FROM THE ARCHIVES:Things were always more interesting in the old days – which, in the 1940s, meant the 1890s – when this is how things were done, according to An Irishman's Diary. –
JOE JOYCE
I WAS discussing the matter [1940s dancing craze] with an elderly gentleman, who was a bit of a gay dog in his day. He is now over eighty . . . and he gave me a lively description of the way in which things were done in the early nineties.
“A friend of mine who lived with his mother,” he said, “frequently gave impromptu parties, sending out a chit to his various friends by outside cars, saying ‘Carpet up; come and dance.’
“This chit would reach me at my father’s dinner table, and I would immediately get up, put on my best bib and tucker, and go off to his house.
“Well, there would be between fifteen and twenty nice young couples there; there would be an excellent supper, with buckets of champagne, and we would have a most enjoyable night. These impromptu events were far ahead of the organised dances you have nowadays.”
Dublin in those days must have been a rather dashing place. According to my octogenarian informant, two friends of his ran a club in the city, where cards were played in a big way.
The couple used to entertain visiting theatrical companies and provide them with champagne suppers, after which there would be a sing-song, followed by a game of baccarat in an upstairs room.
Let Mr X tell the rest of the story himself: “At the last one which I attended there were only three guests – Charlie Hawtrey [actor], Brandon Thomas [playwright: ‘Charley’s Aunt’] and Eric Lewis [actor, comedian].
“On the way up to supper I met a friend who asked me if I had any money. I lent him a fiver. Afterwards, on my way up to the card-room I met him coming down. He repaid me the fiver, telling me that he had won £200. But that was nothing to what often took place.
“A man I knew in a cavalry regiment won £1,000 at the Curragh, as a result of which he invited some of his friends to supper at the club. When he went home that night he had £2,000 in his pocket. I subsequently told his brother of this episode, and he asked me if I knew what the boy’s income was. I said that I supposed it was £1,000 a year.
‘Not at all,’ he replied, ‘he has his subaltern’s pay and a trust allowance of £300 a year!’”
Them was the days! Of course, champagne was not very expensive in the nineties, judged by present day standards; but incomes were correspondingly low. The boys who could win or lose £1,000 at baccarat must have been playing for fairly high stakes – higher even than those for which, according to current gossip, certain devotees of the game of poker play in Dublin now.
By the way, the craze for poker playing seems to have died down a bit since the war. Many of the women are still addicts; but most of the men of my acquaintance have drawn in their horns considerably.
http://url.ie/dk8t