CHAPTER IV.

GERMANY, RUSSIA, ROUMANIA, BULGARIA AND SERVIA.

Gambling among the Ancient Huns—Ancient German Warriors as Gamesters—Playing For One’s Liberty—Selling the Loser as a Slave—Modern Germany—Famous Gambling Resorts—The Gaming Season—The Games Played—The Growth of Homburg—The Blanc Brothers—A Venal Prime Minister—The First Roulette Wheel at Homburg—A Heavy Tax—The First Cure-Hall Built—A Great Gaming Company—A Gorgeous Resort—“The Temple of Fortune”—Gambling in the Balkan Peninsula—Gaming Among the Bulgarian and Servian Peasants—Playing for Bread and Milk—Gamins Gambling for Candy—Street Gamblers—Peripatetic Fakirs—“Doubles or Quits”—Gaming Preferred to Manual Labor—A Successful Gamester—Suicide and Starvation—“Tag Alek” A Hell in Belgrade—Scenes of Debauchery—The “Shades”—Lightly Clad Women as Attendants—Female Gamesters—The “Lurley”—Opium Smoking as an Adjunct to Gambling—A Dangerous Resort—Licensed Gambling—Large Revenues Enjoyed by Principalities—Baden Baden—Heavy Expenses and Enormous Profits—Wiesbaden and Ems—Spa—A President of a Council Leases His Mansion to a Gaming Company—The attractions at Wiesbaden—The Cure Hall—A Mixed State of Society—Blackmailing Courtesans—Beauties of Baden—The Conversation House—Gorgeous Appointments—Attractive Promenades—The Gambling Rooms at Baden—Heavy License Fees and Running Expenses—An Interesting Scene—Playing for High Stakes—The Cure Hall—Reckless Playing—Infatuated Women—A Ruined Gamester—A Cosmopolitan Assembly—Venturesome Spirits—A Woman’s Passion for Play—Characteristics at Ems—A Noted Croupier—A Checkered Career—Russian Society—Easy Morals—Aristocratic Debauchees—Gaming in Roumania 95-112