THE GAMBLING SALOON AT MONTE CARLO.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3186, 14 September 1881, Page 4

THE GAMBLING SALOON AT MONTE CARLO.

Tho absolute luxury and completeness of all the appointments at Monte Carlo is indeed wonderful. I have seen something of gilded saloons in my time, but none have been bo gorgeous as Monte Carlo. Tho Tuileries, in the palmiest days of the Empire, were not more splendid. There was a distinct advance even on the lavish management of Homburg aud Wiesbaden. Here is the concert room, where, in the season, Patti will pour forth her golden strains. No club in London, not even the Athenamm, has so goodly a collection of all the best periodicals in the world. Then there are music and theatricals at times, and always the vivid dramatic interest of gambling tables. The gambling waa very quiet and modified, compared with what it is generally in the height of the season. Urbanity and politeness are

the order of the day. I watched the gambling, which was conducted with good taste and good temper. I put down my own modest venture, which was ruthlessly swept away. But in the case of at least two other players, though they lost large sums, they gained still larger, and the balance was decidedly in their favour. Then of courso there were the people trying their system, the " system" which is supposed must always prove victorious in the long run. In these saloons the interest always goes with the large players. But perhaps there is a more painful and intense interest with the moderate players. I noticed a young fellow playing very warily, and generally for tho smallest stakes allowed, fie only put five-franc pieces on different colours, llis young wife watched him anxiously, and retired to a distant settee. He was good enough to enter into a conversation with me, and explain his strategy. Ho said that on an average he was able to win a napoleon a day. He was never rash. It was evident to me that on lis limited scale he must have restraint, It was just possible that he might pay his modest way. But the same qualities in any buisness career might have given him name and fortune. And I could never forget the young wife's pallid anxious face, and the ever-present possibility that he might be tempted to lose his available stock of napoleons. —London Society.