The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-23
FRAUD IS COMMON AT MONTE CARLO 1rIoks Worked on tho Bank In
 Sales dc Jeu
 .------z THE COUP OF ARDlssoN Clever swlndIe and Three Aeoern. plIoes Won sse,ooo at Trense.ss. ouarante by BrIblnn crou.
 pier to eubetltute cards.

and although the directors of the Casino company of Monte Carlo are discreetness itself in this matter, the world has al- ready learned the fact that their won- derful cash coining machine has, during the season 1e04-1e05 earned for their share holders the magnificent sum of s7,2o4,0O0 an increase of roughly s400,Oo0 on the right side-for them, at least if not for the Riviera tripper-over the takings of lsos-1504.
 What this increase is due to or Is sup pose to be due to, we are not told; but It's significance to the student of econo- my is very considerable. It would ap- pear that M. Blanc, the Napoleon of the roulette wheel, though dead, yet speak eth" and with voice which Is the sweet est of music in the Monegasques ears; whose echoes. moreover, are heard not in- frequently on the Parisian bourse, when shares in his modestiy styled Society Anonyme des Bains de Mer ct Cercle des Etrangers," come Into tine market. It would appear likewise that the increase in his salary from s25O000 per annum to $350, 900 which the prince of the sunny promontory recently extorted from the Casino company when he renewed its lease for another fifty years, is not so ruinous piece of blackmail as was then supposed, and that the s5OO,0OO that was spent on the local theatre and orchestra, though seemingly extravagant, has proved a sound investment, notwithstand- ing the continued loss on these latter att fractions.
 Does any fly who walks into M Blancs parlor, one is tempted to wonder, ever is- sue thence, as fat as when he entered? One would fancy not-to judge by the figures of this paralyzng balance sheet. Nevertheless the stories of fortunes made at Monte Carlo persistenly outnum- Der those of fortunes lost Whether this singular phenomenon is traceable to the .press subventien" which fin 1901 (the last report in which 1t seems openly to be alluded to) cost $100000, It would be in- possible to have suspicious That ver- satile gossip, Lieut.. Col. Newnham-D Davis, vouches for the truth of an anecdote that credits a Chicago friend of his with scoop ing $100,000 In the Sales de Jeu in a single day and (greater marvel stilD having the horse sense to 'skiddoo" with the whole sum intact. There is no room to doubt, too, that in the 1901-1902 winter season one of the Russian grand dukes. playing in the Club Privee, made s4ooO0.
 Attracts Swindlers.
 1 Probably more money has been lost by the Monte Carlo "bank' through fraud i than though what we must, for lack of better name, cau honest play. An in- stitution such as the Casino is tempt l ing bait for the professional swindler; and there are more sucn gentry har- | barad In MonaCota fhraa roiInq of tarTifOrV ;, than in any other spot of similar size in the civilized globe. True, the majority of them prey not on the bank, but on It's dupes Stake snatchng and various in- genious variants of the confidence trick form their main standby. Still the bank itself suffers from their attentions. copy of that remarkable weekly. Rouge ct Noir-the "Organe de Defense des Joueurs de Roulette ct de Trente-de- Quarante''-lies before the writer, and contains a full, true and particular &C., count of one of the most famous and most amusing of the many attacks on the bank which have been planned within recent years. The prime mover in the plot was the magnificent grafter. Ardis- son, who had successfully worked nearly every pleasure resort on the continent, and who now, for the first time, turned his attention to the seemingly unassaiia- ble fortress of wealth by the tideless sea.
 Ardsson, 1t seems. spied out the land at Monte Carlo a month or more before he attempted operations; and clad in an unassuming disguise, made a particular study of the gaming tables and the meth ods of play Like many wise folk before and since he came to the conclusion that roulette was unworthy of his attentions. It's companion game. trente-et-quarante, gave him, however. some food for thought. It was played with cards; it was non-mechanical; the "personal equa- ton" entered into his procedure; and finally the stakes were high. In trente- et-quarante then, he saw his opening.
 Ardisson's Great Trick.
 Vanishing for a space from the neigh borhood of his blissfully ignorant vic- tims he returned eventually. accompa- nied by a friend of his own sex (and pro fession) and a couple of beautiful and well dressed ladies who had been toying with lemonade glasses. The party ranged themselves. two on each side of the trente-et-quarante board, and while the croupier was shuffling the cards pre- paratory to starring a fresh set of deals, the lady on one side engaged the umpire in ingenious chat--asking explanations of how the game was played. and so forth while she on the other requested umpire No 2 to supply her with gold change for a bank note. At the precise instant when the croupier was ready to begin. one of the ladies dropped 50 louis on the floor. where they rolled noiseessly hither and thither, creating most unseemly diver sion. and attracting all eyes from the cloth Attendants gathered up her gold, whereupon the game proceeded. The Ardsson quartet, as the Gallic chronicler playfully has it, attacked the bank wig orously, wagering on red, and beholdi red showed three times in succession. And to cut a long story short, whichever way the quartette stake (and they have the finesse to vary their stalking more than once) they win. After eight coups the party retired majestically, carrying s3e,0O0 of the banks money. At the door of the Casino a smart carriage awaits them and in five minutes they are whlrled across the frontier.
 The secret of M. Ardisson's staggering success only transpired when too late. Mortified at the loss to the bank which the eight abnormal coups had caused, the umpires ordered the cards to be ex- amined. There were 84 too many in the pack. The croupier had been bribed to insert a specially shuffled slab of cards at given signal and the disturbance caused by the fall of madames gold pieces had drawn all eyes from his deed. Two months Imprisonment was his sen- tence, a period of discomfort he could afford to disregard when weighed against his personal profit.
 
 Thousands of dollars paid