Morning journal and courier., 1881-01-28

How to describe such perfect fairy land of
delight know not 1t all looks like scene
at theater in pantomime time not like
prosaic bit of real earth. Around US is the
blue Mediterranean, broken on every side
into hundred little sapphire bays. Back of
us rise tier after tier of the Maritime Alps,
their huge SUBMITS clouded by fieecy mist.
To the left is the white rock of Monaco to
the right the green italian Shore fading away
to the purple mountains which guard the gulf
of Genoa. Lovely by nature, the scene has
been made still more lovely by art. From the
waters edge traces of tropical vegetation rise
one after another toward the grand facade of
the Casino divided by parapets or marble
bslustrades and connected one with another
by broad flights of Florentine steps. No lam
guage can do justice to those beautiful and
fantastic gardens Clusters of palms and
aloes, their base girt round with rare exotic
flowers are cunningly thrust in the fore
ground of every beautiful view hat you
see the bay and the mountains through the
artistic vistas thus deftly arranged in the
very spot where painters fancy would have
set them. You look across to Monaco past
clump of dropping date branches you catch
glimpse of Bordighera through frame
work of spreading drac@nas and quantity
symmetrical fan-palms. In the very center
of the picture, the Casino itself stands up
before o background of mountains, embow-
cred in the Oriental foliage of a hundred
lovely and strange-shaped trees Never was
a siren more beautiful or more deadly than
Monte Carlo. Exquisite views abound on
every side 1t seems like poets midsum-
mer dream, strangely crystallized into solid
reality by passing wave of Titania's wand.
We will go around to the opposite or north
ern facade, where the principal entrance
gives admission to the rooms. On our way
we pass two or three coquettish looking
shops, laid temptingly out with bonnets
jewelry, aesthetic pottery and works of art
Ia,vx
ly to spend stingily, and there are many la
dies about with fashionable dresses and shady
antecedents who are not slow to make
quaintance with the fortunate winner of the
day The font of the Casino faces large
open square with handsome greensward and
fountains and parterres of rare blossoms,
hanked on one side by magnificent restau-
rant and on the other by the splendid hotel
de Paris, where you can get capital lunch at
strict Monte Carlo prices. For can assure
you that Monte Carlo, though its universal
motto be "Entree hbre, is certainly no place
for persons with modest purses.
You walk up the grand entrance staircase
and through the swinging glass doors of the
Casino Within lies large and handsome
vestibule, its roof supported by solid marble
and porphyry pillars Here the world in gen.
eral promenades at intervals to cool itself af-
ter the feverish heat of the gaming tables
To your right are the reading rooms and
salons de conversation. You may go in and
out as you please, and enjoy for nothing the
use of 200 European newspapers, brought
from London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and st.
Petersburg by the fastest trains. In the cen
tire stands the theatre. where splendid band,
said to be the finest in Europe, discourses
Offenbach and Strauss twice daily to all COM
ers without charge. All is free as the air.
except the tables. Many quiet people come
over here from Nice or Mentone once a week
or so and enjoy those simpler pleasures, to-
IL -
views literally for nothing. since they never
enter the gaming rooms But most people
pay in the long run enoukh b by their losses at
roulette not only to keep up all these amuse-
ments, but also to bring in the,,prince and his
delegate truly splendid revenue.
To the left are the SEl1es de jeas, with their
roulette tables and their trente-et gst09'Gnte
This is the only part of the Casino which you
cannot enter without question comment
but here you need little personal ticket of
introduction, which, however, is mere for
mality, handed over at once to all comers on
presentation of their cards in the vestibule.
Furnished with this indispensable piece of
pasteboard you enter the rooms and take
your place at one of the tables. AS you pass
up you have Just time to notice, first that the
rooms, in spite of their immense size, are
frightfully hot, doubtless from the large
number of feverish human hearts and lungs
all throbbing and painting their suppressed
are richly decorated in the mauresque style
of the Alhambra, though with far less taste
and harmony of color than in our own Al
hambra Court at the Crystal Palace. At
Monte Carlo there is a certain subdued tinge
of vulgar garishness in the style, which fit
tinely accords with the nature of the insti-
tuition
There are altogether some ten or twelve
tables in the two gambling rooms. Let uG
walk round once or twice and cast general
glance at all of them. Here are not less
than 500 men and women, fifty or sixty
around each board, playing away as if for
very life, and SO absorbed in the game that
they notice nothing else. Germans, L fancy,
predominate. You can pick out the German
women at once by their fiat, impassive faces,
their cautious but heavy play, and their afro
ciously bad though very costly jewelry. Af-
ter them. it seems to me, come the Ameri-
cans. The pronounced young lady opposite,
with the bold but handsome features, the ex-
quisite bonnet and mantle, and the
remarkably fine Pennsylvania twang,
may be seen every afternoon risk
ing broad gold pieces with true
American recklessness. There is large
| sprinkling of English, many of them young
lads in tourists suits, too young, think, to
be exposed to such temptations. 'sDop't tell
mamma / played, J" we heard one of them say
as he alighted from the train at Nice the 9TH
er evening ''she would break her heart over
It. was giso TO see even enat mucn peni-
tence in the poor lad, and hope he has not
quietly pawned his watch and come over
once more to retrieve his fortunes and con-
ceal his losses. There are few French, COM
paratively, though those who play, especially
the women, play very high. Most of the La
dies are ladies, but there is fair sprinkling
of elegantly dressed women who do not ex-
actly belong to society. They play most
recklessly of all, and believe enormously in
lucky numbers. It is still early in the after
noon, but the four o'clock train up from Nice
will bring over host of bad characters
male and female, who carry on the play up
to eleven AT night