FOOLS OF MONTE CARLO.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5242, 22 February 1928, Page 2

FOOLS OF MONTE CARLO.

VAIN HOPES OF EMBEZZLERS.

The foolishness of. many gamblers who visit Monaca and of all who fail to understand that the bank is, the only certain winner, is emphasised by Mr Charles Kingston in the December National Review. Writing on “ Monte Carlo’s Mysterious Gamblers,” he tells .chiefly of some of the “world’s fool.” Even in a case where there was seeming success the end was tragedy. Every season, says Mr Kingston, produces its own special gamblers. Most of them are “ cleaned out ’’ in one season. A Frenchman wno had unusual luck arrived with 30,00'0 francs and- left with 300,000 moire, at a time when a franc was, worth a. good deal; yet 48'after his return to Paris the winner shot himself. In his luggage there was found the whole of his money. At first it seemed' that the winning of a fortune had been too much for the brain of a man whose salary was only 700 francs a month, but it was found that he was-a defaulting cashier, who had stolen nfearly three times the amount of his winnings. For years he had been gambling in stocks and shares, and among members of the Bourse he was known under another name as a millionaire, because his losses, however large were always paid promptly. The visit to Monte Carlo Had been a last 'desperate effort to replace the money he had stolen from his employers.

A young clerk employed by a builder at Cannes had been falsifiying the books and stealing large sums to spend in dissipation. ' Visiting him at his lodgings on a Sunday morning, before the youth was out of bed, his employer saw a large number of notes in the room. He counted them and said: “ There are 2300 francs here. That is a great deal to have saved out of a salary of 20 1 francs, a week.” “ I Won it at Monte Carlo,” stammered the youth. Developing his lie he said that a friend had provided him with ah infallible system. The builder believed him, and arranged that they should go, to Monte Cairio to play the system. The clerk, who had never been there before, recommended numbers at random., and escaped across the Italian frontier not long before his employer came t° the last of his notes. The builder’s loss was 100,0Q0 franca in to the 15,000 stolen by the clerk.

'A grocer in Normanby left for a brief visit to Paris, giving his wife charge of the shop and 10,000' francs in cash. He was, one of. the many people of Europe who distrust banks. Tlie young wife, with ideas of winning enough to escape from drudgery, went to Monte Carlo and soon lost the whole amount. Afraid, to 'return, she became a servant in a hotel at Nice. Two years later her husband, who thought she had robbed him to go away with a lover, had obtained a divorce and married another woman. For the honeymoon they arrived at the hotel at which his first wife was working. The grocer and his former wife met suddenly, and there was a bitter exchange of words. That night the manager mentioned to the grocet that one of his best, maids, had gone without demanding the wages owing to her. Women were such creatures of impulse.