Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-11
and .Irond t,over,. its gray, stony hills,

and almond flowers, its gray, stony hills.
covered with palms and cact1. The ex-
peditions are endless. A breakfast in
pine grove at Cape Martin, drivei thence
to Mentone. to hear Strauss waltzes in the
open air. is an ideal way of spending an
April day. What could be more magnif-
Gently picturesque than the drive to Ville-
francke, where I breakiasted in a villa
curiousiy adorned with old italian trescoes,
and later dined "al fresco" in an orange
grove. This is all gift and surprise to
Garden Of Eden--including the snakel
The '1uck OF some people" is astonishing,
and His Majesty of the Inferno has his IA
vorites and treats them well. Although the
passion for gambling is rs great among An
glo-Saxons as among Frenchmen, although
there is said 10 be more money changing
hands" in the American game of poker than
is possible at roulette, still Monte Carlo
would be impossible in either America or
England.
NEEDS FRENCH PoLITENESs.
It needs the vigilant politeness which is
second nature to the French it needs that
taste TOR ceremony which is visible in all
their personal intercourse at the gambling
table, where only decent enamel of out
ward manner can keep the strongest pas
sions in check; it needs, in word, the
polished phraseology of France. Even the
word "messieurs" and the frequent use OF
"pardon" have their calming influence.
When an Englishman says "Sir" 1t is
challenge; when Frenchman says "Mon-
sieur" it Is compliment It il charming
to greet this one remnant of feudalism in
republican France. A Frenchman of the
best class never forgets his polite manner
L. 81, G.
It is well put on at the gaming table,
which is the real republic, the only true
democracy where the prince elbows the
commonest man. where the duchess and
the dressmaker sit side by side, where the
most careful Puritan plays high against the
lady of the hali-world. Both are engaged
in the most energetic avarice, both stimu-
lated to the last degree by the passions of
hope and despair. What can enable them
to sit there with safety but that formal cere-
monious politeness, which the English peo-
pie have discarded, and which America as
q nation has never knowni The gaming
table may be said to be the place where the
vanishing feudalism of the eighteenth GEN.
tury and the uniform mediocrity Of manners,
not to say the tendency toward rudeness, Of
the nineteenth century, meet.
RULES OF THE TABLES.
It is the business OF the croupier to pre-
serve the vanishing feudalism. He allows
no talking. There is Sabbath stiffness in
the air. The gamblers superstition is re-
garded. The duchess even, if she grasp
her neighbor's gains, receives q gentle tap
on her delicate knuckles. The only safety
to the player is q decent selEcontrol. Death
and dissgreeable images are carefully ex-
cluded. Is it remarkable, therefore, that
there are no statistics of suicide? The "His-
tory of Despair" is notion the shelves Of any
library of Monte Carlo, but one hears much
Of the lucky fellow who is 10000 francs
ahead of the bank, of the wonderful ten
francs that earned 5000, of success, never
OF failure.
Meantime the Minotaur has eaten up so
much that he gains e1. .000, 900 sterling clear
profit at the end of the year, and can afford
to pay the Prince of Monaco so handsome
rent for the Casino, that he is declared an
admirable tentant and goes on eating his
victims!
Another reason why Monte Carlo is 50 in
teresting is the presence of kings, royal
dukes, princes and monarchs out of busl-
ness. Although "that divinity which doth
hedge king" is out of fashion, or ought to
be, in the republican nineteenth century,
still the poetry of title remains. It is es-
pecially noticeable in the case Of servants
and innkeepers. They stand aside, bare
headed, when a prince passes, although he
may be impecunious to degree.
HOMAGE TO AMERICAN MAMMoN.
The rich Americans, representing King
Mammon, are received with the next degree
of homage by this class, for there Is no such
stimulator of politeness, az an empty
pocket. But curiously enough, it is the
newest and freshest republican, the most
ardent follower of President Carnot, or the
latest arrival from America, who Ii most
impressed with glamor of title.
To see prince, q royal duke. noble Of
high degree playing and losing, like any
ordinary mortal, has, to a worshiper of this
sort, kind OF novel entertainment in 1t. |
''Those who are born in the purple, have |
they then the same madness as ourselves? |
II prince looses, then why should not II"
That is what they say to themselves. It |
is revelation of the inevitable snobbish-
ness, which Thackeray declared, underlaid |
our common nature. The readers of history
remember when titles meant something, |
when the motto "Noblesse oblige" had not
lost its meaning. It is to that brilliant mo-
ment, (not yet entirely obscured, let Us
hope) that we refer, with fond reverence,
when we make reverential room at the tables
for the royal duke that he may sit next to
US.
This is pureatory, but when we come out
OF the feverish atmosphere into the light Of
a Monte Carlo sunset, who shall say that
it is not paradise. NJ. E. W. SHERWOOD.