MOINTE CARLO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7329, 15 February 1902, Page 4

MOINTE CARLO.

THE PROFESSIONAL PLAYER. {Wettminstev Gazette.) * With the first opening of the Casino doors at eleven o'clock each morning, Sunday nofc excepted, arrives the professional player. . He is the early: .bird_ and. though^"tnie meritorious matutinal* 'habit may 'fail to bring him the worm he is ever seeking, at least it secures to him two important advantages — (1) his favourite seat at his chosen table, croupier-buttressed ; (2) fairly freshened rooms to keep his bradn clear.For obvious reasons, no graduate gambler would dream of staking a single louis unless seated and within croupier hail. Should he f oversleep himself, and so las© his place, bz wanders disconsolately around until he i has the chance to recover it. For, on the principle of never swapping' horses - while crossing the stream, the \'-old~hand_"- rarely- :. exchanges one seat for another. This is one of ais many faiths, called by the vulgar superstitions. From eleven to one he plays steadily, and then he and she — for tuie women outnumber the men — both retire, leaving the fiald clear for the stream of day excursionists, who, during the afternoon, pour in in their hundreds. With ■ the ■darkness the " professionals " reappear, and, if the man is a club-man, and wears ' the wedding garment — evening dress — he at once mounts by the moving staircase to that Upper Cham be r where there is no crowd . of ignorant chatterers ; where you can swiftly pawn and as swiftly. 'reclaim- your coat, without, -as below, "waiting half an Lour ,tfor it, the austral of the Greco playfully snapping at you the while ; where croupiers smile ; w'nere whiskies and soda are, hard by, and— where play runs highest. (i says he is thirty-seven thousand to the bad to-day," remarked a- sympathetic friend to a mutual accruaintance. It was then only 11 p.m. The Upper Chamber closes at 2, so die had still taree hours before him. Women are constitutionally limid players. Prudent even in their gambling, they but rarely plunge. The parting with their little "louis" is hard. You can see the tender reluctance with which their fingers loose him and leave him to his fate,' as the bass voica of the croupier rolls out the monotonous words, "Rica ne va plus." Of this feminine foible the canny administration i 3 doubtless cognisant, and thus denies to them all the " comforts " it so 'freely tenders to men. Exceptions, of course, there are. Last month an English lady 'made, it is said, £4000 in a few days ; and, it is said, lost every penny of it before she left. Oddly enough, she made it at vulgar " roulette, |j not at distinguished "trente efc quarante," and she made it by sheer luck in choosing over and over again the winning number. To see her at work was profoundly interesting. She sat, as of right, 'next the actingcroupier, who ever Avaited on her convenience before he sent the ball spinning round the wheel. Her man of business was on her other side. He protected: iher from the pressure of the ever-increasing crowd — he received the winnings, banked' them in his pockets, and, last of all, saw hef safely to her hotel each night. And 1 the crowd round that table ! Four, five deep, watching iher as they surely never watcbad human being before, on their absorbed faces painted every passion suitable to a " salle de jeu." As she made coup after coup, one " heard smothered sounds of acclamation, and each man turned and involuntarily spoke to his neighbour. The Casino at Monte Carlo and the Ibsen plays have this in common — that deep emotion appears to loosen the tongues of the assistants. This lady's courtiers were gapers only. It is the pride of the seasoned player to betray nothing save a fine scorn for those who lack a like self-con-trol! One or two such sat at her table — they never even looked 1 her way.