The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-12-17
THE DEMON ROULETTE
Peep at the Fascinated Players in
Monte Carlo Casino.
Americans Who Tried to Break the
Bank, and Then Wanted to Teach
the Prince How to Play Poker.


TO divide up the Yankee said:
"Win you take the buZzard and I take
the turkey shall 1 take the turkey and
you take the buzZard?''
Quoth the poor Indian: But you talk
no turkey to once"
Now that is how some people regard the
relations between themselves and the
Prince Of Monaco. Sometimes they get the
buzzard. But then again 1t occasionally
happens that they take the turkey. Per-
haps the doctrine Of chance gives the for
tunate Prince more turkey than buzzard
but then people are not bound to come
here. are they? They can calculate be-
forehand their probable proportion of
bird. and they can spend their income
elsewhere If they are afraid of getting too
much buzZard at Monaco.
But to a up tree-I am a man up
tree-without any love of speculation it
Is much greater fun to see the birds placed
on the table, and then to let the Prince and
the public divide them up to suit them
selves.
Until to-day had never been in a gam
bling place. / have smoked opium, gone
down to the bottom Of the sea in a divers
dress, sailed heavenward in a balloon, tack
led the Esquimaux in the frozen north
where / killed white bear. and INDUCED
In almost every sort OF vice and crime
But gambling has never been a weakness
of mine. 1 have seen cock fights prize
nights, dog fights (the most cruel and con-
temptible sport 1 know of and 1 have
fought New York cabmen. / fancy / am
case hardened. But will confess that when
entered the Monte Carlo Casino to-day
IL was with a feeling of repulsion. Ii
Seemed to me that l was to be the witness
OF the sufferings OF unfortunate doves held
he faI Of Of hon he
People always make out that the man who
nndS MS way into a gambling house is
white, unstained and innocent, and that the
bad.
But it is much OF a muchness. On pre-
senting my card at the 'commiSSariat'' to-
day 1 received ticket OF admission TO the
salon In which the games take place. On
entering the hall my first impression was
tables at which there was something to
eat There was the same eagerness to
force themselves to the front that one sees
manifested by a mob Of people when there
IS a free lunch in sight or when horse and
man have fallen exhausted in the street.
II Is on these OccasiOnS-play, feed and
catastrophe-that people in their impulse
forget all else around them and become so
many pairs Of eyes.
the eager greatness of the people to invest.
My next was. Do you know what they are
DO they care? Do they care so long as
the craving for excitement is satisfied? II
they pay 20 francs. and win back 10 francs.
are they not the gamers? Is there not 10
francs worth OF happiness with which they
must debit themselves?
THEY ARE NOT BLIND.
Every one Of them knows the chances of
the bank The income of the principally is
o matter Of common knowledge. Are they
buying pig In a poke?
They stand with their little books or cards
5otting down the record of the waves of
ha as fhaxrf fall rfQ 0tG
that they accumulate they are sure they
will learn the wisdom that will make them
rich. Thus did the alchemists of old. They
f-for every cents worth of experience
they ever got They the golden louis
rolling into the Golfers of the bank, but each
one is planning a dam that will stop that
now and divert the stream his way.
The brutal man Of business, cruel. cold
and calculating, when he undertakes an af-
favor before he begins. But here are people
who risk Sc TO win s.. Are they optimists
fools or what? Is the difference between the
average amount they pay and the average
amount they receive represented by the
sum of the pleasure they have had out Of
The machinery OF the bank seemed to me
the very acme or 1uggernauttSm- The Of
hcials. cold and impressive, were the least
Interested OF all in the result OF the turns
OF the little wheel. They watched the play
sFs build their little piles of gold without
The least feeling. 1t was as II they said to
themselves, You are building-but for U.S.
You are building with materials which are
What chance has the player? How small
the golden louis looked upon the board
One sweep OF the hand Of the croupier and
fifty Of them were raked into the NAV of
the bank 1t was all done in moment. The
savings OF a lifetime woul6 be swallowed
up In half an hour, and the official would
yawn, as much as to say, rs that all?'
while the loser sat on one side and turned
white and gasped for breath.
An old man. sixty years old, and he had
the red button of honor in his lapel, sat on
bench watching the play, from which he
had just withdrawn He presently fell over
senSeless upon the lounge. A doctor went to
his assistance and begged that he be car
ried into the open air, but IL was ten min
utes before any one could be got to move
him. Meanwhile the play went on five feet
away. Eventually he was carried out, per-
haps dying. No one seemed to care. Some
old fool who has ruined himself" observed
cocotte, sneeringly. This is not a fictitious
picture introduced for dramatic effect. 1t
happened to-day TUESDAY, Nov. q, at TWEEN
~ minutes to y. m, and 1 saw It, once
saw an old banker let his head fall for
ward in street car in Philadelphia, and
I'm second he was dead. He looked just
as that man looked that l saw carried out
OF the Casino.
Te those who swarmed around. after it
was all over the officials merely said: &c est
une petite indspOsition. Cest town.
And at the tables: ''F'aites vos jeux. mes
But the doctor who had pleaded for help
70 have the nan taken into the open air
said: II am afraid he is dying"
It's 1unny, this idea or a princeton
founded on roulette IL Gilbert and Sulli-
van wrote comic opera with the Monaco
facts for plot IL would be more scream
tngiy humorous than anything they ever
did-that Is IL it did not really exist and
they suddenly thought OF the idea To
have monarch over a gambling den is like
personifying the king of spades.
a silly London evening paper, comment
ing on a South American revolution, said
cit makes the very name of republic de-
tested" What then does the existence of
Monaco do to the very name of monarchy p?
1t may be convenient to have spots on the
earth where the different vices may be
enthroned- i play in America called
1.-THE Isle OF Champagne" 1t told of an
island where there was no water, but where
people drank only the effervescent juice of
the grape. How would Ii do to establish q
principally based on barrooms and in the
confines OF which anyone found sober
should be fined $40 or ten days?
WANTED TO GET SQUARE"
An American went UP to an attendant at
the Casino and said:
''See here. / want to see the king of this
place Where's his officer
you cannot see his Royal Highness, -
was the reply. given very frigidly.
mot see him? Why, I'm one of his big
gest customers. I've just lost 5000"
What do you want TO see him about?
inquired the attendant suspiciously.
81 want teach him poker, said the
American, with an eye 10 getting his money
back
Behind the men with the rakes at the
tables are perched on high chairs officials
who appear To watch the game. one OF