The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-04-25
WOMAN GAMBLERS AT MONTE CARLO.
Types of Players Who Crowd Around the
Tables and Risk Their Money.

Do you see that little white-haired
woman at the trante-et-quarante table,
with piles of gold and bank notes
scattered around her in such confusion
that you wonder how she knows which
are hers and which her neigh bors? She
wears the biggest diamonds in the
room and plays the most recklessly,
undaunted by evil eyes or any other
eyes. She is Duchess, who last year
lost H. 900 francs in one night. This
year she will lose as much or more,
and next year come again, and keep
on coming as long as she has any
money left or can borrow any of her
friends.
That lady at the table near the GEN.
trc of the room, at whom the Group
iers look disapprovingly. as if afraid
she will "break the ba nix" must now
have 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 a look
sad to see upon so young face search
es vainly in her purse for another five
franc piece with which to try again.
viii she learn wisdom from her defeat
of to-day? Not at all. She has tasted
the poison which is working like mad
ness in her brain, and if she cannot
borrow she will perhaps pawn some of
her jewelry or dress and come again
tomorrow, hoping to do better than
to-day. Were she man she might at
last, when irretrievably ruined, possi-
bly, kill herself But she is a woman,
and as such holds her life more sacred.
Down at the end of the table is a wo-
man so old or blind or both that she
does not know when she has lost or
won, and has to be promped by her
friend, who tells her where to put her
money and when to take it up. Pitia.
BILE spectacle of womanhood, with
bleared eyes and shaking hands, which
scarce can hold the gold she is squan
dering SO wantonly!
But to me she is not so pitiable as that
fair young English girl whom / watch.
ed for a week and by whom 1 stood
when she made her first venture with
tive-franc piece and lost! But there
exclamation, 81 must win!' she put
them down one after another until she
had lost, while could not help think.
ing that it would have been far bet
ter for her if every drop of the ball
had been against her. She was so
pretty and sweet to LOOK at, and appar-
emily so fresh and innocent, that | felt
irresistibly drawn toward her, and
watched day after day as she became
more and more accustomed to the un-
healthy 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
unhesitatingly. How pitied her, for
knew that no girl could sit at the
gambling 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.
Beside her was her mother, with
face more like madonna than a gam
blep at Monte Carlo. And there they
were, day after day, and night after
night, and when Sunday came there
was not in church more devout wor-
shipper than that young girl whom for
days y o'clock in the morning and IL
o'clock at night had found at the gam
ing table, and, saddest of all, | heard
she was there again on Sunday after
noon, almost before the prayer she had
said in the morning had died upon her
lips. At Monte Carlo there is no Sum
day so far us the Casino is concerned.
The concerts, which are free, and the
play go on as usual. The trains come
loaded from Nice and Mentoue, and
the tables are just as crowded with
anxious, feverish, excited people as if
there We're no God and no command
ment to keep his Sabbath holy
Springfield Republican.