246 SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



over his devoted victims. Public gambling-tables are not 

 only protected and encouraged by the rulers of the land for 

 the sake of the small revenue they derive from them in 

 many places day and night, summer and winter, during the 

 whole year but, beginning with the grand Pandemonium 

 at Baden-Baden, are established throughout the beautiful 

 valley of Nassau, from Ems to Wiesbaden, and terminate in 



the diabolical establishment of the Messrs. B , at 



Homburg. How many an unwary and unsuspecting youth 

 has been utterly ruined in purse and character by the ex- 

 citement and attraction thus held out to him, and how 

 many an old gambler obtains facilities for the practice and 

 continuance of this fatal passion 1 Yerily, the Grand Dukes, 

 Princes, and Margraves of these petty states, who consider 

 the sin and suffering of a large portion of their fellow- 

 creatures as nothing when put in the scale against a small 

 increase of their own revenues, ought to be brought to their 

 senses, and taught better by the interference of the legiti- 

 mate and real sovereigns of Germany. 



In the early spring of 1847, by the assistance of my friend, 



the Baron H. von S , I hired a chasse at Bliein Bischoff- 



sheim, on the banks of the Rhine, between Baden-Baden and 

 Strasburg, which was said to be pretty well stocked with 

 roedeer, hares, pheasants, and partridges, and that the 

 woodcocks were very numerous during their first and second 

 flights. For the hire of this jaght alone I was to pay one 

 thousand florins, or about eighty pounds per annum ; keepers, 

 dog's keep, &c., would cost me as much more, so that the 

 expenses I calculated at one hundred and sixty pounds. It 

 was about twenty thousand acres in extent, and the imme- 

 diate vicinity of Baden-Baden afforded a good market for 

 the sale of game in the beginning of the season. I was 

 determined to keep my shootings, if possible, for the amuse- 

 ment of myself and a few friends, and not to destroy the 



