(_A Note from One who has all but done it_)
DEAR MR. PUNCH.--Now that so many of my countrymen (the word includes
both sexes) patronise Monte Carlo, it is well that they should be
provided with an infallible system. Some people think that a lucky pig
charm or a piece of Newgate rope produces luck. But this impression is
caused by a feeling of superstition--neither more nor less. What
one wants in front of the table is a really scientific mathematical
system. This I am prepared to give.
Take a Napoleon as a unit, making up your mind to lose up to a
certain sum, and do not exceed that sum. Now back the colour twenty
consecutive times. Don't double, but simply keep to the unit. When you
have lost to the full extent of your limit, double your stake. Keep to
this sum for another twenty turns. By this time it is a mathematical
certainty that you must either have won--or lost. Of course, if you
have won you will be pleased. If you have lost, keep up your heart
and double your stakes again. This time you will be backing the colour
with a stake four times as large as your original fancy. Again go for
twenty turns, and see what comes of it.
Of course, if you still lose it will be unfortunate, but you cannot
have everything. And with this truism, I sign myself,