Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-05-19

try, Is Fitssinformality.sM omea wander
about the rooms or the halls in couples
or alone; young girl who has but just
seeuI her first winter in society will "bor-
row. $40 or $50 fiom an indulgent father
and run off to a table, and. quite alone,
tiy her own particular system at rou-
letter or hazard. When She has iost-as
she Is pretty sure TO do--still unaccom-
panied, she will search for her indul-
gent father in the dining room or the
cafe until she has found him and bor-
rowed some more. The whole manner of
the place is that of a number of peop.e
who are having an extremely happy cve-
ning at house party. Very unlike Monte
carlo. One never sees the drawn, an
Hlous lace Of the inveterate man or wo-
man gambler. At the Beach Club gamh-
ing mas all the appearance of an amusing
game played by people to whom it makes
little difference whether they win or
lose. Nothing could be less sordid or
grim.
The answer to this is, of course, very
simple. NO professional gambler could
become a member of the club and the
men and women who play there almost
without exception gamble for the snort
and with no particular thought and less
hope of increasing their bank accounts.
AS game OF cnance the club has all
the advantage. Like most of the roulette
wheels used in America, those at Palm
Beach have two zeros, which gives the
bank very large percentage-more than
twice that at Monte Carlo. where they
use only one zero, and where in the case
OF zero coming up all bets on the simple
Chances are put i'm bank and played for
at the next spin. In the game of hazard
the chances are fraction more In favor
OF the player At the Beach Club the
low limit is so cents and the high limit
would depend entirely on how we'll the
management knew the player ana mis-
financial responsibility. / should imagine
that at least nine-tenths or the players
at the Beach Club use 50-cent chips. and.
as a rule, play an extremely moderate
game. l know of many men who during
the season have dined every night for
years at the club and have never made a
bet. The average man player, | should
say, won or lost from So to 600 a night.
and the women but small fraction OF
this.
On my last visit there a man won
about $4,000 one night and lost the same
amount the evening following The heavi-
who was reported to have lost between
10000 and $4,000, but it took him nearly
a month to get rid of 1t all, so he prob
ably had lot of thrills while he was
about 1t. In all ways the Beach Club is
a perfectly good restaurant and gamb-
ling establishment. As spectacle II is
marvelously beautiful; as a rendezvous
for the young and old who are bent on a
ting
is charter from the state in the safe.
Therefore there is no danger whatever
that group of gentlemen in blue clothes
and gold buttons will break in the door
and carry YOU Off in Black Maria TO
the police station.
In a marked particular the Beach Club
is as different from the gambling clubs
on the Continent tas for instance, the
Villa des Fleurs at Aix-les Bains) as the
rest of Palm Beach is different from the
continental winter aud summer resorts.
The assets of the latter are women,
cards and wine, and. as attractions TO
lure the visitor. in all probability should
be ranked in that order. Now, while
cards may come first In the life OF
many of the visitors at Palm Beach.
women" have no place there at all.
standard of morals OF American men, or
it may arise from the fact that Palm
Beach is so exceedingly small a place
that if one OF these gay Birds of Para
disc should go there she would be quite
as conspicuous as a bronze tag on a COM
muters lawn. The only instance OF the
kind / saw was one night last winter
when, after dinner. three very beautiful
and very wonderfully gowned ladies
sauntered arm in arm into the hotel Of
fee Both in their manner as well as In
their looks they suggested an early
morning party at a cabaret performance
on upper Broadway. As their "girlish
laughter rang out through the big room.
old men awoke from their after-dinner
maps and peered over their newspapers;
the cohorts of bellhops turned pale under
their ebony skins; the hotel clerks Sex-
changed hasty. horror-stricken giances,
and then hung over the desk and fear
fully watched the three graces trip mer-
rily across the office and disappear
through door which led to the piazza
and the purple night.
From all of which to the red-blooded
man it would appear that the closing Of
the Beach Club was not in line with the
progress of liberal civilization. But
there are men of experience who point
out that the closing did not take place
until the season was we'll over. and that
next year will see the club Furnishing as
before 1e"9
Something has to be done,v said one
man of Broadway and Palm Beach. ITO
keep the reform element pacifed.'-New
York Telegraph.
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