Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-06-13
Monte Carlo.
The Nineteenth Century.

It is often said that gambling at Monte
Carlo is far better than the gambling at
the clubs at Nice and other places. I
remember Nice when there was only one
club, the Cercle Massena, and when there
was very little gambling in that one. But
at that time Monte Carlo was little more
than village. The old town of Monaco
was much what it is now, but the Casino
was small building; there was not a
single good hotel in the place, while there
are now thirty-three hotels; there were
no private villas, there were no means of
access to the place except by driving over
Turbia to ROccabruna and then back to
Monte Carlo, or else by periling your life
in crazy little steamer, which made the
trip to Nice twice day, and as TO which
the few gamblers who availed themselves
of its used to speculate whether they
would not go to the bottom, if the night
were a rough one. But when notice was
given that the gambling tables at Ham
burg and other watering places would be
closed Nj. Blanc began TO prepare Monte
Carlo for It's coming i'm Dortance as the
one remaining gambling establishment
in Europe. The Hotel de Paris was built
and the Casino enlarged. The opening
of the railway gave easy access to Monte
Carlo. and year after year fresh hotels
and villas have been built; the attractions
of one Of the best bands in Europe, and
operate performances in which some of
the best singers are heard, and also add
ed. Not only gamblers frequented the
place, but travellers drawn th1ther by cur
iousity, and then gradually denizens of
the great world of fashion focked to
spot where more excitement and pleasure
could be found than in any other place
in the world. Now, as all this grew, Nice
underwent CORES ponding change. M.
Blanc and mis- successors in the manage
ment of Monte Carlo have always exer-
cised great wisdom in the amount of out,
ward decorum of which they have insist
ed, and as the gambling ceases every
night at IL O'Clock, many lovers of
fast life preferred to stay at Nice, where
they could continue to play after return
ing from Monte Carlo, and there thev
found other attractions of great city.
The consequence was that number OF
clubs at Nice have gradually sprung up
where play is the chief object, and in
which there have been notorious cases of
cheating as well as of high stakes. But
these clubs owe their existence to Monte
Carlo, and as Monte Carlo has grown it
has educated the Riviera In gam bling.
Another fallacy is that, whereas in these
clubs men win money from one another,
and the professional blackleg has aband-
ant opportunities, these are denied to him
at the well-regulated tables of the Estab
Basement des Bains de Mer de Monaco.
But, although it sounds so much better
to say money has been won from the
"bank" than from Mr.. Brown or Colonel
Jones, people forg ct that the money won
from the bank to-day was lost to the bank
by some one else yesterday, and, to quote
from Dean Holes excellent paper on
gambling "it was well said by an old man
to youth boasting in a railway carriage
that he had been TO Monte Carlo and
brought back thirty napoleons: You
don't know, Sir, whose money you have
won; your thirty pieces may have belong
ed to suicide, and so be the price
of blood"