Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-03-29
NJ. SANTOS-DUM0NT
His Admirers Killing Him
With Kindness.
THE OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
DETERMINED TO CONQUER THE
FLYING PROBLEM.
Devoted to Science, Has Little Time or
Taste for Fashionable
Follies.
special Cerresponaenee of The EVENING Star.

| at was a good thing for Santos-Dumont
that his airship fell with him into the Bay
! of Monaco" said one of Santos-Dumont's
personal friends last night at the Hotel
| Ritz.
They were just killing him down there"
| explained the friend. "One day the prince
would have him to dinner and Alfred
| Harmsworth would have him to supper;
the next day Eugene Higgins would have
him to lunch on the yacht, and the gov
ernor would have him to dinner. Between
times with his host, the Due de Dino, he
must show up at Ciro's and the grill room,
getting to bed anywhere from 1 to am,
| While his afternoons were filled with teas
and excursions and his mornings over
whelmed with correspondence.
| II do not see show Santos got time for
sleep at Monte Carlo he continued while
| as for the airship, he hau to leave it to
the care of underlngs. His proper time for
going out would have been the mornings,
| when there is no wind on the Bay of Mona
! co; but his swell friends We're sleeping in
| the mornings! Going out in the afternoons,
| his a1rship no longer cared for as it had
| been in Paris, he got caught in a Meuiter-
| ranean afternoon squall, unprepared, with
a leaking petroleum reservoir and a balloon
not he d sufficiently taut with gas.
Il have seen it again and again" the
| friend concluded. Gle is an American and
an authority on sporting matters.) Let
the rich and idle fashionable contingent
once get hold of an amateur and he is
| finished You will see-Santos- Dumont will
| not return to Monte Carlo
| The truth is that Santos-Dumont is not at
all society man, and much less is what
| they call In Europe a man of pleasure.
| When he went to live at the Hotel Powers
| in 1897, though he had been five years in
and out of Paris he was almost lonely
! young man. His fortune and connections
| entitled him to membership in good Paris
a NJ no halo I,
! first at the Hotel Powers he showed a
grateful clinging to American acquaintance
the touch-and-go acquaintance of swell
| American boarding hotel in Paris
| The Powers al this time was at the height
| OF its vogue. Its large salon-the most
beautiful of its Kind in Paris-saw brilliant
germans danced in winter and gay tourist
| gatherings in summer, while its smoking
room was the lOunging place of men of po-
| sition both in the colony and at home.
| When Americans are thrown together in
idleness the game of draw poker springs up
| naturally. Alberto Santos-Dumont had
been not unfamiliar with it's rudiments as
young man at ale university of Rio; he was
now to make acquaintance with it's higher
| branches.
| In the long summer twiights after dinner
| the word would pass mysteriously from
| man to man. One by one they would dis
| appear from the groups of ladies to knock
gently at the indicated door-Mr. Smiths
! parlor, No. %, or Mr. Jones room, No IL
| 1t was a 2-franc limit, with a round of
3-franc jacks on the appearance of full
house. Those were the good days before
the girls were let into the game to wreck it,
He Let Them In.
| SantosDumont himself was responsible
| for the admission of the wreckers His last
unlucky trip in a Mediterranean squau was
undertaken on the impulse of the moment
after lunch, to please a pretty girl from St
Louis, who said: "Oh, Monsieur Santos
| do go up" Thus such a one now said, Let
| us come up" and the nervous laughing and
| secretly timid young Brazilian at once be-
came their advocate Mrs. James Powers
| herself does not know one card from an
other, but placid, kindly matron, CRATE
fully known to many an American girl
abroad as Aunt May" was readily per
suaded into the role of chaperon.
| Now came the regime of ang-doodles'
and the credit system. And now, again.
the blame fell on Sentos-Dumont. 1t was
he who, with mistaken gallantry, started
| the practice of tearing up due bills in the
morning 1t was he who first agreed to the
| rang -dOOdeS." Now, q rang doodle as
played in the Avenue d'Antin between 1897
and 1899 was in itself no more than a
| round of 5-franc jackpots, "sweetened"
with the same fiat sum; but as an entering
| wedge for feminine demand for novelty it
| brought with it the Introduction of the
Joker and the WOODY hand.n I think this
| latter never got out of the st. Philippe
quarter of Paris, where a girl from Buffalo
invented 1t.
The "woozy hand" was to be "good'' but
| once each evening, and consisted of any
| three hearts and any two spades, the
| jOker'-when found in the hand-to count
! of course, for anything you please. AS the
packs they played with had no Joker the
deuce of spades was taken for that purpose
| Here. too, feminine logic room to i'm
prove the ancient order. 1T is not fair -
said the girl from Buffalo, that the deuce
| of spades should be suppressed. Therefore,
wheu you have any deuce in your hand you
may call it the deuce of spades If you please"
Then, as this seemed to give an extra ad-
| vantage to the deuce of spades, it became
| you may call any two-spot any two-spot ;"
| All this took learning.
The Pennsylvania Styles.
A heavy, unhumorous Pennsylvania Dutch
man from Allentown, Pa, having drifted to
Paris and the hotel, drifted into the game
1 think Santos-Dumont will remember him.
! as he was one of the first believers in the
airship. when all the world imagined it a
mere inventors dream. The man from AL
lentoWn, after playing in hard luck for an
hour, caught four jacks and played them
All laid down except the girl from Buffalo,
| who raised him back until at last he called
her out of pure compassion Il have four
jacks" he said, reaching for the money.
| Il have straight fush,' she replied
| sweetly, laying down tray Of clubs, a
deuce of spades, four of clubs, a deuce
| of diamonds and a six of clubs.
ut is perfectly clear" she explained to
the paralyzed man. Il call the deuce Of
diamonds deuce of clubs The deuce of
spades being the joker 1 call it a five of
clubs, and there you are-two, three four.
five, six-and all clubs!'
1t was the girl from Buffalo's night that
| night. She held the 'woozy hand" AL
| lentown, being scared out with a pat flush.
took much interest in the 'woozy' writing
| 1t down to remember it. Three hearts and
two spades. It's great hand" he said,
No one thought to explain to him that it
was good but once each evening Twen-
ty minutes later he raised the ante. The
girl from Buffalo, having three trays pat
followed at full speed, and the others let
| her.
At last she called him. This woozy hand
is great hand he said, to the general con-
sternation. laying down the joker, the nine
of spades and the four, five and six Of
hearts. There you are" he said; three
hearts, two spades. I call the joker a
spade, and he is spade anyhow, hey? The
little casino: l broke three fours to get
it. counting the joker, but got it,
The game never recovered from the pain
fulness Of explaining to him that his hand
was no good, while the fact that three
trays beat him cast gloom upon his Eu-
| ropean trip. About this time Santos Du-
| mont sold his PeuReOt tyFO-a nj -ha1 .borso