GAMBLING SUPERSTITION'S. 



stretched from all parts of the table, heaping up silver 

 and gold and notes on the spaces on which he has 

 staked his money, till there scarcely seems room for 

 another coin, while the other spaces on the table only 

 contain a few florins staked by sceptics who refuse to 

 believe in the count's luck.' He wins ; and the narra- 

 tive proceeds to describe his continued successes, until 

 he rises from the table a winner of about one hundred 

 thousand francs at that sitting. 



The success of Garcia was so remarkable at times as- 

 to affect the value of the shares in the Privilegirte 

 Bank ten or twenty per cent. Nor would it be difficult 

 to cite- many instances which seem to supply incon- 

 trovertible evidence that there is something more than 

 common chance in the temporary successes of these (so- 

 called) fortunate men. 



Indeed,' to assert merely that in the nature of things- 

 there can be no such thing as luck that can be depended 

 on even for a short time, would probably be quite 

 useless. There is only one way of meeting the infatua- 

 tion of those who trust in the fates of lucky gamesters. 

 We can show that, granted a sufficient number of 

 trials and it will be remembered that the number of 

 those who have risked their fortunes at roulette and 

 rouge et noir is incalculably great there must inevi- 

 tably be a certain number who appear exceptionally 

 lucky; or, rather, that the odds are overwhelmingly 

 against the continuance of play on the scale which 

 prevails at the foreign gambling tables, without the 

 occurrence of several instances of persistent runs of luck* 



B B 



