Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-05-06
MONTE CARLO.
a Swiss Guides Description of the Suicides
Among the Gamblers.

A Swiss Guides Description of the Suicides
Among the Gamblers.
1'My impressions of Monte Carlo?'
said Prof Joseph Bauer yesterday. II
have but one-it is dream. On enter
ing, one is delighted. surprised,
amazed, astounded and stunned seria-
tim. Flowers and music, coin and
notes, despair and success. beauty, fash
ion, wealth-all combine to impress the
beholder, and it is some time before he
can begin to study systematically his
surroundings. 1t is only when he
energies again into the cool air that one
Fan appreciate his own identity.
ado not credit the recent denails of
suicides at Monte Carlo" continued the
professor. ''They are inspired. Ihave
visited the gambling hall there fifteen
times professionally, in addition to a
number of trips made for my own
pleasure. / was born in French Swift
zerland, two hundred miles from Monte
Carlo, and am familiar with it's CHASTITY
history during the past twelve years.
You may take my word for it that the
number of suicides caused directly by
the Monte Carlo gaming tables aver
ages at least one for every day in the
year. The real total probably exceeds
this estimate.
Prof. Bauer is one of the youngest.
handsomest and most popular guides in
central Europe. He speaks English,
German, French, Spanish and Italian,
and every hotel-keeper and hack-driver
on the route is his sworn enemy. AS so
much has been written and so little ac-
curately told concerning Monte Carlo,
he was requested to describe the world s
most famous gambling hall.
81 can close my eyes and mentally see
everything in and about Monte Carlo
he continued, ''but it is not so easy to
reproduce such picture in words at
short notice"
. Prof Bauer talked interestingly of
what he had seen of the tragedies of the
gaming tables. He said: Il have
spent many months there altogether,
and it was rare day when no ruined
and despairing man killed himself. On
some days we had as high as three or
four such casualties. If stranger kills
himself. his body is dragged away, the
blood cleansed from the floor, and the
game goes on l have heard players
mutter curses at a corpse for having in
terrupted their SERIES or confused
their system If the victim be
stranger, nobody knows what becomes
of the body. except the special police,
whose duty it is to conduct such
funerals in their own mysterious
way. If the ruined player goes
out into the grounds before
fore shooting or stabbing himself, or
browns himself in one of the beautiful
fountains, even the players who sat be-
side him a moment before never learn
of his death. These things are known
to the habitues of the tables, but they
never speak of them outside. The
newspapers of Monaco and Nice are
heavily subsidized. and those of Paris,
Lyons and Marseilles pay no attention
to such tritles. Letters to the editors on
this forbidden subject are quickly thrown
into the great international waste
basket. With a large and well-trained
police force constantly at hand, with an
indifferent set of patrons, and will
fully blind press. these little episodes are
much more easily screened than you
would imagine. If the suicide be :.
powerful noble or a celebrity in any
way, the affair is mentioned briefly in
the French and English newspapers and
the announcement cabled to this coun-
try. Everybody knows why the man
made away with himself. and the only
question is: 'Who will be next?'
at is almost impossible to prevent
these self-murders, as the act is usually
committed under sudden powerful i'm
pulse. Everybody's mind and ewes
are, of course, intent on the game,
and SO many haggard men get up
from the tables that the sight is too
common to engage the attention of the
ever-present detectives. 1t is but lust.
however, to say that the managers do
everything in their power to prevent
suicides, except closing their doors.
Mechanics and artisans are not per-
mitted to live either in Monaco or
Monte Carlo.