games are all
affined to daylight. In order to obtain
11 mission it is necessary to have either a
urd from the proprietress or anintroduc
on from a frequenter. Regular habitues
ave latch-keys which admit them into
ie passage between the outer and inner
oors, both of which are always kept
L&scd. 'l'he inner door is guarded by a
retty young girl, whose orders arc to
3mit no stranger unprovided with the
roiier credentials. The postothce-box
* tlie proprietress is daily tilled with ap
[ications.
No gentleman, it is said, lias been ad
iitted except in the basement where
roceries, wines, etc., are delivered,
m* servants, of whom there are several,
re till females, us are also all the dealers,
iso-keepers, and attaches. The house
riginally belonged to a well-known
kiilion&ire, a former agent for one of the
rout transatlantic steamship lines, from
horn its present owner rented it. Since
ien she has purchased the building out
glit. It is furnished in the most lux
rious stylo throughout, nothing that
iste could suggest or money paoeure
ping absent.
The gambling is carried on in a back
ruwing-room on the second th.or. In
te first drawing room an elegant lunch is
ways laid, with the most delicate and
ostly wines. The upper floors are de
moted to the use of the attaches of the es
kblishment, who all reside on the prem
ies. The proprietress is a woman verg
ng ou middle-age, of a commanding tig
ire, and very handsome. She dresses in
•lack, is famous among all her acquaint
oces for love of pearls, which are
i .e only jewels she is known to wear, and
f which she is reported to have the most
mgnificent collection in the country,
►no complete set in particular belonged
a the Empress Eugenie, and the gems
rhich once queened it in the drawing
win of an empress now' preside over the
irtunes of a game of faro. Ihe exeeu
ve corps are all more dr less equivocally
imous and attractive, and are said to be
\ skillful and cool in all the traits and
ieks of their trade as a veteran gambler.
(”"10 housekeeping is on the most ex
igant scale, and is chiefly served by
prominent Fulton market dealers
a wine merchant who supplies the
lipal clubs. All of these dealers
n that the consumption of the finer
ity of their wares far exceeds that of
v of the chilis where male New* \ ork
i such luxurious comfort.
iere are sevefal other institutions for
c r lrpose scattered about this city
AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY JOURNAL—DEVOTED TO THE BEST INTEREST OF THE STATE, CITY AND COUNTY.
ANNAPOLIS, MD„ FRIDAY EVENING, MAY 23. 1884.
and Brooklyn, but they are on a far in
ferior scale, and their use is restricted
positively to elected members. In these* j
places only round games of cards are i
played; even at that limited rate, how-
ever, much money is lost and won. As
to the incalculable wrong wrought, the
place of which we especially treat is in
dubitably the worst. Women are pro
verbially infatuated gamblers, and once
embarked on the sea of chance, w ith
their fates totally at the mercy of the
fickle goddess Fortune, or worse, with j
the chance of the game dependent on ‘
the honesty or dishonesty of an un- |
scrupulous dealer, the result may easily
be imagined. j
Lepers in India.
A stranger in India visiting a bazar, or
any public place, w rites a correspondent
of the New York Observe r„ will be ;
shocked at the wretched beings by w hom i
he will be immediately surrounded, each !
one asking an alms. Mothers are in the j
throng and thrust upon the notice of the
visitor a puny babe, a sightless child, or j
one with a hideous deformity. Children
are leading about a blind fat her or mother.
The maimed are there; and crawling at
his feet and imploring his pity wind penee
are creatures in all stages of wretched
ness and deformity. The leper, too, is
there, and holds up before the
visitor his hands frightful will# the rav
ages of the pitiless disease is con
suming his life; or, leaning on a stick
and hobbling painfully along, directs at
tention to his stumps wrapped in loath
some rags; or, it these members are
sound, he implores the visitor to look
upon his marred visage.
Leprosy in prevalent,
and is found and
the plains. It is saidMmff' there are at
least 125,000 of these wretched sufferers
here, and one authority places the num
ber at 200.000. The last census shows
diease is spreading in some parts
The census of 1880 gave the
nuMber as 3*' 748. In the city of Bombay
alor\e fchen/are now 430 lepers.
