Part 27 (1/2)

Around it palatial hotels and private old- wheel of fortune fabricated the ithal Old Man Grimaldi in his wildest dreams of land-piracy--even Old Man Hohenzollern, or Old Man Hapsburg--never conceived the like

There is no poverty, no want, no taxes--not any sign of dilapidation or squalor anywhere in the principality of Monaco Yet the ”people,”

so called, have been known to lapse into a state of discontent They sometimes ”yearned for freedom” Too well fed and cared for, too rid of dirt and debt, too flourishi+ng, they ”riz” Prosperity grew monotonous

They even had the nerve to de Prince hat Yellowplush would call ”a scientific gent”

His son and heir, however, had not his head in the clouds, being in point of fact of the earth earthly, and, of consequence, more popular than his father He came down from the Castle on the hill to the aloots want, anyhow?”

First, their ”rights” Then a change in the corown from six to sixteen Finally, a Board of Aldermen and a Cohness They said it was ”Then,” says he, ”take it, ain The toy sovereignty began to rattle around in its own conceit, the ”people” regarded thearded, as a chartered Deim-crack economic system experienced the joys of reform A ”New Nationalism” was established in the brewery down by the railway station and a reciprocity treaty was negotiated between the Casino and Vanity Fair, witnessing the introduction of two roulette tables and an extra brazier for cigar stumps

But the Prince of Monaco stood on one point He would have no Committee on Credentials He told me once that he had heard of Tom Reed and Champ Clark and Uncle Joe Cannon, but that he preferred Uncle Joe He would, and he did, name his own committees both in the Board of Alderency” was quelled

And once more serenely sat the Castle on the hill hard by the Cathedral

Calain flowed the waters in the harbor More and more the autos honked outside the Casino Within ”the little ball ever goesto the croupiers and the society reporters ”the gentleambler loses!”

IV

To illustrate, I recall when on a certain season the lucky sport of print and fancy was an Englishos of stupidity and inaccuracy which are syndicated and sent fro piece with the stuff and nonsense habitually worked off on the An correspondence”:

”Now and then the newspapers report authentic instances of large su tables at Monte Carlo One of thetilishman, whose reossip in the capitals of Continental Europe recently

”If reports are true, he left the place with the snug suood as the result of a month's play But this, I hear, did not represent all of Mr Darnbrough's winnings The story goes that on the opening day of his play he staked 24,000 francs, winning all along the line Eain and again with marvelous luck At one period, it is said, his credit balance amounted to no less than 1,850,000 francs; but from that moment Dame Fortune ceased to smile upon him He lost steadily fro that luck had turned against hith of will to turn his back on the tables and strike for hos that still remained

”On another occasion a well-known London stock broker walked off with little short of 40,000 This remarkable perfor rooms, as such an unusual incident does invariably

”Bent onthe e to relate, at each table the sa that this perhaps ht be his lucky day, the player wended his way to the trente-et-quarante room and put the maximum on three of the tables there To his amazement, he discovered that there also he had been so fortunate as to select the winning number

”The head croupier confided to a friend of the writer who happened to be present that that day had been the worst in the history of the Monaco bank for years He it was also who iven above”

It is prudent of the space-writers to ascribe such ”information” as this to ”the head croupier,” because it is precisely the like that such an authority would give out People upon the spot know that nothing of the kind happened, and that no person of that name had appeared upon the scene The story on the face of it bears to the knowing its own refutation, being absurd in every detail As if conscious of this, the author proceeds to quality it in the following:

”It is a well-known fact that one of the most successful players at the Monte Carlo tables was Wells, who as the once popularput it, 'broke the bank' there He was at the zenith of his fas--were talked about widely and envied in European sporting circles and a the demi-monde

”In ten days, it was said, he s at the tables after starting with the otten, however, that at his trial later Wells denied this, stating that all he had s He made the statement that, even so, he had been a loser in the end