New-York tribune., 1921-03-06
Women Gamblers
Outnunlber Men at
Monte Carlo Casino
of Them Don't Know
When They Win or Lose,
but That Does Not De-
ter Them in the Least

LONDON, Feb. 2s.-fhis is the
women's year at the Monte Carlo Ca
sino, writes A. e. Manning Foster to
the London Daily Mail. There have
never before been SO many women
gamblers.
Just now English women predomi-
nate. There is fair sprinkling of
French, Italians and Spanish, and a
few Russians. But it is essentially the
season of English women.
Some of them, it is easy to see. have
never been here before. They do not
know their way about or understand
the games.
But that does not deter them in the
least. They plank their money down
and wait to see what happens, and they
keep sharp eyes upon it. too. A man
may have his winnings snatched, but a
woYfan--never!
There is novices' luck-who can
doubt it?
These newcomers who win at the
start are the stanchest and most regu-
lar attendants. They become bitten
with the gambling fever and cannot
miss a sitting.
Morning, noon and night they come
to the rooms, drawn by an irresistible
lure. For them the many other de-
lights that are to be found in Monte
Carlo and the neighborhood exist in
vain.
Their lives are centered on the hectic
pleasures of the tables. You can tell
them at n glance. Their eyes are bright
their cheeks flushed and as the days 20
on strained, anxious look comes into
their faces and little hard lines de-
velop at the corner of their mouths.
They have gambling fever badly. It
must run its course. Most of them will
get over it. A few will become chronic
cases and will join that pathetic little
band OF women who cannot help it,
women who must gamble as others
must take drink or drugs.
Not that the majority of women who
throng the rooms are of this kind.
There are many sweet and lovely
women who have their little futters
just for fun and as an occasional di-
version They como in from Mention,
Beaulieu, Cap Martin, Nice, Cannes and
other places on the Cote d'Azur for an
hour or two. Many of them are attrac-
tive.
No one could mistake them for the
"hardy annuals," the habituees, who
come year after year and whose faces
are known by every croupier and chef
de partie in the Casino.
The ordinary normal woman is not
uot to make large sums Of money. If
she can win the price of new hat or
q pair of silk stockings, she is delight
ed. But the gambler must go on, win
or lose.
There are nightmare figures here
women who might have come out of an
Edgar Allan Poe story. g
One in particular haunts one. A
gaunt, sinister specter in black, with
colorless, blanchcd and bewrinkled
face, she wanders about the rooms. AL
though an old woman, she is too rest
less to sit down. She fits from table
to table, stalking high, muttering to
herself, her itching fingers never STILL
She has the saddest of all aspects.
Quarrels occur now and agani. There
are heated disputes among the women.
Recently a Frenchwoman claimed an
English woman's winnings. The chef
decided against her. The infuriated
Frenchwoman thereupon seized a rake
and scooped into her lap all the coun-
tefs on the table in her vicinity.
She was gently removed and the
game proceeded, after the bank had
paid the claims Of all those whose
money she had seized