The Gaming Table - Volume 2 by Andrew Steinmetz
page 42 of 328 (12%)
page 42 of 328 (12%)
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At Bayonne, in 1725, a French officer, in a rage at billiards, jammed a billiard-ball in his mouth, where it stuck fast, arresting respiration, until it was, with difficulty, extracted by a surgeon. Dusaulx states that he was told the fact by a lieutenant-general, who was an eye-witness. It is well known that gamblers, like dogs that bite a stone flung at them, have eaten up the cards, crushed up the dice, broken the tables, damaged the furniture, and finally 'pitched into' each other--as described by Lucian in his Saturnalia. Dusaulx assures us that he saw an enraged gambler put a burning candle into his mouth, chew it, and swallow it. A mad player at Naples bit the table with such violence that his teeth went deep into the wood; thus he remained, as it were, nailed to it, and suddenly expired. The other players took to flight; the officers of justice visited the place; and the corpse was deprived of the usual ceremony of burial.[10] [10] Gazette de Deux-Ponts, du 26 Novembre, 1772. The following strange but apparently authentic fact, is related in the Mercure Francois (Tome I. Annee 1610). 'A man named Pennichon, being a prisoner in the Conciergerie during the month of September, 1610, died there of a wonderfully sudden death. He could not refrain from play. Having one day lost his money, he uttered frightful imprecations against his |
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