The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-22

5-franc pieces or heir napoIeons. There
are only two or three tables for cards
all the rest are for the wheel. There are
SIX or eight men at each table
superlntending the game, keeping
their eyes on shady customers
and shady practices, and holding them
selves In readiness to settle disputes Of
hand. As soon as the wheel has stopped.
and the number is cried there is a prodi-
glous cllnk of silver and gold as the
pieces are wheeled in by the banker, Drum
tremendously tossed to the winners. The
wonder of it is how the officials of the
game keep tally of the winners and the
winnings. The business is done in a
twlnkllng As coins ty about the table,
players have to keep a wary watch so
thaG they come into their own with uslirv.
FOR, IN the press around the tables there
are respectable-looking persons who will
take what does not belong to them if they
see a chance. They say at Monte Carlo
that the women who play much are the
most unscrupulous in these trifes. Per-
maps this Is Islander. | would not I'M
dertake to vouch for the male habitues,
nor Will you after you have seen much of
them.
You roam from table to table. The
groups are everywhere the same. Candor
forces the confession that the humanity
which gathers here is notin the least pre-
possessing It is curious hotch-potch of
odds and ends. There are but few items
that even remorsely suggest mem bership
IN the smart set'' of any country. al
though every nationality of Christendom
is represented here. and every age from
70 upward has its fling. What most i'm
presses YOU is the perfect management of
the place. A woman loses her temper
over a run of i'll luck. and begins to ex-
postulate with the banker on some pre-
nNT ~ nfh laN Io.-
her voice than one of the superin-
tendents of the game is at
ner side courteously explaining
matters, and, by his manner
Of calm, precise authority. effectually
quiets her. Or perhaps it is a man who
quarrels with his neighbor over some
division of the spoils before he can
splutter half a dozen words his indignant
eloquence is checked by the appearance
of authority in frock coat If the con-
tumacious player persists in his unpleas-
antness, he is asked for his card and his
ticket of admission, and he is shown the
door, and his name is put on the black
list, Perhaps your grave and reverend
signor had Jared thus ill. They are no
respectors of persons at Monte Carlo
Discipline is the order of the day aud
night. But scenes are rare. The casino
has its own code of good behavior, aud
you break it at your peril.
At the tables where the wheel spins
the play is usually for small stakes, and
the players are commonplace to the last
degree. At the card tables the game
goes up many notches in recklessness and
the gamesters several pegs in appear
ance. 1t is at the card tables that you
look for your wicked dukes and pallid he
roes and your adventureSseso of melodrama
and romance, You also look for the
l1O &c IL.
He is rare bird, seldom Shot on the
wing He is for the most part one
of the pleasing fictions of Monte
Carlo. 1t is in the dull season, if
seasons are ever dull here, that
you read so much about the bank
breakers. Neat little paragraphs
are then sent off to the subsi-
died press The syndicate that manages
Monte Carlo keeps a sufficient share of
the Continental press in its pocket You
can receive with liberal discount most of
the reports emanating from Monte Carlo
concerning big winnings. The men who
rule this wondrous town understand the
weaknesses of human nature, and this
knowledge is their most profitable stock
in trade
The aspect of things is sordid, not ex-
citing. There is not face at the tables
that looks as if it had joy in life. Out
to take both gains and losses calmly
enough. The faces are for the most part
expressiohless while the play is on; they
express neither the pleasure of greed nor
the excitement that comes of sport. 1t is
all cool calculation. If there is anything
here to tempt people, then people must be
easily tempted. You go away after half
an hour intolerably bored
But you return after dinner. You wish
n a ha CT iohf tha
smart folk will come forth then in their
finery, and the general note will be fes-
tive. Mankind feels at its ease, having
dined. So you make essay once more, and
turn again into the Halls of Dazzling
Light. To be sure, the crowd is greater
than it was in the afternoon. But it is
the same crowd in different gear. If you
sit near the doors of the first saloon and
watch the incomers, I'll be bound that
they strike your sense of the ridiculous
and keep you in a culver of mirth They
comprise the oldest assortments of
"radishes with heads Enthusiastically
carved" as Carlyle said. that you will
encounter on a footstool. Wickedness!
They do not even suggest it! For the
most part it is a commonplace, thick
Drained humanity that congregates here,
that part of noodledum which seems to
take it for granted that the bank of the
casino exists to be broken. AS for their
tailoring and dresSmaking, the heavens
never looked down upon such weird
array!
The styles of entrance adopted by the
incomers display an infinite variety. You
recognize your own style in the first
stranger. who dons and iIl-fittiDg, worldly
air as soon as the swinging door is closed
behind him. Then comes a young blood
with what he thinks a devil-may-care
manner; he is painfully young, distress
ingly exquisite. assuredly green, and a
bird to be plucked. He is the kind of
creature who thinks 1t the proper thing
to plunge. He should be taken home,
spanked, and put to bed. Before the
week is over he will be borrowing money
to pay his fare back to Oxford or Cam
bridge. Then comes the unmistakable
habitue, who goes to table
in the far corner, and looks
neither to the right nor to the
left; then an assortment of drolls, who
have never been in the place before, but
who wish to be thought frequenters;
then a group of people who have been
many times and who try to look innocent /
There is plentiful sprinkling of German
dudes with their hair cut pompadour
their shoulders of amazing thickness,
their trousers of phenomenal tightness;
French dudes with heads like shoe
brushes, and boards like the hirsute !
adornments of Nine. Iussaud's wax