The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-17

and his majesty of the Inferno has his IA
vorites and treats them v ELL Although the
passion for gambling is as great among An
glo-Saxons as among Frenchmen, although
there IS said 70 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.
1t needs the vigilant politeness which is
second nature to the French; it needs that
| their personal intercourse at the gambling
table, where only decent enamel of out
ward manner can keep the strongest pas
slons in check; it needs, in q word, the
polished phraseology OF France. Even the
word "messieursn and the frequent use of
pardon" have their calming influence.
When an E1glishman says ''sir, " it is chsl-
| lenge; when Frenchman says monsieur"
IL Is compliment 1t is charming TO greet
this one remnant IF feudalism in republican
France. Frenchman of the best class
never forgets his polite manner even IN
me ments of fatigue and vexation.
1t 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 half-world. Both are engaged in the
most energetic avarice, both stimulated to
the last degree by the passions of hope and
despair. What can enable them to sit there
with safety but that formal, ceremoniol 5
politeness, which the English people have
discarded, and which America as a nation
has never known. The gaming table may
be said TO be the place where tue vanishing
feudalism Of the eighteenth century and the
uniform mediocriiy of manners. not to say
the tendency toward rudeness, of the nine
teenth century meet.
RULES OF TIE TABLES.
1t is the business of the croupier to pre-
serve the vanishing feudalisn. He allows
no talking. There is Sabbath stiffness in
the ar. The gamblers superstition is re-
garded. The duchess ever, if she grasp her
neighbours gains, receives a gentle tap on
her delicate knucRles. The only safety to
the player is a decent self-control Death
and disagreeable images are carefully ex-
cluded. Is it remarkable, therefore, that
there are no statistics of suicide! The "His-
tory of Despair" is not on the shelves of any
library of Monte Carlo, but one hears much
or the lucky fellow who is 10000 francs
ahead Of the bank. of the wonderful 10
francs that earned 5000, of success. never
of failure.
Meantime the Minotaur has eaten up so
much that he gains el.0J0, coo sterling clear
profit at the end of the year, and can aft Jrd
60 pay the prince of Monaco so handsome a
| rent for the Casino that he is declared an
admirable tenant and goes on eating his
victimsl
Another reason why Monte Carlo is so in
teresting is the prese ce of kings, royal
dukes, princes and molarchs out of bust
ness. Although "that divinity which doth
hedge king" is out of fashiol, or ought t.
be, in the republican nineteenth century,
| still the poetry of title remains. It is es-
peclally notlceble in the case of servants
and innkeepers. They stand aside, bare
headed, when prince passes, although he
may be lmpecunlous 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
stimuli tor OF politeness as an empty
pocket. But curiously enough, it is the
newest and eshest republican, the most
| ardent follower of President Carnot, or the
latest arrival from America, who is most
| impress d vita glamor of title.
To see prince, royal duke, a noble of
high degree playing and losing, like any
Ordinary mortal, has, to a worshiper of this
| sort, kind of novel entertainme 1t in it.
Those who are born in the purple, have
| they then the same madness as ourselves2
| If prince looses, then why should not l.
That is what they say to Themselves. 1t
| 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 "Noblesss oblige" had not
| lost its meaning. 1t is to that brilliant mo-
| ment mot 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 purgatory, but when we come out
| of the feverish atmo phere into the light of
Monte Carlo sunset. who shall say that it
is not paradise
NJ E. W. SHERWOOD.