The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-08-05
HEARTBREAK
HOUSE
BY FANNIE HURST
20 by Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.D
(WNU Service)

mlSanthr0pic men with SufDclenI
L. income to retire and live cheap
ly in pensions along the re-
spendent coast of the Riviera, are CIV
en- to sentimentally referring to the
gambling casino at Monte Carlo as
"Heartbreak House"
Well, there can be no doubt that
out of this stored mansion of chance
armies Of men and women have STUN
bled to tragedy of one sort or an
other.
The case of Gentleman Dawes was
one that stood out, even on the crowd
ed ledgers of the debit stories that
checker up the past of the brilliant
little principality. which is set like
painted drop-curtain against the in
credible foreground of the Mediter-
ranean.
Gentleman Dawes came to Monte
Carlo at the age of forty-fve, from
a town in Colorado where he had
amasSed a fortune of five hundred
thousand dollars in staple mercantile
business. His visit to Monte Carlo
was more or less accidental, nothing
more than part of tour along the
French Riviera, during his first trip
abroad, after his retirement from the
business to which he had devoted thir-
ty-fve years of his life. 1t was lit
orally his first vacation. the rather
typical case of a self-made American
trying to learn how to play.
In Dawes case this was difficult
Thirty-five years that included his
early boyhood of toeing the mark to
routine. business responsibility, heavy
decisions and the growing burdens of
success. had produced prematurely
white, socially timid. and wholly un
playful individual. Shy to a degree
that made him appear suave, delicate
as a woman In manner, exhibiting
none of those aggressive qualities
which had made him a success In
business, the middle-aged, well-dressed.
easy-spending American, who drifted
into Monte Carlo. was just one more
unremarkable member of his pleasant
tribe.
One week later, however. Gentleman
Dawes, as he was dubbed overnight
was not only the talk of the gossipy
Riviera, but the American press. with
especial emphasis in his home city.
carried the ever-tragic and dramatic
story of man who has gambled away
a large fortune to the banks of Monte
Carlo.
In exactly eight days, Dawes had
lost to the green baize tables the sum
Of four hundred and eighty-five thou
sand dollars. 1t was one of those spec.
tacular debacles which happen every
so often in the little unreal principal
ity along the sea.
When he walked into the brilliant
gaming solons his first night at Monte
Carlo, something inside Hermann
Dawes which had never before been
stirred. caught fire. For the first time
in bachelor life of hard work. lonely
leisure, insular pastimes. he tasted the
whey pleasures of chemin-de-fer, bac
carat. roulette; shifted the exciting
dnst of chance. experienced the un
tellable thrill that catches a man at
the pit of the stomach. as he places
gold in the lap of fate. Within two
hours after his arrival. Dawes. who
had never gambled in his life. discov-
cred that he was gambler: Dawes.
whose business success was due to his
conservatism. and who had never even
turned a. playing card. found himself
on the way to becoming a tragedy Of
Monte Carlo.
After that, his case went the way
of many before him. Broken. broke.
dazed by devastation. lacking the i'm
pulse and the courage to return home.
the next fourteen years of his life
were to be spent within the white
shadow of the house of his doom.
Monte Carlo has way of making
a bow to these derelicts of hers. She
does nat cast them off as ruthlessly
as the stored legends go. For those
fourteen years of his life, every month.
out Of the Golfers of the gambling
house, there came to the bowed little
goUIloIIidU lNlIS III a DdCh-StTcct pen
sion of the town of his undoing. an
allotment of five hundred francs
Scarcely enough to keep his body and
soul together. but an assurance. at
least, of his board and keep. Twenty
dollars month, for man whose fin
gers had once closed over the reassur-
ing fortune of FIVE hundred thousand
dollars. To abet that. he obtained
position as night elevatOr-Operator in
one of the large hotels. Automatical
~ then, since no employee in the city
of Monte Carlo may play stakes at
the gaming tables, this disqualified him
for the gaming tables. but. strangely
enough, it was as if, after his life lay
thus in ruin about him. desire had fed
For fourteen years. Gentleman
Dawes lived his life there. occasional
iy pointed out as relic of tragedy
His days passed as simply and un