AT MONTE CARLO

Hokitika Guardian, 2 March 1929, Page 7

AT MONTE CARLO

COAXING GOOD LUCK. MONTE CARLO. Jan. 8. The spectacle of an expensively dressed woman solemnly parading round a public room with a ball of crystal in her hand, stopping every now and then before a table to gaze long and earnestly into its depths, would create something like a sensation in any other place in the world but Monte Carlo. Put here in the casino she has for some time past gone unremarked by everyone apparently but me, by this strange means she makes her test ol which table is likely to bring her the most luck. Luck! We talk of nothing else over our liquors at the Cafe do Paris, in the Sporting Club, during our morning fashion parades on the casino terraces, in our hotels, and in our sleep most Imely!

WHAT ONE ENGLISHWOMAN AVOIDS. There is one charming and cultured Englishwoman, with the most perfect, white shingle I have ever seen (yes, j chc shingle is still tremendously popu-1 hir here!), who always plays on the even chance of rouge or noir. Rut for the last five or six seasons she has steadfastly refused to stake a single ten-franc piece on either colour at a table where a woman in a dress of the opposite colour to the one she was backing is sitting. Since rouge et noir are as popular with Dame Fashion as Dame Fortune here this year, she will soon have to find another charm or else stop playing. About midday, with unfailing regularity, you may see a little Frenchwoman in the casino gardens walking round in rather a self-conscious way. Presently she will pick a little flower and tuck it quickly into her handbag.

FLOWERS KEPT IN PAPER “ NIGHTGOWNS.” The flowers in the gardens'nt Monte Carlo arc as greatly prized and as carefully guarded as jewels. Each Ims its own little paper nightgown to keep off the-sharp frosts that come with the setting sun, and to pick' one is a terrible crime. How much this little Frenchwomen has had to pay out in pourhoires to soothe angry attendants l do not. know, hut no doubt she re gards the money well spent. She believes that nothing but bad luck could come to her if she went to the tables without her flower. And it must be a flower from the gardens. THE ROYALTY COMPLEX. Nearly every player has the royalty complex. There is an immediate rush toy any table where a connection of a royal house is playing, and the casino authorities do everything to encourage princelings within their walls. A monarch in their midst—even if only lor a few hours —means a fortune to them. Old habitues are still fond.of recalling the amusing attempts of the casino to”get Queen Victoria to pay a visit t the rooms. She went to Mentone Cannes, Nice, and even visited the Princes Palace at Monaco, but it was a case of so near and yet so far, 'for, although King Edward went there sov oral times, his mother kept carefully outside the half mile radius. Animal mascots have many devotees here, too. Toy dogs, monkeys, and even tame rats are smuggled into tin casino in handbags in spite of the vigilance of the authorities to keep them out. And what do all these lucky charnu amount toP There is this to he said for them: nine out ten trf the people who lose heavily at Monle Carlo arc men. It isn’t that they play for high stakes than women—the latter are often more heavy gamblers. So there may he something in it alter all.