The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-16
GAMING STOCKS PAY BIG RETURN
 TO FRENCHMEN
Monte Carlo Ready To Pay 117 Per Cent
 Dividend
(By. Associated Press)

PARIS, Nov. 15.-Shares in com panies running health resorts or casi- nos with gambling attachments are be- ing recommended to French investors as especially attractive at a time like the present when unstable monetary conditions develop spirit of specula- tion and a taste for luxury.
 The Riviera casinos seems par ticularly flourishing. Shares in the Monte Carlo company which last year were quoted under 5000 francs, are at 6,950 Nice Casino stock has moved from 360 last year to $50 and the Municipal casino at Cannes;. with d capital of 2,900,000 francs,i made profits for the year ending 1924 of 6,4O3 ,OOO francs or more than double the capital, against 1922-23 profits of 2,476,OOO francs.
 A dividend of IF per cent is to be declared on Monte Carlo and the stock is likely to rise as the directors have decided that from November 15 ten francs instead of five shall be the mini mum stake for roulette at the public gaming tables and 20 francs in the priv ate rooms. The minimum at the trente ct quarante tables is raised to 40 francs.
 Drivers Suffer
 Parisian chauffeurs, who are often accused of giving heart disease to those obliged to cross the streets are suffer- ing from some new form of nervous malady tor which the doctors are find ing difficulty in prescribing treatment.
 Traffic conditions are held respon- sible for the outbreak, especially the strain imposed on the drivers by the ever recurring blockading of traffic.
 Plan Largest Mirror
 The largest astronomical mirror in the world is to be constructed in the vaulted chamber of the Paris observa- tory where Jean Picard and Philippe La Hire, famous astronomers of the days of Louis XIV, carried aut their important experiments in determining the measurements of the earth and the planets.
 Professor George Willis Ritchey of Yerkes observatory, who has just re- ceived the Jansen gold medal from the Academy of Science, is in charge of the construction. The mirror, when con- pleted. will measure six meters or near ly twenty feet in diameter.
 Astronomy is at present halted only by inability to make reflectors of great CT dimensions so that when the Ritchey mirror is completed vast strides may be made similar to those brought about by the development or perfection of apparatus in other branches of science.
 Up to the present larger mirrors have benn found impracticable, as a slight change in temperature has been suffi- cient to spoil them, owing to the fact that the surface of the glass is affected more rapidly than the internal mass.
 To overcome this Professor Ritchey's s mirror is to be constructed of glass stuck together by special prepara ton of his making and arranged in such a manner as to leave air channels below the surface and throughout the thick nesses of the mirror. Thus changes of temperature will affect all parts equally.
 At first mirrors of ordinary dimen- Sions are to be constructed and from these Professor Ritchey will proceed step by step until his reaches the six meter reflector which he hopes to do within four years.
 Cook To Be PensiOned Marie, cook and maid of all work for the great actor, Edouard de Max, is to be pensioned by the Comedie Franchise. She took care of her cratic and prodi- gal master for some thirty years dur ing which she saw him give away 1000 franc notes and often had to fight off bill collectors.
 Her master never forgot to aid his poor comrades, but seldom remembered to pay Marie her wages, which his friends say were 44,000 francs in ar rears when he died recently, Many State Funerals
 National obsequies have proved a heavy item in this years expenditures There have been no less than five funerals at the expense of the state thus far, those of General Maunoury, Charles de Freycinet, Maurice Barres, Anatole France and Gabriel Faure. In addition the solemn removal of the ashes of the great socialist orator, Jean Jaures, to the Pantheon at the end of this month, will be on similar lines to state funeral. These ceremonies cost the taxpay- CTS at least 10000 francs each, so that the appropriations this year will amount to nearly quarter of million francs.