Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1914-03-05


on our return to England. We
were to reach home by easy
stages so as to see some of the great
capitals of Europe, but l had no in
terest in the journey.
Our first stay was at Monte Carlo,
that sweet garden of the Mediter-
ranean which God seems to smile
upon and man to curse.
If 1 had been allowed to contem-
plate the beautiful spectacle of ma
ture, I think ! could have been con-
tent, but Alma, with her honeyed and
insincere words, took me to the Ca
sine on the usual plea of keeping her
in countenance.
I hated the place from the first.
with its stale air, it's chink of louis
dor, its cry of the croupiers, its
strained faces about the tables, and
its general atmosphere of wasted
hopes and fears and needless misery
and despair.
AS often as / could ! crept out to
look at the flower fetes in the streets,
or to climb the hill of La Turbie and
think | was on my native rocks with
Martin Conrad, or even to sit in my
room and watch the poor wounded
pigeons from the pigeon traps as they
tumbled and ducked into the sea after
the shots fired, by crue! and unsports-
manlike sportsmen, from the rifle
range below.
In Monte Carlo my husbands vices
seemed to me to grow rank and fast
The gambling fever took complete
possession of him. At first he won
and then he drank heavily, but after
ward he lost. and then his nature be-
came still more ugly and repulsive.
One evening toward o'clock | was
in my room, trying to comfort a
broken winged pigeon which had
come floundering through the open
window, when my husband entered
with wild eyes.
1.-THE reds coming up at all the ia
bles," he cried breathlessly. Give
me some money, quick"
I told him / had no money except
the few gold pieces in my purse
you've a cheque book-give me
cheque, then"
l told him that even II gave him
cheque he could not cash 1t that
night, the banks being closed.
and you have Jewels, haven't you?
Stop fooling with that creature and
let me have some of them to pawn
Pointed to Jewels.
The situation was too abject for
discussion, so l pointed to the drawer
in which my jewels were kept, and he
tore 1t open, took what he wanted and
went out hurriedly without more
words.
After that I saw no more OF him
for two days, when with black rings
about his eyes he came in to say he,
must leave this accused place" i'm
mediately or we should all be ruined
Our last stopping place was Parisl
and in my ignorance of the great
French capital which has done so
much for the world l thought it must
be the sink of every kind of corrup-
ton. go,
We nut UP at a well-known hotel
in the Champs Elysees, and there tas
well as in the cafes in the Bots and
at the races at Longchamps on sun
days) we met the same people AGAIN
most of them English and Americans
on their way home after the Wlnte!
II seemed to me strange that there
should be so many men and women N
the world Win nolHllB ~ w. NV, ~
loafing round it like tramps-the rich--
est being the idlest, and the idlest
the most immoral.
NV husband knew many F'renchmen
of the upper classes, and / think ne
spent several hours every day at their
, clubs. but (perhaps at Almas IN
stigation) he made us wallow through
the filth of Paris by night.
1T will be lots of fun, SAID Anna
and then who is to know US in
places like those?"
At Communion.