The (jojAition of no class of persons is
so as that of the lepers. Not
only are thew the victims of a loathsome
and incur&bltolisease. their life a “living
death,” are outcasts, homeless
and the terrible disaase
makes in a member of a
one is cast out
bis henceforth has neithcH
name nor habitation. In the selfish creecß
of the Hindu
sion. flow shat! mortals pity those wifTTv
whom the gods are angry? they cokrtly
question; and so from the home where
he has been loved and honored, the leper
goes out, a hopeless outcast. Henceforth
no friendly door opens to welcome him;
no voice in accents of kindness falls upon
his ear. Unable to toil, he begs from
door to door, and sleeps where the night
overtakes him; to satisfy his hunger
gladly taking such food as is ‘Thrown to
him;” no fear cf defilement now, for
who so vile as he. And so the months
and years drag wearily on, the awful dis
ease doing its deadly work, until the
maimed and scarred stump that remains
scarcely seems the tenement Of a human
soul.
The people of India provide asylums
and hospitals for animals, and to pet and
pamper the sacred cow, or the revered
monkey, is regarded as an act of great
merit; but to relieve the sufferings of
their stricken fellow-creatures they feel
no responsibility.
But though the inhabitants of this
land are thus indifferent to the woes of
their countrymen, the children of
“Christian England” have been moved
to pity, and all over the land there are
now asylums for lepers.
Cologne.
Among the things which amused the
author of “European Breezes” was the
“only original” cologne-water that she
found in every store in the renowned
city:
if the rest of the world escapes that
future place where all liars are to go, the
city of Cologne will make it populous.
Nearly every man in that city sells eau
de cologne; and since each swears his to
be the only original, it follows that
cologne is made up of one honest man
and a multitude of liars.
I bought cologne-water in the shop
where tse pr<*ft*Gfc>t labels were displayed;
paid a tnird more for it than I would pay
for the imported article in New Y'ork.
and came to this conclusion; that eau de
cologne is made in one huge vat in that
city, and retailed to all these “ouly or
iginals;” for it is all alike, from whence
it comes.
The maids in the hotel peddle it in the
halls; the beggar who fails to get a coin
from you brings from his pocket a bottle
and endeavors to make a bargain. The
bad odors of cologne arc no fiction.
A very handsome set of bridesmaids'
dr sses worn in New York were of pale
blue satin, with train of crape ornamented
with cowslips and leaves. They had
pointed bodices laced in front, with
Medicis collars of lace and elbow sleeves
gathered high on the shoulder.
FOR THE LOVERS OF FUN T .
STORIES THAT WILL RAISE A LAUGH
AMONG OUR READERS.
rauw mid Kdect-Tln* Kind of Vliitoi
cian-AChiiirM Failure—-The Ten*
deneiee of Ibe Time*—(aumed It.
Gloomy and taciturn barber, sadly re
garding the skull of loquacious subject—
“ Hair’s coming out, sir; failing out very
badly, sir.”
j Light minded and loquacious subject,
very frivolously—“ Yes; I was afraid it
would. You put something on it last
week for a dollar you said would bring it
) out.”
Gloomy and taciturn barber relapses
i into dignified silence, and proudly neg
lects to suggest sea foam or tonic only
five cents extra. — Burlington Haxtkeye.
The Kind of .lliisitilin.
“I'm thinking of making a musician
| of that boy of mine. Yeast,” said (’riin
sonbeak to his neighbor, who had
I had young Johnny Crimsonbeak in his
employ as an office boy for a week.
“I would if I were you,” was the caus
tic reply of Y'east.
“Well, Yeast, your judgment is worth
something, what kind of a musician
would you advise me to make ot him ?”
said the jolly C’rimsonbeak, highly
pleased at the contemplation.
“Well, Crimsonbeak, to tell you the
exact truth your boy has got a powerful
sight of wind and I have no doubt,
should his mouth hold out, that he will
make one of the best whistlers in the
county!”— Statesman.
