The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1898-01-20

the fortunes of the family be rehabili-
tated. Not long ago they tried to sell
the famous Borghese art treasures to
foreigners, but the government inter-
fered. Much of their present financial
distress is result of the COLLAPSED real
estate boom in Rome few years ago.
GAMBLING At. .os1eNo.
Glance It One OF the Clubs Where For
tunes Are Won and Lost.
For those who wish to be mildly
vicious at moderate expense Ostend is
very handy. Youlcan see fortunes won
and lost in a night as you can at Monte
Carlo, though perhaps not quite so
often, for only some of the, people who
gamble every winter gamble on through
the summer. You can become mem.
Der of the Club Prive for the whole sea-
son for 20 francs. There is no difficulty
about being elected to the club. All
you have to do is to get your name put
down two days before you wish to COM
mence your membership by any Tom,
Dick OF Harry who is a member. This
has it's disadvantages. One day twu
duly elected members entered the club
and proceeded to place ithei maximum,
6 $50, / believe, the one on red, theother
OH black. They were expert players,
and just as the ball was going to settle =
into black, the one who had staked on
red took up his stake and walked.
Nothing could be done to him; these
gambling clubs being technically il
legal, no suit could be Brought in the
Belgian courts to recover the money.
A little while ago the wife of lead
ing business man at Antwerp was dis
covered dropping louis dor out of her
fan, ON to a, winning square after the
ball had stopped: She was watched,
and observed to do it several times. In.
quiries were made as to who she was,
and when the good position of her hus-
band was learned the authorities Of the
club decided to spare him the pain of J..
any public scandal, and neither ex-
PEELED her from the club nor forbade
her enter it. She was politely Informed
that she must not sit down at the table
that was all. She could still play
standing up, it being impossible then
for her to play otherwise than fairly.
I must confess that when I first en-
pect the gambling to be very whole
sale, but was speedily undeceived, be-
cause the man who afterward-while
I was at Ostend-committed suicide be-
fore I had been there a quarter of an
hour, staked between 10000 and 100000
francs with the green counters, marked
5000 francs. And he won nearly as
much while I was watching him. He
Gid not go in for the more elaborate
Stakes, but simply watched until there
was run of red and black and backed it
three or four times running. I saw
him, for instance, when red was run
ming strong, and already had turned up
twice, back it for third, fourth and
fifth" time for 5000 francs, coup. It
did turn up third, fourth and fifth
time, and he pushed the $4,000 francs
his stake and his winnings-into his
trousers pocket, and went off to play
at another table. He was, I under
stand, a German baron, do not know
how recently created, and had made
huge fortune out of South African
mines. He lost so heavily that before
we left Ostend he had destroyed him
self, rather than think of the vanished
fruits of so many years of toll.
At the two ends of the gambling
rooms, where there is more space, there
are two tables parallel to each other.
In the long narrow gangway which con-
meets them the tables are in single file.
The most conspicuous figure at the
front table is that of Otero, the cele-
brated Spanish dancer. Otero is
beautiful woman, with jet black hair,
and rich, clear pink and white COM
plexion; her face is pure oval, and she
has the large full dark eyes of the south.
but the most noticeable feature about
her is her wonderfully elegant figure
and poise. She dresses handsomely,
but plainly, as rule, with the excep-
ton of her hats, which are very large,
and decorated with profusion of the
very finest ostrich feathers, and in the
evening with brooches containing sew
eral thousands pounds worth of dia-
monds. She does not wear great deal
of jewelry, but what she does wear is
fabulously valuable--such as collars Of
choice selected pearls, or diamonds Of
great size, and rings set with pearls
(black, pink and pearl eolored), as big
as small cherries. Otero was the most
interesting player to watch, because
she staked so much. She hedged until
there was hardly possibility of her
winning more than fraction of her
stake, but when she did win she never
took the winning money off, but added
fresh counters. I saw her get IS times
her stake, twice running, on % one
night, the first time under very pc
culiar circumstances. Her counter
was not directly on the %, but half way
between % and 26. She said that she
had staked on the 90 alone, and the
oroupier had misplaced it. The bank
took her word and paid her the 3s times
London Graphic.