The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-22
MONTE CARLO AS 1T IS.
A Natter Of-faCt View Of This Famous
Gaming Resort.

How Entrance to the Casino Is OBJ
tanned and What Is Seen There-A
Prodigious Array of Plain and IN
calmly Women and Varied Assert
ment of Men.
From the Boston Herald.
A big, yellowish building with a blue
clock dial stares at you on the edge of a
cliff overlooking the sparkling sea. 1t is
not beautiful building nor an ugly one.
But nobody who goes to Monte Carlo
bothers himself about the architecture
of the place. AL roads in Monte
Carlo lead to the yellowish structure,
which is the palace of chance. You be-
gin your novitiate by following the
crowd, - not that there is any crowd to
follow, but you see group of sedate per-
sons ascending the steps of this yellowish
place, and you straightway scent the
game.
Of course, you ask no questions; YOU
do not choose to betray yourself as a
stranger since you have haunting fear
that confidence mem must lurk in these
quarters. You follow the man in front
of you-a grave and reverend seignor, who
is probably deacon or a bank president
when he is at home. He knows his way
about. He ascends the carpeted steps
and passes without finching the immense
uniformed person at the portal You
don't know whether an admission fee will
be demanded of you; nobody has ever
told you whether you have 10 pay for en-
tering the CANT bling hells of Monte Carlo;
novelists do not descend to such paltry
details. But you recall the phrase
gambling hell; !" you roll the words
over your tongue, and you like the
smack of them now you are here,
and you have half concert with
yourself as desperate fellow who is 60
ing to see the elephant this time if he
never did before Yon have a sneaking
notion that the immense uniformed per-
son at the portal looks at you with calm
contempt, as if he were butler in an
English country house. At all events.
you take example by the grave and rev
erend seignior who preceded you He
pushes a swinging door and you ad-
vance with indifferent eagerness lest he
elude you. The respectable old gentle
man evidently does know his way about.
and it is worth while having so grave
guide gratis. His very shadow seems to
impart responsibility, at least enough to
induce you to step in it.
The elderly gentleman turns into
large cloakroom at the right, and delivers
HIS ONCICOdD anu " dlhIllS SUCK 10 d COuIb-
eous attendant You watch to see
whether he pays anything, and how
much. He pays nothing, but he receives
a metal disk, which he slips into his
wastcoat pocket. You have meanwhile
zealously initiated him, with similar re-
suits, and when he walks across the cor
ridor you walk after him. He takes his
place in line of persons standing in sin
gle file near bureau of some sort. Here,
then, is the receipt of custom. So YOU
watch again to see what there is to pay.
It is most amazing place. this Monte
Carlo! Up to the present stage of the pro-
ceedings nobody has lightened his pockets
Of so much as a single brown" The
people in front of you are getting tickets,
ana apparently getting them for nothing;
you had to pay nothing at the outer door,
nothing at the cloak room, and now, be-
hold. you are to receive a ticket gratis
for the Halls of Dazzling Light. The ad-
venture augmentS in wickedness, YOU
think, for if they are going to extend
these manifold courtesies to you without
charge, it is evident that they count upon
your falling victim to the temper later
on You f1atter yourself on your shrewd
dlScernment. and you remember that
you were always esteemed wise one.
AS the line moves on you notice that
the people in front of you hand their
visiting cards to busy little clerk, who
scratches first in a big book, and then on
numbered ticket, putting questions be-
tween the scratches to each applicant.
Your mastery of French enables you to
perceive. aftera few preliminary tremors,
that you are expected to present your
card, and say what country you come
from, and what hotelyou are stopping at.
Warned by the linguistic slips of the
parties in front, you write it all down on
your card. Beyond doubt, you are ex-
pected to vouch for your own respect
ability. But, alas, do they want in
dorsers2 Is the busy scribbling clerk de-
handing certificates of birth, baptism and
vaccinations There are bitches in the
linel Some of the applicants go away
empty-handed; they attempt argument;
the busy little clerk ceases his scrib bling
and looks as stern as any dog in the flee.
Upon him argument prevails not; he
raises his hand in the most approved
tragic manner as you have seen it done
by the great artists in the Coincide Fran
CdlSe or in the pantomimic ballots at the
Empire IN London. Then he says Next"
IN French, and your grave and reverend
Selgnor lays down his pasteboard of
identification, and the busy clerk looks up
and raises his hand with a ''go-away"
gesture, and the grave and reverend
selgnor mutters establishment, or simu-
lates establishment in the voluble Gallo.
impossible" says the imperturbable
scratching man. go away" says the
upraised hand. The grave and reverend
one goes away, knowing probably by ex-
perience that argument prevails not in
Monte Carlo. You have no time to ask
yourself what his offense may have been
and why he is not wanted. All that is
clear is that, in Monte Carlo, as in some
forms of faith, there is process of selec-
ton which surpasseth your understand
ing. The busy scribber looks at you and
says, 'Monsieurf' and gives an interro-
gative twist to his eyebrows. You hand
him your card; he makes record of your
name on his book he scrawls your name
on numbered and dated ticket, putting
Your surname first and your Christian
name last, i'll his curious French way.
Then he gives you your ticket and re-
turns you your card, and you make way
Tor the next man, feeling that after all,
YOU have new sensation. The authori-
ties of Monte Carlo have given YOU GER
tlhcate of respecta bility, and it is yours
torevermore.
In the big central corridor of the casino
people are smoking, walking, and talking,
out you do not pause for these attrac-
uons The obvious thing is to follow the
other holders of the buff tickets of re-
spectability. Your number is 1856, and,
although the hour is but five in the after
noon, the numerals give DroOf of fair at