The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-05
From Letter by Henry Wattersor in the Louisville Couier-Jounal.

Louisville Couier-J ounal.
 DEAL of nonsense of one sort and
 A another is written about Monte 4 Carlo. I should certainly not ad- wise mothers to send their pet lambs here for religious instruction. There are more 'swears" than prayers" under the drowning walls of Tete de Chien and down among the red roofs of la Conda- mine.
 The Casino, for all it's resplendency, it's columns of prophery and alabaster, It's chors dedicated to song and dance, and it's chapels dedicated to fashion and chance. it's wealth of stained glass and old gold, is yet singularly unlike a ca thedral. Set amid gardens that seem en- chanted and are celestial, upon cas- tellated crag between the mountains and the sea, 1t might easily be mistaken for the mundane home of a Greek god. It lends itself to whatever treatment the mood of the observer may care to bestow upon it.
 To the loser, it is hell; to the winner, heaven The cynic may choose one point of view, the philosopher another. Books have been written upon all sides of 1t and every aspect.
 The best and fairest of these, because the most informed and the least partisan, is that of the Hon. Victor Bethell, a son Of the second Baron Westbury, and the head of the Monte Carlo branch of the Compton National D Escompte de Paris, a hard-headed banker, who knows it we'll has neither prejudces nor illusions, and in his Anecdotes and Systems of Play" aims only to put the public wise touching the actualities of the place. In his preface to this really illuminating and readable volume MT. Bethell says:
 "As long as the world exists gambling is sure to continue. Of late years it seems to have increased its hold upon the members of the upper classes. For tunately most of them take to it more as a pastime than vice. They gamble to amuse themselves, and few of them lose more than they can afford. They visit Monte Carlo and Ostend because all their friends go there, and having arrived, they find that they are out of it unless they join in the universal pastime of roulette.
 There are many to whom it matters not whether they win or lose; in fact, the majority come fully prepared to part with certain sum- But there are many oth- CTS to whom 1t does make B difference, and, although they may not expect to come away large winners, 1t will prob- ably quite spoil all the pleasure of their trip if thoy lose more than very limited sum. To these-the less fortunate of the gambling community-I dedicate this lit- tie book, in the hope that each one may find herein a system suited to his or her taste. A player without a system is like a ship without compass. and, although there may be a few which lead to for tune, there may be few which lead to for- tune, there are a considerable number which will give the visitor to Monte Carlo plenty to play for his money, and insure him against any heavy loss. I am in- formed by gentleman who has frequent ed gambling establishments for most of his life that many of my so-called sys- tems are enormously described as such. | They are not systems he says. but only methods of play From my point of view however, every individual may be said to have a system who takes into the gambling rooms a certain capital with a prearranged plan how he will play it. not only as regards how he will stake his | money; but as regards how much 1t is his intention to win or lose at sit ting
 q am not sanguine that the publca- ton of this book will cause the admin istration to put up their shutters, but I do believe that If every visitor to Monte Carlo would only adopt some prearranged method of play, and religiously stick to 1t, the dividends of the shareholders would be considerably reduced.
 1 Tt is the players who vote systems a | bore, and can never muster up the strength of mind to come out of the rooms when they are winners, who contribute most to the profits of the bark
 There is nothing perfunctory, but a
 world of truth here. To many. games of chance are a business, involving more or less of real labor and fatigue. But to most they yield merely pastime and
 pleasure; and somehow it does not seem to have been incorporated as a part of the eternal plan that man should derive a money profit of his recreations.
 The system" which Mir. Bethell com mends imposes imperturbability and self. denial, forecast and patience. These are scarcely the virtues of the average gam.
 bier, who is usually filled with the get
 rich-auick hysteria. Composure and sa-
 gacity as money makers can do bettsl any where than at the gaming table.