The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-21

vective, or otherwise framed with so little
judgment as 10 lie open to the charge of
being Matchmaking attempts by writers
insutficientiy subsidized, or again of beat
ing the big drum for the benefit of the foe
they pretend to assail There was pecu-
liarly ferocious one in La Nation, con-
tinuing day after day for q month, In the
winter, but l think the columns
of scurrilous abuse lavished upon
Prince Roland and Prince RadzIwii.
who married the late NJ Bianc's daughters;
Edmond and Camille Blanc. their brothers,
and the blonde duchess of Richeiieu, just
married to Prince Albert, ruler of Monaco
think this rowdy abuse, though for what
! know every word of il may be true.
rather calculated to excite sympathy Tor
its objects, and to send yet more people
over to see the great show whose misdeeds
are announced with such tremendous
banging of cymbals and torn-tom, Monte
Carlo is a prodigious and growing evil,
but / have not yet happened to see
serious attack upon it.
If there be 200 suicides year, you do
not observe them; / have never seen any
thing disagreaable in a good many visits.
They are said, in fact, TO be very dis
creetly managed, the bodies being got out
of the way with extreme expedition, as by
kind of drill, and hardly shown even to
their families. / do not say how many OF
the total list of suicides believe in, but l
believe in a good many, from the deep,
fierce current of desperate earnestness you
come upon in getting the least bit below
the surface. believe the roster of sui
cides is increased by the individuals who
come here to try their fortune as last
resource, finding that proper and drama
tic place to make away with themselves.
However, they do not appear. | trust
their ghosts duly haunt the princes ana
ar
ment, in the chosen saloon of fashion
where they spend their money far away
from the sources of its liberal supply, Dut
on the surface nothing is more decorous,
bright and captivating.
Everybody goes there; Monte Carlo IS
the joke, the source of jolly railerles ana
witticisms; the ever-ready subject OF con-
versations, the ever-available objective
point of little excursions. IL you have
long face you are supposed to have lost
there; if you start away from party OF
friends hurriedly you are supposed To be
going there. Cannes IS SAID to De 700
slow, Monte Carlo too fast; Nice, between
them, is happy medium; Mentone IS
slower yet than Cannes, and San Reno
sort of little Italian Nice. All these places
about Monte Carlo are so near to IL that 10
go there is but matter of an hour or nalf
an hour by rail, and the railway facilitates
going by liberal supply of trains. There
Carlo on account of the moral atmosphere
of the place or because they do not like
the public effect of having their letters
addressed there, but many such people
will go there from the neighborlng resorts
nearly every day of their stay, and really
make it the central object OF their coming
to the Riviera.
When I say everybody goes, mean not
quite everybody. l have known OF a
young English girl, who, finding herself
there at the end of a mountain excursion,
with a couple of hours on her hands,
would not set foot for an instant IN the
baleful casino and never had done so. She
was not to be tempted either by reading
room, concert hallfor restaurant, but pre-
ferred TO pass the interval till train time
waiting tamely in the station, q gentle but
unmistakable reproach to her less con-
scientious party. In general there is a
happy-go-lucky Indifferent tone towards
it. The people that frequent il are chiefly
transients, who would not want to be
held responsible for it; who would not
support anything of the kind at home, and
yet will go, for once, TO see the greatest
and only show of its kind, and will play,
heavily too, for the purpose of exper-
fencing new sensation. Here is laugh
ing American couple, on the promenade
des Anglais at Nice, announcing to
group of friends, summing themselves
there, their approaching departure. They
have got off for six months holiday, and
have Europe partly before and partly be-
hind them.
1--WE leave tomorrow. We drive to San
Reno and there take the train to Genoa"
says the wife, ''but first. I've ten dollars
more want to lose at Monte Carlo"
She lost ten the day before. That's the
way they put 1t; they want and expect to
lose, but in reality not one, especially after
first taste, but ardently hopes to win.
Let US follow them over to the place. They
catch luxurious train. especially put on
for the service, which gets them there for
the opening of the Casino at IL o'clock.
But they have time to breakfast first.
They proceed to do go. either at the res
taurant of the beautiful new Hotel Me-
tropole, on the terrace at the left of the
Casino esplanade, or at the Cafe de
Paris, on the right. AS it is only
travel experience and again "onIy for
once" they must follow the mode
single small dish of asparagus % francs
The asparagus, for that matter. is tradi-
nance of the Nineteenth Century" the
other day, to renew my acquaintance with
it. You recollect that the scene opens at
Monte Carlo. "And mind" says the
duchess to the waiter, as she orders dinner
for party at one of these expensive res
francs for a single dish of asparagus.
either" l quote chiefly from memory;
but, In the meantime, asparagus seems TO
have come down franc.
There is nothing at Monte Carlo but the
little cluster of hotels about the plateau
of the Casino and few villas on a road
above, all very white, fresh and new. IL
is all in a nutshell. You NAV walk
around the fountain, glance across a
lovely slope of greensward with flowers
like kind of idealized roulette table. and
up from it TO the lonely Roman watch
tower cresting the cliffs, and then you are
driven into the Casino as il were in self
defence. 1t is a sort of magnified Brook
Ign ferry-house architecture yery trim
and neat, but of a cold and hollow sort of
gayety, gayety as hooking as the
smile of the cr0Hpiers, who have GOT
your money away and would not give il
back TO you again, no, not if you were to
blow your head off, were it possihle a
hundred times. AS it is after breakfast
and near the concert hour, lots of peopIa
are going in. Our friends go and GET a
card of admission good for the day. The
secretaries take your name address pro
fession and nationality. In that way If
desirable, they can look you UP. by a sort
OF commercial agency or secret service
espionage they are SAID to have. and de-
termine If 1t be worth while to spread
special wfles and temptations for the con-
side rabie capital you may possess
Our friends enter the gaming-rooms
hushed silence and good order prevails. in
is dignihed and serious rite that ia in
progress there; no loud talking; no cav
laughter are heard; a liyeried attendant
comes and warns any thoughtless mon
sieur 10 remove his bat from his head IL