RUMOURS OF GAMBLING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5794, 12 June 1880, Page 7

RUMOURS OF GAMBLING.

Tiie bank of M. Blanc's time was not the impersonal thing which we presume it is to day. There was a whole legend about the ecceutrici'i's of AI. Blanc. Once a ruined player forced his way into the bedroom of the banker, and asked for 10,000 francs. M. BUuc replied that he must consult his partners. The gambler then locked the bedroom door, and began to hammer a great nail into the wall. " What do you mean, sir? ' askel the old man in a rage. " Why, I mem to hing you to this nail unless you open that bureau, and pay the 10,000 franca," said tliu other, sti 1 hammering. There was nothing to te doue but to pay the money. M. Blauc had his superstitions, like his p itron j , and wh-n he was at Alonte Carlo, placed "patiencs" all day, to judge by the r suits, how h's other banks were prospering in Germany. He once p'ayed himself at riomburg. The day was hot, and Mma. Blanc had come out into the gardens without a sun-umbrella. She bought a very pretty one, which cost four louis, and M. Blanc, who hated paying away small sums, tried to win back the expense at the card-table. He Wwull taka his chair which oue of the servants hastened to offer him. He put down two louis on noire, won, then lost, after many losses took a seat, and staid at the tables till they closed. By that time the umbrella had cost 91,000 francs. From this veracious anecdote we gather that AI. Blanc would have made a thoroughly bad gambler. A good gambler backs his good luck with courage, and leaves off playing when not in the vein. A bad gambler ha 3 no pluck when he is winning, but backs his bad luck with desperate tenacity. M. Blauc had all the courage of Chevalier Da Barri, the worthy uncle of Barry JLiyndon. The usual maximum at the card-table is 12,000 francs, beyond which sum a player may not increase his s:ake. The great Garcia, that hero of Spain, found these limits (which make the fortune of the bank, for they stop all martingales or systems of doubling) too narrow for his genius. He asked AJ. Blanc to let him raise the maximum to GO,OOO francs, to which the banker courteously assented. In a few weeks the victorious Garcia borrowed a few louis from the bank to take him back to Paris. M. Blano, if we may believe M. Dei Perriires, to whom we owe much of this biographical imformation, had a genius for advertisement. In Moinco, as in many other towns on the Rivera, a rite is performed on Good Fri lay which draws great crowds, but too closely reminds the spectator of the spring festival of Adonis in Ancient Greece. AI. Blanc foized the opportunity, and placarded Nice with advertisements in these terms :—" Ville de Monaco. Grande Procession Allegorique. A l'Occasion du Vendr.-di-Saiut. ll n'y ara qu'un Demi-Refait." That is to say, on Good Friday the bank would only take half of its usual advantages. A place like Monte Carlo, full of money, and full of dupe 3, naturally attracts gentlemen who correct the errors of fortune in ways more or less ingenious. A certain Comte de Montvilliers has left a legendary fame. At Wiesbaden he found out a way of stopping the gas by which the rooms were lighted. He laid his plans well; in a moment all was dark, aud the Couut was off with an armful of bank notes, and as much gold as the ancestors of the Alcmatonids* carried from the treasure-house of Cr<tsus. Next night the rooms were lighted with lamps. Alontvilliers, who was an intelligent bandit, changed his method. He managed to sneak under a divau in the rooms, and stayed there when all the company aud couplers had departed. When all was darkness and silence he crept out, lighted a dark lantern, and uncovered the roulett# table. With a pair of pincers he gently tightened the wires of all the red compartments so that the roulette ball could not easily enter them. Next day he backed black, and naturally with success. But a judicious croupier had marked the run on black, and examined the roulette wheel. Without saying any thiug he reversed at night the arrangement of Alontvilliers, who next day lost all ho had gained by resolutely backing his f ivourite black. Scoundrels who have not the nerve for these heroic measures watch the tables aud sweep up the stray money of the unobservant. It has happened to us to detect an amateur thus removing our stake fcj another colour, where the amateur proved unsuccessful. One of these scoundrels hit on a really happy thought. A player had left a large sum of gold on red, where it was doubled and doubled again. Two louis rolled off, undetected by the owner, to the marked off space called envers, where they prospered and became 24 louis. A thief who was looking on knew this, and the head croupier was also aware of it, and of the in'-ention of the robber. But the latter succeeded. Sidling up to the real owner of the money ha said, "Sir, will you do me a favour? I have 24 louis on the envers; I dare not take them up, for my father-in-law h»s just entered the room, and I have promised him that I will never play." Tho other bowed politely, raked in his own 24 pieces of gold, aud shortly afterward presented them to the ingenious guardian of orphan's moneys. We may leave the topio of modern playing at public tables with a piece of invaluable advice, borrowed from AI. Deß Perridres : C'est ilene jamais alter aujtu avec la, femmc que I'oil aime, etd'a viler meme d'y auller avec ctller (jut I'on n'aime pas.