St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-03-03


go down just as rapidly, and she looks
Just as calm and placid as when fortune
favored her.
But the young man near her. with the
dlsheveled hair and dark, peculiar face,
has dazed and bewildered look, as he
sees his money melt away as fast as the
wheel can turn. But he still keeps
throwing it out from his diminishing
pile. plays like a foolH' was the CON-
ment OF German who was watching
him, as in desperation he put his
gold upon both cOlors, losing always
more than he won. There were three
that man. but neither OF them could
control him. Once, when he had lost
more than usual, one of the women
clutched me by the arm with a groan
and then started away from me as sud-
denly as if she thought was the young
mans evil genius who was influencing
his play.
This idea is not uncommon. A friend
of mine told me she had often been
asked by some one behind whom she
was standing to move, as her close prox-
unity had brought bad luck. So, also, if
You stand in front of some young
player and watch him to the ex-
ciusion of all others, he will
DcSin W grow LuutdSy anu lOSe
his courage. and either stop playing
you cannot see him. There are those,
however, whom thousand evil eyes
could not move, they have played SO
much and become so hardened by it.
Do you see that little White-haired
woman at
THE TRENTE-ET-QUARANT
table, with piles of gold and banknotes
scattered around her in such confusion
that you wonder how she knows which
are hers and which her neighbors'? She
wears the biggest diamonds in the room
and plays the most recklessly, I'M
daunted by evil eyes or any other eyes.
She is duchess, who last year lost III,
coo francs in one night. This year she
come again, and keep on coming as long
as she has any money left or can borrow
any of her friends.
The lady at the table near the center
of the room, at whom the croupiers look
disapprOvlngly, as if afraid she will
''break the bank" must now have a
piece of the hangman'S rope around her
neck, although it is said that last year
she lost 5000; but she is rich, and it
does not matter as much to her as to the
girl beyond, who risks her all and loses,
and then with look sad to see upon so
young a face, searches vainly in her
purse for another 5-franc piece
with which to try again. Will she
Not at all. She has tasted the poison
which is working like madness in her
brain, and if she cannot borrow she will
perhaps pawn some article of jewelry
or dress and come again tomorrow.
hoping to do better than to-day. Were
she a man she might at the least, when
irretrievably ruined, possibly kill her
self. But she is woman, and as such,
holds her life more sacred.
Down at the end of the table is a
woman so old OF so blind, or both. that
she does not know when she has lost or
won. and has to be prompted by her
friend, who tells her where to put her
money and when to take it up. Pitiahle
spectacle of womanhOod, with
BLEARED EYES AND SHAKING HANDS
which scarce can hold the gold she is
Squandering so waHtonly.
But to me she is not so pitiable as
that fair young English girl, whom [
watched for week and by whom
stood when she made her first venture
with 5-franc piece and lost! But there
were more in her purse, and with the
exclamation, II must win," she put
them down one after another until she
struck fortunate number and got back
all she had lost, while l could not
help thinking that it would have
been far better for her if every
drop of the ball had been against her.
She was so pretty and sweet to look at,
and apparently so fresh and innocent,
her. and watched her day after day as
she became more and more accustomed
to the place, and, alas, more accustomed
to the unhealthy moral atmosphere she
was breathing. 1t seemed to take the
freshness from her face, which became
flushed and red with excitement. while
her eyes lost their shy. modest look and
met the eyes of those around her unhes-
itatingly. How pitied her, for l knew
that no girl could sit at a gaming table,
side by side and shoulder to shoulder
with some of the worst men and women
in the world, and leave the place as pure
as she entered it.
Beside her was her mother, with a
face more like Madonna than gam
bier at Monte Carlo. And there they
were. day after day, and night after
night, losing and winning, winning and
losing, and when Sunday came there
was not in church more devout wor-
shipper than that young girl whom for
days IL o'clock in the morning and IL
O'Clock at night had found
AT THE GAMING TABLE:
and, saddeSt of all, l heard she was
there again on Sunday afternoon, al
most before the words of prayer she had
said in the morning had died upon her
lips.
AT Monte Carlo there is no Sunday, so
far as the Casino is concerned. The
concerts, which are free, and the play
goes on as usual. The trains come
loaded from Nice and Mentone, and the
tables are just as crowded with anxious,
no God and no commandment to keep
His Sabbath holy.
All that nature and money and taste
can do has been done to make Monte
Carlo beautiful, and it is beautiful be-
yond description; but there is poison
Gus faint in the moral atmosphere which
neither the soft breeZeS from the Med
iterranean nor the perfume from the
orange groves can dissipate. Gambling
is the idea uppermost in everybody'S
mind, whether he plays or not. 1t is
discussed at table d'hote, in the salons,
in the street, and the man or woman
who has lost or won a large
sum becomes at once an object of inter-
est and curiosity. This state OF things
is deplOred by the Inhabitants of the
principallty, for they know that while
they have for visitors some of the best
Many of them would gladly be rid of
the plague spot if they could. But
there seems no hope of this so long as
the Grimaldi'S have absolute control of
the'little monarchy.
MARY J, HOLMES.