The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-02-08

IN spite of Monte Carlos natural and
 artificial endowment and the over- towering impression one gets of its splendors when first coming in contact
 with them, the chief impulse is to leave it all behind, shut it out, and get into the stuffy atmosphere of the gambling
 rooms of the Casino as soon as possible. We had done the thing before, but un- der male chaperonage. Would the proce- dure be as easy for two lone women? It was not matter of paying one or 1.-two francs for admission, as at the ca-
 sinos of Nice or Cannes, for at Monte
 Carlo, in spite of the high prices of many things which are sold to strangers-pic-
 ture postcards, lunches and cooling drinks-much is offered free to the vis- itor.
 There is little danger of losing your way; you are passed on from hand to hand as Dutch cheeses are passed along
 by the stevedores on the quays of Rot terdam, and simply inspected in the pro- cess to see if you will finally pass mus
 ter. Otherwise you are gently rolled to
 one side. Finally you reach the long, narrow room to the left of the entrance,
 an apartment which is a cross between police courtroom and the operating room
 of a physicians clinic. The operations
 which go on therein complete the illu-
 sion. Here the final searchlight of pub licity is cast over your personality, your features and your dress alike. Nothing is sacred, your present and your past so far as they can be learned by cur sorry examination, are all passed in re- view.
 Banked on either side Of this inqulsl- torial room are tiers of what might in any other sort of financial institution be called clerks. All are seated in rows be- hind long desks or counters, and might, indeed, be detectives so far as the close scrutiny of your credentials goes. One which we handed over. One of us, look ing not far over the schoolgirl age caused the official to leave his pulpit-lilke desk and peer around the barrier to note the length of her skirts. "She is over ! 1S?' he said, only half interrogatingly, and emphatically we set him right in his surmise. The regulations in this respect are strictly observed as are the others, and no young girls under IS are sup posed to be allowed to pass the portals though certain it is that some have been permitted by their parents Cor assisted, perhaps) to bluff their way boldly in. The Casino of Monte Carlo and its in sidious, subtle advertisements are not for the jeune file.
 At this point a scratchy French pen and violet ink begin to make traces on a formidable charge sheet (again remin- iscent of police courD comprising such
 details as they succeeded in drawing from us with respect to our private life. our native land, our present domicile.
 the name of the hotel at which we were
 residing, and other trifies too numerous to mention.
 | Another scribe at the right, who mean
 time had been observing us keenly, took
 the paper and made sort of recapitu-
 lation of the facts it set forth, and finally
 made out a carte dentree, sickly orange colored affair with name and
 number by which we were henceforth to
 be known, and a staring date and in-
 scription to the effect that we were priv lileged to make use of the facilities offered
 by the Cercle des Eerangers, to lose our
 money over the green baize of the tables
 in the gorgeous sales des jeux. This we
 were required to do in a composed man.
 ner after such an ordeal-and then there are always that awful foreign ink and
 equally awful foreign pens to mitigate
 against round, fair, Spencerian hand. l We passed another pair of swinging
 doors and were shunted of to the cloak
 room, where we were stripped of our
 bags (except money bags). umbrellas and
 kodalss, for which we were given g. brass tally in return. It's free.
 Not yet were we through with official
 dom, At the entrance of the sales des ieux our carte d'entree was scanned as
 though. 1t might have been a counterfeit banknote and was punched with little
 diamond shaped hole (always gold or fdiamonds or something of the sort at
 Monte Carlo) and, with a stentorian shout of s.Deux dames.' we were ushered into 1 the gorgeous sale as if to reception,