GAMBLING ABROAD.

Evening Star, Issue 3888, 10 August 1875, Page 3

GAMBLING ABROAD.

Into this earthly Paradise the Serpent bath enteied. He is there hideously obvious. Between Mentone and Monaco, and foiming a suburb of the latter town, is Monte Carlo the central bower of bliss in this Eden, It is in this central bower that the foul fiend has his home. The gamblers, whom Bismarck has chased from Baden and Romberg have here found a resting place. A certain M. Le Blanc has, by permission of the princeling, his Highness of Monaco, converted what was little belter than barren rock into the loveliest of gardens. They contain a large pigeonry, where the poor innocent birds aro kept ready for the rifles of those manly creatures, the members of this most aristocratic gun dub . at[( j the gardens surround a splendid’casino with gorgeous rooms, and in the rooms the paining tables, and round the tables a motley group of gamesters of all nations We watched them long. There was the novice who had only just begun to play • who at first put down lua five-franc piece just by way of experiment, and who, having been so unfortunate as to win—to warm himself by the flame—had drawn nearer and nearer to the candle, and soon, poor silly moth, would have his wings singed, and then a little later would fall a shrivelled ruin on the floor and be swept away. There was the old man who had been playing for \ ears on what he calls a system, and whose 1 forehead and hollowed cheeks showed that at least he had not waxed fat upon the “ system. ” There were cautious old women, who staked their napoleons, but always pocketed their fifty or hundred franc notes should they be so fortunate as to win one. There were young women whose prcteruaturally bright eyes spoke of much quaffing of stimulants, Mho staked each time the game was made.’ Some players put down only the lowest stake a five franc piece, some thirty or forty napoleons, at the roulette tabxes. There was one table, however, where much larger sums were staked; there the game of traite e.t quaranie was played, and here the crowd was thickest. But at all the BAme perfect order prevailed. There were no audible scarcely any visible, signs of excitement! The croupiers raked the great piles of gold or the notes to or from them as they won or lost, just as though they were handling sous, and the players, save for the trembling hands, showed no symptoms of elation or depression. Everything, so far as we could see, was quiet and orderly, and uneraotioual. But it is not always thus at Monte Carlo This very season there have been some ghastly tragedies there. Within a few yards ©f where we were, at the Hotel de Paris was a Russian princess raving mad on a'! count of her losses, which are said to have reached the enormous sum of non Th- re have been, we aro told, throe this season. One wretched victim blew out ms brains at the table, “hie might have bad the good taste to go and do it outside ” was the remark of the other players as th i mangled corpse was taken off and the bloody pool was mopped up, and they went on playing as before. One Arnencau is understood to have lost L 30.000 this year, and is still, X believe, playin'* a young Scotch duko. recently come'into his Uwe, won L 16,000 m about fifteen minutes, but has lost that and a much larger sum .since. An nglish duke, the son o? a late eminent statesman, has been a recent visitor and victim. A still more illustrious person, whoso recent sudden visit to the Continent puzzisd some persons, was at Monte Cirln a tew weeks ago, and did not cseaoe. The day we were there an Italian prince, an ex-kinq was among the players. Happy they who retire after their hist losses. It is very rarely they do so. While we were at aloute Carlo there was a young Eng. (i-hmau who had been reduced to his fe five franc piece. Soma generous strangers offered him sufficient money to tane him home if ha would start at £n co out he detuned ; he felt sure that if he changed lua hour and played & - f ' could beat the bank and win hi? mo^A‘ How hopeless all such cbtnocs suvd i, all the talk about playil.J' W 1 have - poke nr/, were made and are maintvi?h^n.^, |, Le i ß!ailC; the splendid casino, ' fv's \ * »*‘*aberle3s retinue of servants and ffyuAs. is kept up by M. be Blanc ; he it is wno pays the very fine band which given concerts twice a day, concerts which you may listen to, as we did, in luxurious seats, without payng a sou ; he, moreover, undorWes to pay all the duej of the town to the rvn nr a° £ Monaco ' aud Ws also a rent of UO.OOO a year. Doth M. Le Blanc serve the i mice of Monaco for naught? Where does Jus money come from ? H cro is one more fact. Iho business of notel-keepiag on the Conti- I neat is, as we all know', a very lucrative or , and large fortunes are made at it you go to the Hotel de Pans at Me ' te n-rlo aud do aot gurtte, you ,« ehe inf * aome °“ eiae. .uiat is to say., ~x . Leßianc contemns the profits which are made by hotel-keeping, largo though tney are, because they are not to be com pared with the profits to be made in i he aiijaceut casino—a pretty clear proot us to ’.mum is the winner in the long run the visitor or the bapk, that Vs m! Le Blanc. Yet _it must not be supposed that there is any foul play at the tables. Everthing is perfectly fair: in raoi, cheating would bo impossible. But f 0 chances of the game are so largely in favor of the bank that it must winhn the end. Of course a few lucky hits are made occasionally, as by the Scotch duko above mentioned ; and these aro sure to find their way into the papers. But the lar*a winners are nearly sure to be large lose™, for they are encouraged to play enormous stakes, with the all but certainty of losiim at last. While these exceptional winnings are published far and wide, and serve as advertisements to attract other visitors, the tragedies I have spoken of aro rarely made known.— ‘ Western Morning News.’