The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-02
MONTE CARLO
ITS PALMY DAY ARE NOW
 OVER.
High Play That Once Took Place at Europe's Famous Casino Has Come to Be a Thing of the
 Past-Some Secrets of
 Play Upon Systems.

William Le Quex in St. Louis Republic. Not long ago l had a very interesting chat with the director of play upon sys- tems, and he let me into several secrets. ten upon Monte Carlo and combinations of sequences. there has," he declared. "never been a system which has given us a moments anxiety-save one." Quick ly interested, sought further informa- ton, but the sphinx-iiks face of the bearded Frenchman, merely relaxed into a smile. The management of Monte Carlo are never communicative.
 Well" he said at last, after much per- suasioh. "M sieu is acquainted with what Is generally known as the suicides table -the second on Inc right on entering the roulette room? It was at that table a few years ago that I saw one afternoon an old lady. who, like many others here; makeaSrsher living by obtaining good places at the table on the opening of play and selling them to eager players an, hour or two later:
 Accompanied by Young Italian.
 This old lady. whom you must know as Mime. K, was well known to me. and young Italian with her. They were play ing occasionally with 5-franc pieces, and winning. But so smali were the stakes that took very little notice, save to go, home to, dinner. Then the old wo- man turned to me with an air of surpris- ing defiance and. asked: "How much will M'sieur give for the secret of an in I responded. laughing; we are not buy ing secrets: today sTp this she respond sed: An, but M siedr will be glad to pur- chase 1t some day. Bon soir! And she
 For several days did not see her. and the matter passed completely from my mind. One afternoon a week later. how ever, saw her at the same table in com pany with three men. The chef de par tie whispered to me that they were win to watch and report
 An hour later one of the men came to me and stated that Madame and her party had won 70,0O0 francs. and that strangest of all. they only played for the maximum, and scarcely ever lost
 That afternoon looked on myself at their play several times. and certainly they seemed to win each time they staked. The curious point. however. was that in twenty coups or so they would never play more than twice. first one of the partners and then the others, but on each occasion they won the maximum in all combinations-en plein, the color. the column, the dozens, the transversale.
 Indeed. the system certainly seemed to bear out the prophecy of Madame, and was actually tnfallible. Now. we have
 heard so much about the system that
 
 on this occasion I became interested. Their Winnings Increased. "A week passed. and their winning: | amounted to a very respectable sum, al | of which had been safely lodged in the | Credit Lyonnais and transmitted to z | bank at Milan.
 "The matter was now growing serious | for three times they bad broken tht
 bank at the table where they played. ant
 at length I telegraphed to M. Blanco 1T | Paris. He asked for further reports, anC | these being still unsatisfactory he came
 to Monte Carlo to see for himself. What he saw greatly disconcerted him. The gang were winning most assuredly, but | by what system we were utterly unable to discover. We'll. to cut a long story short, M. Blanc had an interview with
 Madame. and after long haggling he purchased the secret for 10000 francs l and 1t was cheap at the price.
 The money being paid after play had ended and the rooms closed. Madame led us to the table and astounded us by her statement. She told us that after some
 years at the table she knew quite well
 that no system was infallible. until oi a sudden, when registering the numbers she noticed that certain of them always followed each other.
 Played and Won.
 Thus, if the croupler spun with the