Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-14
TO SECURE TOLERANCE.
Large Sums Paid Out by the Monte
Carlo Casino to Newspapers.
From the Pail Mall Magazine

Carlo Casino to Newspapers.
From the Pail Mall Magazine.
Publicity" las the genius who presides
over the accounts of the Casino at Monte
Carlo is pleased to call iD constitutes the
most expensive item upon the debit side of
tie account. The designation is, however,
a misnomer. seeing that the object Of the
expenditure of 100000 per annum is the sup
preston, not the publication, Of matters re-
garding the working of the Casino. 1t is a
striking illustration Of the power of the
press Though in a derogatory sense that
the Casino is obliged to spend more money
upon obtaining its tolerance of the gambling
than is paid to the Prince of Monaco for the
concession. Three-fourths of the $4,000 (re-
duced last year to 100000 is handed to news
papers in the way of annual 'subventions;'
the rest goes to stop tie pens of publicists
who write Matchmaking books and PAM
phlets, and to the ''Squaring' of enterprisng
persons who plaster the walls of Nice and
reighborhood with placards and pictures
rortraying the more CHASTITY results of the
gambling passion.
In 1SS3-1S94 the French press received
from the company f5S,OOO, and $1,000 was
paid to English newspapers on the continent
and to half n dozen correspondents, who
performed certain services in the way of
encouraging sport on the Riviera and cor
recting' reports of irregularities in the man.
agement of the Casino which may appear in
the English press. 1t was asserted categor-
ically in an English magazine some time
ago that only French newspapers accepted
money from Monte Carlo Would that it
ere so! At the same time the honor of the
British press-which stands higher than
that of any other press in the worlds
scarcely touched by the acts of few of its
representatives abroad who have acquired
the habits of continental journalism, and
who stoop to methods which (aS recent scam
dals have proved are only too common in
the MANAGEMENT of foreign journals.
Blackmail was attempted on a large scale
during two years near the railway station In
Nice Four pictures were painted upon an
immense boarding One represented the en-
trance TO the Casino; another the gardens,
with the body of one suicide lying on the
ground, and another hanging from a lamp
post; a third portrayed mother and her
children Ittering imprecations upon the
gambling establishment, and a fourth de-
Prince and Princess of Monaco sitting upon
the throne crowned with roulettes and re-
celving bags of gold and rolls of bank notes
from the manager of the Casino.
The portraits were unmstakable. A mil
lion francs WIS demanded for the suppress
sion of the pictures by the author of this
audacious scheme. But the manager replied
that he could not afford to pay half that
sum. in view of the bad season experienced
by the tables, and he played waiting game
In the end he beat the would-be blackmailer,
for the pictures were seized for non-pay-
ment of ground rental, and the boarding
was taken down.
These details will afford some idea of the
kind of claims which fall under this heading
of publicity" But there is much weeping
and wailing and splashing of ink 9lst now
among these reptiles of tie press, for at the
last meeting the new directors decided to
still further 'educe the subventions, which
have dropped in three years from 100000 to
100000 per annum.