The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1903-05-09
AUTOMOBILE GAMBLING
New Game Played With Tiny
Devil Wagons.
IN EXPENSIVE FAD IN PARIS.

The Course, Divided Into Three, Is
Laid out on a billiard Table or
PingDonG hoard and Dotted with
Miniature Hens Dogs, Peasants
and other Distractions.
The "jeu d'automobile' party is the
newest thing in Paris, says the Chi
cago Tribune. It has supplanted
''pingue pongue" and bridge whist in
the tickle Vile Lumiere. II the new
est thing be not uncovered in Paris,
it soon is carried there. For that rea-
son it is not surprising that Parisians
have been taken with the miniature
automobile races. Gambling with mo-
tor cars haC become a fad.
As viii be seen from the description
Of the game, it offers many Of the
pleasures and none Of the dangers of
the actual automobiling There are the
attractions of a dangerous road sprin-
Killed. with cattle and pedestrians and
policemen in miniature, and the opera
AOI lluSN = AAAlAG LIS AAAAAAAAl past N-4NAAt
without .overturniRg them.
There is a pool from which the win
ner takes his profits and in which the
losers pay for their fun. II Is played
on a pingpong board or on billiard
table, but experts are at work TO make
special course for it, and In a few
weeks time the motor car game will
be played doubtless on a table Of its
own.
The motor car game Is, 50 far as the
main principle Of 1t goes, simplicity
itself, but it entails considerable skill
to be well played and costs more than
trife to be learned. Upon the course.
which is divided into three, is at one
end a little automatic starting post and
at the other a winning gate, with
/ Judges, stand complete.
Behind the starting post are nine
tiny electric motor cars beautifully
made, complete with india rubber tires
ana steering gear and even SO far per
feet that their course can be changed
at the will Of the driver. Each motor
! car has a different color and a number,
and at the word Co.. they all start ST.
| simultaneously for a race up the board,
4 back again and once more down to the
/ winning post. So far this is simplicity
itself. but there are many complied
lions IN the game.
/ TO begin with, pool y made to
which the four outside motor cars, the
I two to the right and the two to the
i left. contribute . per cent more than
do the five on the inside. This because
i 1t is much more difficult TO steer them,
+ and the turning is considerably more
complicated. Then an over the course
are dotted hens, dogs. peasants can
niyeaux wooden limitations Of those
dreaded bricked drainage cutters
which are so disastrous along many
Of the French roads and various other
instructions known to automobilists.
The three divisions Of the course arg
numbered. and breakdown in any
one Of them costs the car sum in IN
verse ratio to it's distance from the
winning post Thus panne IN tbs
ninth division-that IS, division No !
reached for the third timewill cosi
tie car a louis only, while panne II
the same place on the first journey
down the board win cost it 8 louis
Every fowl upset costs a franc if there
is a man or woman near; If not, i
costs nothing. The same thing applies
to dogs, but they cost francs each
and policeman upset and thrown
right off the table brings bonus Of
francs in from the pool, which the win
ner has to pay.
All the players are provided with lit
tie pencil-like switches, with which
they can control their cars, and te
touch the wrong car means disqualih
cation, or, as the game is sometimes
played, fine paid by the sinner to the
owner Of the ear be tempered with
The game is a tremendously exciting
one. and the shrieks Of excitement al
the turning points show that the fan
Parisiennes are at least as interested
in it as the men. There is, of course
quite as much chance as skill in the
game. for the tiny cars have all sorts
of weird ways and behave quite a.
strangely sometimes as their larger
, prototypes, but the chance element
makes the game only the more excit
ing
> Collision between two cars entails
removal from the board and a ter
e franc fine, which goes into the pool
and If any but the winning car upseti
2 the judges stand 1t costs the owner 8
! francs. If the winning car upsets tht
z Judge, however, it brings him 10 francs
from each of the other players.
: 1t is an unwritten rule that the hos
: himself shall never play, as he Is sup
9 posed to know his own cars and tn
course and therefore to have an unfail
advantage over the other players