P. T. Barnum：Struggles and Triumphs, Additional Excerpt 460

A few days before my arrival, a young lady hung herself. Indeed, several suicides occur in all the German spas every year from the one cause--ruin by gambling; but so callous do the players, as well as the card-dealers become, that I can easily credit a story told me at Homburg, the greatest gambling place in Europe: A Frenchman, sitting at the table where scores of others were betting their money, lost his last sou, and immediately drew a razor from his pocket and cut his throat. The circumstance was scarcely sufficient to induce the players to raise their eyes from the cards;--it was a mere incident, an episode in matters more important. A sheet was thrown over the body, and as the servants quietly removed the corpse, some one slipped into the vacated chair, the dealer crying out in French, “make your bets, gentlemen,” and the play went on as usual.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50115
Locator：Additional excerpt 460 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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