The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-15
Homburg i'm Winter.

published in the Pail Mall Gdzette.-
For study ofoivilized human nature under
circumstances calculated to exhibit most of its
weaknesses in the most interesting manner, one
can hardly 60 to q more suitable place than
Homburg es-M0nts in winter. There all this
season, the with-luggage- provided aud solvent
looking visitor will be cordially received at any
OF the numerous hotels, and may occupy their
very best apartments at aquarter of the price h.
would have to pay in the summer and autumn.
The administration" of the great gambling
palace which commands the whole town will,
on application to the "Polizsi Bureau" furnish
him with a blue card, inscribed with his
name, giving him free access throughout the
winter to the "Salons de Btrangers;" in other
words, to the rooms in which the games Of
hente ct -quarente and roulette are carried on
rom IL o'clock in the morning until IL at
night. In only one of these rooms-gor-
geously over-deoorated in oarton-pierre, elabo-
rstely gilt and painted, relieved with tall
mirrors, and enriched with Italian frescoes
on the ceilipgs-is gambling carried on
during the winter. This is called the 5 Salon
Japonais; at one end of it is the trente ct
quarante table, and at the other the roulette.
Morning, neon, and night these fascinating
boards of green cloth" are surrounded, three
deep, by a crowd of people-widely different
from the summer guests-whose counterpart
can be found think, in no other place in
Europe. There are no brilliant toiettes, no
pretty women, 10 :-ere are at Monaco at this
season. These people have all come here to
gamble, or to prey upon the gamblers; aud
there is an expression of solemn calculation
on all their faces, young and old, masculine
and feminine Especially the latter), which is
at first curious, and then painful TO observe.
There is, of course, the inevitable British ele-
ment, represented about as credtably as it
usually is in those continental hooks and
oAr Ina
The Irish widow lady of uncertain age and
very much more uncertain antecedents; the
neat lirtle Engishman with the fair beard and
(they say, but l know nothing about that
unfair ''systems;" the highly cosmeticised
old lady and her haggard daughter,
who play nearly from the opening till the
closing of the rooms; the slatternly, dowdy
Englshwomen, who infallibly turn up
everywhere abroad, looking as If they had
just come from some long journey in their
tumbled travelling clothes, and were going
off again directly in the same attire, but who
appear regularly in the same mise -en-Scene
every day for six months; the British mer-
chant, who finds it convenient to be out of
Britain; the shabby-genteel residents, who
have an English psrsOn to take care of their
souls, and who sometimes "punt" mildly in
forips-these make up the "CoLonie Ar glaiSe,"
aud are all fourishing in this year OF grace
1869. Polish counts with uncommonly dirty
hands and very eager eyes; terrible old French
women ssvsgely keen at their play; grimy,
common looking, greasy Germans, who quar-
rel furiously over disputed florin piece, and
appropriate the winnings of upObservaut play
ers with astonishing persistency; spectacled
professors" of playing by systems, who take
down the record of the game by the hour, and
who will be delighted to play for you on their
own infallible plans-there they all are at b om-
burg an der Hohe, and in the winter season
they have it all to themselves. Walking up
and down the room, as il surveying their prey,
are the Chef; de partie and inspecteur deS ,jeur;
and sometimes you see the Homburg
banker, true son of Israel who apes the
English style of dress, but looks like very
German Jew indeed, comforting with these
authorities Of the administration, and, / doubt
not, watching his customers very closely. II
they are in his debt and don't pay him, he
claps them into prison with an alaerity and
summsriness of procedure which suggests a
most accommodating readiness among the civil
authorities. He had a young English lord-a
very hyblown specimen of 'aristocracy, 1t
must be confessed, but still Ga real lord,' for
all that-in that cheerful retreat not long ago;
| perhaps he is there now. Besides the gam bling
saloons, now in winter there are the Kursssl
reading rooms, literally provided with
French, German, and English newspapers
and periodicals; large concert and bal
saloon, in which there are twice every day
really irst-rate performances by an orohestrs
of forty musicians luxuriously appointed
cafe, with billiard tables; a restaurant
kept by great Partisan restaurateur
where (if you do not mind the smoke O
execrable German cigars while you are eating,
you may have as good dinner as at the Troii
Freres in Paris; a superbly decorated theatre
and a vast covered promenade nearly three
hundred feet long, decorated with shrubs, ar
tiicially warmed, and lined with seats, al
under one roof, and, with the exception Of tn,
theatre, gratuitously accessible to every one
provided with the green card before referred
to. OF course the pleasure grounds, minera
springs, Conservatives, etc., all belonging Il
the administration, and by them kept in
order are equally free to all comers, ever
without card. The current expenses of tn,
administration" are In winter aoout f70
and in summer f100 day, not including ths
salaries of some of the more responsible en-
ployes OF the gambling bank, who are yer,
handsomely paid. The entire concern is tn,
property Of the company, and it pays divi
dend OF upwards of twenty per cent, beside
it's heavy annual tax for the "concession, ,
and variety of contributions which it Is com
pelled to make to hospitals and institutions @
public utility. Whence the company derive
these enormous profits need not here b
i pointed out. Men and women, smitten wit
J the gambling fever, are forever Fastening
bring their money to the Golfers of the admir-
I istIation. The more they lose the more the
play, until they have no more to lose; and
l they win, they become possessed with th
greed for more, and go on until they lose toC
: When all their money has gone under tn
3 croupier's rake, and the coin into which I'll
8 mont de piet< has converted everything thi
: may be deposited there has followed whel
| H. ~ fho 70