Didn't Like That Kind.
A merchant traveler was put in a bed
with a stranger at a crowded hotel. Dur
ing the night he became very restless
and waked up his bed-fellow by kicking
him clear out of bed.
“ Thunderation 1” yelled the victim,
“what do you mean by that sort of treat
ment?”
“Oh—ah—beg pardon,” said the
traveler, rubbing open his eyes and gaz
ing at the man on the floor, “ I was
dreaming.”
“Dreaming, was you? Well, it’s all
right, Mister, but if it’s ail the same to
you, I’d just as lief you wouldn’t keep
your dreams loaded.”— Merchant- Trac-
I eler.
! f A Chint'ite Failure.
W hen a native of China doing business
to the wall, a mandariu investigates
his affairs, and the result is usually about
as follows:
“I find that your household expenses
have been eight cents per day.”
“Alas l oh mighty mandarin, I have an
extravagant family.”
“Your rent has been sixty cents per
month. How dare you to incur such
expense on your small capital?”
“I was ill hopes times w ould improve.”
“And 1 find among your items of ex
pense such things as opera tickets, oys
ters for Sunday, and smoking tobacco
I for your grandmother. No wonder you
have to shut up shop and cause your
; creditors to mourn.”
“Oh. mighty mandarin, show’ mercy to
an honest but unfortunate man.”
; “Call yourself honest when you with
! draw seventy cents of your capital to
j buy your wife a party dress? Come to
the temple of justice.”
At the temple the creditors divide up
the assets, and each one is then privil
eged to use a whip on the debtor's bare
back until he thinks he has got 100 cents
on the dollar.— Wa l Street Neint.
The Tendencies of the Time*.
“Gcm'len.” said Brother Gardner, as the
triangle sounded, “ebery day o’ my life
I h'ar about our pollytics, our
religun, ourskules, our society, ouramuse-
I meats, an' our system of gov'ment. Sun*,
thin’ must be wrong wid our hull system
of existence. What am it? Dat am the
question I propose to have discussed heah
to-night in all its bearins', and lax Mr.
Waydown Beebe to take the floah and
lead off.”
“We are runnin’away wid de kentry,”
said the solemn voice of Waydown Bebee,
as his name was called. “We am libin’
too fast. Twenty years a*ro I was satisfied
with a two-roomed cabin an’ a dollar a
day. Now’ I has to have a two-story house
and twelve shillings a day. Wives who used;;
to gobar’fut six days a week to save deir
i shoes for the seventh, now wear #8 butes
to mop in. De pussou who aims $lO a
week mus' lib jisfc as good as the one
who aims S2O. Twenty y'ars ago de
woman wid a diamond ring could boss
! a hull nayhurhpod. Now, when she
even tries to boss de sarvand gal, de gal
j packs up her peck of diamonds an' quits
de job, widout waitin’ fco collect any
leetle matter like S4O back salary. When
I I was a boy de man who bought a can of
oysters was supposed to have bin left a
j legacy of fo'r+een millvun dollars. Now--
aday dee jxjo* man's back yard am kiv
i ered wid de empty cans
“ I kin see sign arter sign dat dis gen
erashun am speedin’ along widout thought
or car’ of whar’ it will bring up. Men
who am hoein* 'taters to-day am nabobs
to-morrer. Men who used to believe in
savin’ up fur a rainy day now scatter
deir cash aroun’ as if de sunshine mus’
alius last. Whar' I used to be satisfied
wid bean soup I now want ox-tail, an'
dat’s what ails de hull kentry, we has
got to slow up an’ simmer down or de
top rail am gwine to give way an’ give us
all a drap.”— Fret Pre* w Limekiln Club.
lie (iueued It.
