ZOLA ON GAMBLING AND GAMBLERS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 10, 11 March 1893, Page 223

ZOLA ON GAMBLING AND GAMBLERS.

It was reported some time ago that Zola was about to write a novel on Monte Carlo. In an interview upon the subject with a Figaro reporter, he said : * The rumour is without foundation ; but 1 will give you my impression of games and gamblers. I went two or three times to the gambling rooms of Monte Carlo. lam acquainted with no gemes of chance or of skill. In my house I keep a billiaid table for my guests, but I play very badly. lam too nervous ; my hands tremble. 1 have also been a hunter ; a poor hunter. When I fire a shot I hit about two meters from the mark. * I have seen a great many people in the gaming rooms. I have seen the roulette tables and the trente et-qnarante, but I couldn’t understand the things. The play seemed tiresome to me ; I saw nothing in it. Certainly 1 could remark the rastaquouire and the gambler who manages to make a living by playirg cautiously ; but the whole affair seemed dull and unattractive. 1 bought a little book giving the rules of the game and returned again to the place. Those peculiar people had very little interest for me. *As a moralist lam against gambling. It is a solitary passion. The gambler thinks only of himself. From a psychological point of view he has nothing to do, except to fall into the old ruts which lead to suicide after playing away the marriage portion of his daughter or ruining his family. But the whole thing is stupid, flat, dull. * There was one thing in it, however, that astonished me. The windows of my apartment opened almost over the Casino, and from morning till night 1 heard an incessant and continual noise—the sound of the money they were counting. At Monte Carlo money has no value. They would pay there 100 francs for a chop without a murmur. ‘ The writer who would try to describe Monte Carlo could only make a monograph of each player and study each type.’