NORTHERN MONTE CARLO.

Northern Advocate, 28 August 1919, Page 3

NORTHERN MONTE CARLO.

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The Senate lias decided to endorse the vote of the Chamber of Deputies refusing to gTant or continue license.* to gaming establishments within 100 kilometres of the capital (says the. Paris correspondent of the "London Daily Telegraph"). This prohibition applies directly to the Casino of Enghien-les-Bains,. situated at about eight miles from the walls of Paris. Most visitors here before" the war took the trip to the nominal water-ing-place, hidden from view at a distance by a. screen of foliage, The shady walks of 'Enghien, amidst the spreading trees, are famous, and a feature of the coquettish little town. Wealthy Parisians, foreigners on tour, and even natives of narrower purses frequented Enghien, attracted by the baccarat tables, the "petit chevaux," and the "jeu de boule." The latter was nicknamed the "game of the poor," for small stakes only were necessary. All will remember tVtie brilliant weekly displays of fireworks beside the lake, the white Casino lighted up in changing colours by Bengal fire, red, and green and white. It resembled a scene in fairyland. The Casino seemed incandescent in the varied hues of the pyrotechnic show, its fantastic lineaments reflected in the still waters of tihe lake. Then the surface was alive with innumerable dancing lights of many tints for Enghien was enjoying an aquajtic festival, like Venice on the Grand Canal. In procession the watery pageant (glided slowly past, gondolas and .skiffs, gaily festooneed ■with Venetian lanterns, vying with each other to carry off the palm of victory for originality and beauty of decoration, for tihe prizes qffered were valuable. Late into the summer night the festive mirth went on, tUien slowly faded as the note of th« last mandoline echoed over the lake and tihe fin ail strains of the orchestra, hidden behind the rhododendrons in the Casino gardens died away. Smart unotor-cars bore back to 'Paris fashionably dressed women and their gallants. Others retired to gem-like villas, with their bowers discreetly veiled from the passer-by with plants and flowers. With the war came silence and desertion. The town seemed empty each time I visited ttic place during hostilities. The Casino was closed by order of the imilitarj , government of Paris. Only a few of the genuine natives remained. The once elegantly dressed shop windows were bare of goods, and there were no buyers to entice. Patients no longer came to bathe in the waters of the eight sulphurous spring's which are said to have existed in Kpanan days. The town was lighted up not by electricity, fireworks, or festive scenes on the lake, but by the mighty searchlights-scouring , the darkness, scanning the remotest corners of thci horizon for hostile aircraft. The dismal roads and houses with) shutters tightly closed were only )\t by tiie flashes of the big guns in the forts and batteries all round, imaldng a barrage on the approach of tHio Gothas. "'Enghien the coquette" is dead; Parliament has driven in the last nail by enacting that tiie ftlonte Carlo of the north shall not be reinstated. The following are tihe statistics of this resort of pleasure, apart from the bathing establishment, and concerning only the Casino. They cover the period from 1907 to 1913. In 1907 the gross receipts of the Casino were £60,000. These increased yearly unil 1913, when they totalled £360,000. Tlhere were 82,0.00 entries at the Casino in 1907, and 200,000 in lOl.'i. Then came the war, with the success of Enghien ever growing , , but now the pretty little town will probably fall intp decay.