Traveling men as a rule are not apt to
make “bad breaks,” but sometimes they
do. The other day. on a train coming
into this city, one of these gentlemen
to sell out for a torn two-cent
stamp, but found no purchasers. On the
train was a particularly lovely young
lady, seated by herself, while in the seat
in front was a perfect specimen of a
well-to-do planter. The moist weather
had probably affected the old fellow's
corns, as he had taken off both boots
jftul planted his feet on the scat in front.
The relief had experienced had caused
him to drop into a sweet slumber, ami—
well, it was just about this time that the
drummer sat down in the seat by the
young lady and commenced to make
things pleasant, after the peculiar style
of drummers in general.
“Old party in front seems pretty com
fortable, don’t he?” said he.
“Yes, sir,he seems to be enjoying him
self.”
“Makes himself at home; don’t he?
These old guys take a parlor coach for a
regular dressing-room. Just look at the
style of those country socks, will you?”
“They look comfortable, though,” said
the young lady.
“Yes, they do; but just look at the
style of ’em. I'll just bet they were
knitted by hand out in the country some
where.”
“What makes you think so ?”
“Oh, they are so dizzy, you know.
Why, I wouldn’t disgrace my feet by put
ting them into such old ham covers. I’d
just like to know who the old sr.oozer is
and who made those socks.”
“Well, sir,” said the maiden, “as you
seem so anxious, I'll just tell you. The
gentleman you have so politely called an
old snoozer is my father, and I knitted
those socks for him myself, and as I know
you would love to get acquainted with
him, I'll just wake him up and introduce
you. Have you a card ?”
But the drummer had flown,and though
the next station consisted of only three
houses, a traveling man and three large
trunks got off.
Moral —You can’t most always some
times tell who the pretty girl’s father is.
—Evansville Argus.
How Flies Walk on Glass.
Dr. J. E. Rombouts says in Popular
Science Monthly: 1 have concluded from
my experiments that it is not the pres
sure of the air nor the power of an ad
hesive liquid that gives flies the faculty
of running over smooth bodies, but that
the power should be attributed to the
molecular action between solid and liquid
bodies; or, in other words, to capillary
adhesion.
If w’e examine the under part of the
pwlvilli with a microscope, we shall see
distinctly that it is finished with nu
merous hairs, regularly distributed.
These hairs terminate, at t! e’flower end.
in a kind of bulb, the for a of which
varies, whence flows an oily liquid that
dries slowly and does not harden for a
long time. The minute drops left on the
glass by the hairs may be taken away,
even after two or three days have passed,
without our having to moisten them, by
simply rubbing a piece of tine paper over
them. I have devised an apparatus for
collecting these drops by cutting a hole
in a piece of board over which I
fix a glass slide. Turning the board over
so that the glass shall lie at the bottom, I
have a little cell with a glass floor. With
the aid of a piece of paper gummed to
the wings, I introduce a fly into this
cavity in such a manner that the pul villi
shall rest upon the floor. Then, putting
the board under the microscope w ith the
glass slide uppermost, we have the fly’s
feet under our eyes. The insect, strug
gling for' liberty, places his pulvilli
against the glass, and leaves after each
effort traces that may be observed very
distinctly, for they are perfectly visible
in a good light.
\ We may discover, whenever the feet of
the fly qome again into contact with these
tracks r minute that they are
composed of a verylliquid substance, for
they spread quite roadilv on the glass.
We cannot admit, a* some naturalists as
sume, that the liquid\ can hold the club
shaped hair-ends suction. If this
were the case, the epds would change
shape .during the suctibn, and would take
the farm of a disk, fly put its fee.,
down and lifts them-tip with an incom
parablgJaciUtv that would not exist if
the limb werewaßy acted upon by the
pressure cf the air.
An odd sunshade is made by laying
squares of tw’o materials over the other
in such away that the sides of each
square are bisected by the angles of the
other.
PRICE ONE CENT.
Durability of Bank of England Notes.
