Again we embarked on the _Cork_, and landed at Villefranche. Next day we
drove through Nice and on to Monte Carlo, where we witnessed the motor
boat races. After dining at the _Hotel de l'Hermitage_, we visited the
temple of chance with its twenty-five tables, devoted to a variety of
games. It was all a distinct disappointment. The much vaunted
decorations on the walls of the rooms were polychromatic but
uninteresting--attempts at classic decoration such as an Italian
sign-painter could easily equal when working for his board. The building
itself was overdone in elaboration, and represented French architecture
in the era when it had "broken loose." The grounds, however, were fine
and the flower display the finest to be found anywhere. The players, men
and women, were a debased crowd, of all nationalities. Sordid greed had
eaten into their faces and there was no delight for them in anything
except in grabbing the gold the turn of the wheel gave them--and it
didn't give them much in return for what they staked. The games are
"square." There is no cheating other than the well understood
"percentage" in favor of the bank, but they are played so quickly that
the player's capital is turned over thousands of times in a week, and as
each turn means on the average a loss to him of the "percentage," the
money does not last long. Some gamblers plunge for large sums for a
short time, and are lucky enough to "break the bank at Monte Carlo;" but
they return and give it all back to the prince with interest. All he
asks of them is that they shall keep on playing at his game. The visitor
wonders most at the dexterity with which the money of all varieties is
raked, tossed and flung about the board by the croupiers, with apparently
the utmost recklessness and without mistakes. They have spent their
lives at it and know it the way Paderewski knows his keyboard. Three men
are employed at each table to follow all the betting, and they watch like
hawks every one playing. So perfectly is the whole thing done that never
a word is spoken; it's all action--simply the placing of the coin on the
spot. Most of the players have systems they follow, and prick their
cards at each play. Hundreds of others who have no money follow their
systems, just to see whether they would have won if they had had anything
to risk.
[Illustration: THE FORUM, ROME'S GREATEST HISTORICAL CLUB, WHERE EVERY
MAN HAD A HEARING IF HE HAD ANYTHING TO SAY. SOME GREAT THINGS WERE SAID
THERE AND THOUGHTS COINED WHICH ARE PASSING CURRENT AS OUR OWN TO-DAY]
We had a charming, moonlight drive back to Villefranche along the shores
of the Mediterranean, where the _Cork_ lay awaiting us, and when all were
aboard we steamed out through the Straits of Gibraltar to Liverpool.