THE CASINO A AIX-LES-BAINS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2587, 9 February 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE CASINO A AIX-LES-BAINS.

Tun gambling-room of the Casino, which is, during the day, a welLaired and welllighted room, with large windows, softly drapc-d with ,<scru silk, which is embroidered, in red with the chiffre G. C. ' (Grand Circle), looks innocent in comparison with its effect in the evening, when illuminated with a thousand {jas jets, its'brilliancy .is almost intolerable. It resembles the nave of a cathedral iu its architecture, but there the resemblance . ceases. . The gold decorations of the walls shine, like a thousand .stars. The ladies at the tables are adorned with magnificent jewels. Tho correct and polite .waiters aro shod with silence, the inscrutable croupiers speak in a low voice. And tho box. of gold ! hero it shines !; and what a. peculiar odour comes fi;pm it! It is here that, Cruris reisjtis—it is here that Pactolus run- 1 . " EdiM vrns jcux-„3[smeun !. Jtieii w? m plus." The croupiers magnificently rhrow down four pieees'as.'a challenge. Around the table press the players for a seat. Ladies, more impressionable, are naturally less mistresses of' their sensations than men, nor do. they hide their discontent or their satisfaction as well as men do who follow the vicissitudes of the bridge with impassible faces. The inconstant divinity meanwhile swells or empties their purses as upon tho green cloth the louist'omo and go, docile chips in the hands of capricious luck.

There sits a young man (a boy almost) who had enormous luck. He breaks the bank, and the gentlemanly occupier retires to replenish. Then comes the • pale, consistent srainbler, who sits down at nine every rveninjf and rise- at three in tho morning. He takes his losses loyally, arid says that the next pleasure to winning is losing. Then conies a calculating banker who watches the chances and counts the probabilities. He also loses, and the foolish boy who wins excites his wrath and his curses. Then comes in a lady, who tosses one piece of money on the table after another, always wins, and goes out apparently astonished.

Gains very ephemeral, losses very definite, for no one wins who does not go again to lo*e. One must see thai,, as in all speculations, the money goes back to the jreupral profit, the big purses swell, the little purses are depleted. The great Jay Gould of a bank swallows up the twenty francs of a thousand travellers. The risks in baccarat are small. They call it the play of a thousand fools. Very fashionable is the Suite de fren'tc-six betes. Many American ladies play there ; what harm to put down 10 francs to pick up 10 francs. The play at the Cei'cle is so honest, under such careful surveillance ; mothers bring their young daughters ; it is considered a fashionable.sight to see. Smoking is prohibited, etc., so.proper. And if morality protests and religion launches its anathemas, the vice of gambling goes on for ever. I saw an English dean risking his money on the little horses. No poet, no novelist, no moralist can keep mankind at a wateringplace from risking his bank notes. " Alhms, Moitiknr, fatten vos jcux av/nit In o«rte." -If one wins, the musical ritornello of the croupier runs in his head, "Go again;" if one loses, to-morrow evening must repair the ravages of today. At the Villa des Flenrs the crowd resembles one of Irving's evenings when he played Faust, and the lurid light, the intense beat, the excitement brings back the " Walpurgis Naclitr." Here are the ladies of the half-world in clouds, welldressed, quiet anct\self-possessed, They dress better, and sometimes behave bettor, than English duchesses. Here and there little children are lying about asleep on the sofas waiting for their gambling mothers to put them to bed. It is horrible !