A BANK-BREAKER.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4923, 8 January 1902, Page 4

A BANK-BREAKER.

Lord EoselyD, who distinguished : himself in the war, chiefly by getting himself capturedjj&ic^by the Boers, and has experiences '' pn the boards ' and in the Court to relate when the tjime comes for .his autobiography, now -seeks to emulate the doughty d^da of the gentleman.' of independent; air 'whose peregrinations along the B|>is de Boulogne caused the gills to Bigji and indulge in tem-

porary tremors of their eyelids He proposes to break the bank at Monte Carlo, not all at once, but by moderate instalments of £100,000 a year. All that he requires is an initial capital of £5,000. He will do tbe rest with the aid, of course, of a system of which be alone possesses the secret, but which he is willing to divulge to any one who will subscribe £100 to make up the -balance of bis capital. His lordship still lacks one half of the specified amount ; the other, half bas been ' promised ' by speculative friends who have been convinced of the soundness of the Kosslyn system by a series of experimental games. To an interviewer a few days ago, his lordship gave an outline of some of the possibilities of bis echecne. • Equality of chance,' he said ; ' that is the whole basis of my Five years ago, while my Bystem was yet somewhat imperfect, I won £5,000 at Monte Carlo. My system takes a lot of mathematics to work out. Here are twelve pages of foolscap I covered with calculations in three hours' play Last Monday, 1 gave our friend here £5,000 to start with, and took £5,000 myself, in counters of caurae. In two days I wou £1,200 from him, and had I gone on I must have won the whole £5,000. But it is too exhausting. One must be a very good mathematician to work the system, and 8 hourß daiiy would send you mad in a fortnight. 1 can lose 70 coups and wiu only 40, and yet come out £110 ahead. In time I think we must win £2,000,000 from Monte Carlo and really break the bank. Or, instead of " killing the goose with the golden e g£ 8 >" we might content ourselves with £100,000 a year.' Hundreds of mathematicians have tried to make money at the tables by means of mathematical systems, which they have demonstrated to be sound by experimental games, but Tennyson summed up the position correctly when he declared that ' Our little systems have their day, they have their day and cease to be.' And the bank is still running.