Writing about the Bank of England
in Harper'* Magazine, William H. Hide
ing says: The album in which speci
mens of the various counterfeits discov
ered are preserved, also contains some
interesting proofs of the extraordinary
durability of the notes. There are three
notes for twenty-five pounds which passed
through the Chicago tire, and were sent
in for redemption by Mr. it. H. Nottin,
paymaster of the Chicago and Alton rail
way. Though they are burnt to a crisp
black ah, the paper is scarcely broken,
and the engraving is as clear as in a new
note. There arc also five-pound uotes
which went to the bottom of the sea in
the unfortunate training-ship Eurydice,
and were recovered after six months' im
mersion. They are not even frayed The
paper is stained a light brow n, and that
is the only effect their long exposure to
salt-water has had. Wean* shown in a
small case covered with a magnifying-
I glass a few charred fragments of paper
j for which the bank paid C 1,400. They
; are the remains of several notes de
stroyed in a tire, and were redeemed at
their full value, the holders being
able to give their numbers and
j dates, and to satisfy the bank
that they had actually been destroyed.
There is another note in the album w hich
w as in circulation 125 years before it was
returned to the bank for payment. No
note is issued twice. As soon as a note
is returned, even though it has been out
I but a few r hours, it is cancelled. Very
! often a note issued in the morning is
brought back to the bank in tin* after
! noon of the same day, but on an average
a five-pound note is out about eighty days.
The notes have many strange adventures.
One of a large denomination was found
keeping the wind away in the broken
pane u r a cottage window', neither the
cottager nor his wife having any idea of
its value. Another, also for a large sum.
the disappearance of which had led to
many wrongful suspicions and accusa
tions, was discovered, after many years,
inclosed in the wall of the house from
which it had mysteriously disappeared.
One thing the notes will not endure.
They will hold together at the bottom of
the sea, and come out of a furnace intact,
but they will not outlast the scrubbing,
the bleaching, and the mangling of the
laundrv. That trial, to which they are
sometimes subjected through the inad
vertence of ladies who send them to the
wash i/i their dress pockets, usually de
faces them, though even after it their
genuineness is still recognizable.
The Home of the Codfish.
What a marvelous influence upon civili
zation and human progress the humble
but nutritious codfish has had. * He has
been a mine of wealth to a vast popula
tion. It seems that good mother nature,
foreseeing the needs of humanity, has made
special preparations for a good supply of
this very necessary article of food for
body and brain, she floated her icebergs,
which were filled with the sandy bottom
of northern seas, down to the gulf
stream, w here they melted and deposited
their debris, formed the grand bank of
Newfoundland. It was the work, the
slow and toilsome work, of ages. Every
spring thousands of these bergs, one
third above the water and two-thirds
below, the upper part clear, sparkling
! and translucent, reflecting the sunshine
and giving it back to the enraptured eye
with that prodigality and brilliancy of
coloring which only nature can afford,
the lower part mixed with the coast bot
tom of Greenland and Labrador, to the
extent of thousands of cartloads, came
floating down majestically through Davis’
strait, and, meeting the warm air and
warm water of the gulf stream, melted
and deposited their contributions until
those immense shoals w ere formed, where
the cod and haddock swarm. And it is
said that these sand banks have huge de
pressions like vast valleys, which serve
as aquaria, and that when a vessel is
lucky enough to anchor over one of them,
it can fill its hold and deck with as many
as it can carry. For generations, the in
habitants of Newfoundland, and the ven
turesome folks who live all along the
New England coast, get their daily bread
or lay up a competency from this never
failing source of wealth. What a vast
number of people on the globe get their
living out of, and subsist priucipaliy on.
the invaluable cod, and what vast quan
tities have been landed by the fishing
fleet of Gloucester since her fishermen
first engaged in the business.
A New York letter to the Cincinnati
Commercial (iazette says that a number of
girls earn from S2O to S3O a week doing
decorative work for the large stores, such
as minting pin-cushions, cologne bottle*
and other trifles. Women arc making
good wages, too. at brasswork. A num
ber of these artistic young working
w'omen live together in one house, rnd
lead a happy merry existence.
A woman's school of journalism is to
be opened in Detroit this summer. The
girls art to be tamrht typesetting, diort
hand. proof-reading and revision of
manuscript.