The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-30

and that his civil list was made up, so to
speak, by six roulette tables and four ia
bles of trente ct quarante. To this the
Prince responded that no one could be
more ashamed than himself of the pres
ence of the Casino in his dominions, but
that he had no alternative, being bound
hard and fast by the agreements made by
his father and predecessor with the late
NJ. Blanc, the founder Of the gambling es-
adjustment at Monte Carlo He added
that, thanks to the wealth of his wife and
his own large fortune, he did not need the
annuity paid into his treasury by the Ca
sino company, and that he was using it to
develop the resources of his people and an
philanthropic enterprises. Moreover, ne
gave the most solemn assurances that the
lease should under no circumstances be re-
newed.
1t was on the strength of these prom
ises that Queen Victoria consented to re-
ceive his wife and himself with sovereign
honors at the Court of st. James, other
Continental monarch, such as the En-
perors of Germany and Austria, the Kings
of Sweden, Portugal, Belgium and Wur-
temberg as well as the Queen Regents of
Spain and Holland, following suit. There
was but one ruler in Europe who refused
to have anything whatsoever to do with
him and who showed the cold shoulder,
namely the late Car. On learning that
the Prince and Princess of Monaco pro-
posed paving a visit to ST. Petersburg he
caused them to be informed by his Am
bassador in Paris, and thPt, too in the
most curt manner possible, that he did
not desire to welcome them to his court,
and that under the circumstances it
would be preferable that they should not
even come to Russia incognito, in view
of which he had instructed his Ambassa-
dor to refuse that visa to their pass
ports, without which no foreigner, titled
or untitled, can cross the frontiers of the
Muscovite Empire.
How we'll advised was Alexander III.
may be gathered from the fact that in
spite of these solemn assurances, on the
strength of which the Princess of Monaco
received social recognition as sovereign
at the various courts of Europe, he has
just renewed the lease to the Casino COM
pany for another half-century under
terms so exorbitant as to render him more
than ever the principal partner in the con
Germ. The other chief owners are Edmond
Blanc, son of the founder of the estab lish-
ment, and his two brothers-in- law, the
one Constantine, Prince Radziwill and
the other the sol-distant Prince Ro-
land Bonaparte, son of the Partisan
plumbers daughter, Jeanne Ruffln, and
of Prince Peter Bonaparte the black
sheep of his house, whose shooting of the
ing room at Paris, in the beginning of 1870
contributed more than anything else to
bring about the downfall of the Empire
The Casino at Monte Carlo owes its ex-
istence to an agreement concluded in the
latter part of the sixties, between the late
Prince of Monaco and NJ. Blanc, when the
latter was driven out of Germany 1t NAV
be remembered that about that time the
public gambling establishments at Baden
Baden and Wiesbaden were closed. the les
see, who in both cases was M. Blanc being
thus forced to look elsewhere for a place
to set up his tables Until that time he had
furnished the principal source of revenue
to the Grand Duke of Baden aud to the
regning Duke of Nassau, who is now the
Grand Duke of Luxembourg, and it should
never be forgotten that the great wealth
of these two sovereign houses, as well as
that of the King of Sweden, whose Queen
was Princess of Nassau, is derived in the
main from the gambling tables a Baden
Baden and WieSbaden. Another sovereign
who is credited by popular report with de-
irving much of his wealth from sources
of the same unsavory character is Leopold
of Belgium, who is not only asserted to be
a large shareholder in, the Monte Carlo
Casino Company, but likewise to be finan-
cially interested in a number of gambling
establishments at Ostend, Spa and in the
Ardennes, which, in spite of all his profes-
sions 20 the contrary, could not exist in
fragrant defiance of the laws of the land
unless they enjoyed his support and back
ing. King Carlos of Portugal is likewise
declared to have concluded recently a con-
vention with a syndicate, according 20 the
terms of which the latter is to create at a
seaside resort in the immediate vicinity of
Lisbon casino on the same lines as that
at Monte Carlo, paying large sum down
as well as big annuties and a percentage
of the profits for the privilege.
Prince Albert, whose grandfather was n
fourth-rate actor of the Ambigu theater
at Paris, and his grandmother the daugh-
ter OF a pork butcher in a small way e.
fore the death OF a distant relative
brought him in the line of succession "a
the throne, has been drawing an allowance
of $4,000 per annum from the Casino
Company, over and above the dividends
on the stock which he holds in the con-
Germ, and, in addition, likewise to the
payments that are made by the company
to his various retainers. servants, etc.
| Everything In the principality from the
maintenance and lighting of his palace.
and of the streets of his capital down ia
the pay of his body guard and the stipend
of the Bishop of Monaco is defraved nv
the company. the Prince having literally
nothing to pay out of his own pocket when
in his dominions. In addition to this his
wife has Inherited from her father a for
tune which yields an income of $500 on
per annum. For the renewal of the con-
| cession of the lease, the Prince has en-
acted and obtained the promise of an i'm
mediate cash payment into his treasury.
the raising of his civil list from $3.50 600 Ia
$4,000 a year, and the increase of various
other payments to members Of his house
hold and of his government. which. as
stated above, will involve an additional