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Show A Woman's Impressions of Monte Carlo Casino By JULIA DAWSON. THI3 love of gambling Is the very root of human nature. You can not dam It. or in any way shut It down. T fear that you would not If you could, Our every breath is a gamble. We do not know when or where we shall draw the next, or if we shall draw It at all. The whole charm of life rests on the fact that wc do not know what Is coming next. Naturally a woman going to the gaming tables Is interested most In her fellow-women. If she has never been there before sho looks Instinctively Instinct-ively for their horns, hoofs, and even tails In fond remembrance of Sunday Sun-day school literature on gambling. But sho gets a great surprise, for sire might almost fancy Herself so far as dress and appearance go, enjoying a pleasant Sunday afternoon in a chapel. chap-el. Women sit as seriously at the tables ta-bles as they might do at their prayers. pray-ers. And after studying them pretty closely for nearly two months, I am inclined to sav that If gambling is at the root of male human nature, it Is also at thc branch, bud and blossom of thc female. ' Women have wonderful luck. While men work out elaborate "systems." and sit frowning over figures, the mysteries of which would take a very Napoleon of finance to elucidate, and then play and lose women simply plank their money on tho number 1 they are "sure Is going to win," and they do win. Tt is not at all an uncommon thing to see a woman silting against the wall. 1 1 e V husband by her nlde waiting wait-ing to put pieces on at her command. com-mand. While ho trots to and from the tables, telling her what numbers num-bers turned up last, fussing and fuming fum-ing and worrying what to do nevt. she calmly .surveys the figures she has jotted down, gives him another "piece" at the psycliologlcn1 moment to put on, and the big velvet embroidered em-broidered bag grows wider In elr-euuifernnco elr-euuifernnco every hour. The flvc-franc flvc-franc "piece" Is even heavier and lumaler to carry than a silver dollar. dol-lar. But she is no thoroughly used to it. In quantities that she do en not uilml at, all. but say.s, "The. heavier, the better." These ladles play with a sang-froid, an Indifference n lo whether they lose or win. which is only equalled by their men-kind. T have seen one of the Vanderbllts lose a fortune In n 11 hour without seonilng to notice It. And 1 huvo seen a man whoso stake of a hundred francs won him ovor three thousand, the nevt moment have lo be tapped on the shoulder by a croupier to pin)- up his winnings. Hc had forgotten that he had a. stake on. Good luck and bad a like arc as calmly as a lake receives rain. Ii . Is scarcely In human nulnre, pcrhap" to know when to stop gambling gamb-ling after one has once begun and hence all the sad tales of the broken banks of those who havo been to Monte Carlo. The came of roulette itself Is perfectly per-fectly fair and open and above-hoard. You know what you may lose, and what yon may win to a half-penny, which can scarcely bo .said of any perfectly resppclable business transaction. trans-action. Anything of a shudowy or nuestlonabln nature In the f.'asluo Is due to the human bcingH in It. not the games played, and T am imhtv to ay Hint when there is anvthlng wrong It Is generally a case or "chor-cbes "chor-cbes la femine". The. officials at the door havo Instructions In-structions to be very particular as to the men they will allow to enter. Even a duke would not dare to ask Tor a card of admlsfllon while wearing wear-ing a flannel shirt and collar, for Instance. In-stance. But. Judging from the frow-slness frow-slness of some of the women, one would fancy that In their case anyone any-one can paBe the portals. This Is the more strange when one notices that women win where men lose, and as I have said, are mostly at the root, of any evil that arise. Thero aro women by the side of whom It Is dangerous to piny. They will pirk up your winnings under your vcrv nose, and then brazenly denlave to the croupier they are theirs. This happens not vory frequently, but sometimes twice or thrice in a day. The administration to avoid a scandal, generally pays both parties. Thero arc women also who make a practice prac-tice of sitting by men and asking for a piece of their winnings. They must be well known to the croupiers at least. It is a pity tho porters at tho door cannot leave their posts to look at the tables now and then to get to know those persons. But, after all, these incidents aro Interesting. And when one looks at tho middle-aged and elderly folk who make up the multitude of visitors to thc Riviera, one welcomes "Incidents." "Inci-dents." So far as young life is concerned, con-cerned, the Riviera is practically a desert without a single rose- l'or youth thc "sports" d'hlver are tho thing, not roulette or trente-ct-quarante, Young people flock to St. Morllz, Chamoni.v, and other places; . aud for them it is the ski, the luge, tho bobsleigh, they leave thc moneybags money-bags lo their parents, grandparents, and maiden aunts, the wise young things! It would, however, be an injustice to tho Casino to say it is utterly devoid of even mild flirtation. There is a pleasing fiction that It Is "unlucky" for a wife to watch a husband play, and vice versa. So In happens that when thc ouo Is lusldo the "rooms" Indulging in the rigour of thc gam:. thc other hi outside In thc atrulm or Urn gardens, playing one of quite another an-other sport, ami making a page of history too interesting perhaps over to be written. |