The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917, June 28, 1901, Image 6
The object of this article is to show the demoralizing effect of gambling. The craving to get something without honest, hard work can never be the true foundation on which to build a successful career. Gaming is seen in its most vivid phase at Monte Carlo. No thinking man can witness the play there without realizing the utter emptiness and folly of It. Even mathe matical statistics show that every player must sooner or later lose his all if he continues to gamble, and with bis losings his self-respect also goes.— Ed. Five million dollars per annum, or nearly so, have been realized during the past few years from the gambling tables at Monte Carlo. Let it be stat ed briefly how the gambling tables were taken there. Francois Blanc was father to the schemes which have com pletely transformed this natural beauty spot of the Riviera into an earthly paradise, and centralized in the picturesque little principality all the luxuries and comforts, as well as all the vices that belong to mankind at tiie beginning of the twentieth cen tury. But there were gambling tables at Monte Carlo long before Pere Blanc arrived. As far back as 1853 the late 2,000. Then the bauk in Nice, which had always financed the Casino, got a large number, and several politicians and Paris journalists who helped to assist the affair were favored with the paper. Altogether about half the shares were distributed in this way, the rest were offered to the public. A Oanibllii" Knterprlsa That Kulei ■ Principality. As Pere Blanc remarked: “He who breaks the bank to-day will be broken by the bank to-morrow.” The winner | at Monte Carlo returns to make a little I more; the loser returns to try to get ' his money back again. And so, in the i end, the bank wins. Let us now proceed to the debit side of the Casino account. To take the items of expenditure in the order given upon the balance-sheet, of a recent year, we note first the $250,000 paid annually to the Prince of Monaco, un der the contract, for the concession to carry on the gambling business in the principality. When Prince Albert “came to the throne" in 1889, he was credited with a desire to close the Casino, and thus, by wiping out the stain which his father had laid upon it, restore the prestige of the ancient House of Grimaldi. The Princess (who was the Duchess of Richelieu, nee Mile. Heine) was also anxious to range her self among the crowned heads of Europe. But Prince Albert looked from his palace across the Bay of Hercules toward the gilded minarets of the Ca sino, and found himself powerless. Theoretically Prince Albert is as ab solute a monarch as the Czar; prac tically he is as impotent a3 the de | posed African king, and is held just ' as much in bondage. The Principality Tut Casin' Prince Charles granted a thirty years’ cone, ssion to a company with a capital of f’oo.oOO to carry on the gambling business. lVre Blanc, who was a man of the French bourgeois type, simple in his habits, hut clever and strong-headed in finance, died on July 27th, 1877, leaving a fortune of nearly $35,000,000; and this notwithstanding the immense sums that were spent during his re markable career upon his several gambling establishments. The Casino was carried on for the Blanc family by Count Bertora (who aspired to marry the old man's widow) until the original concession expired, in 1883. In October of that year lie was successful in concluding another thirty years’ contract with Prince Charles for a consideration of $250,000 per annum from the profits of the gambling and 5,000 shares in the new company which it was then decided to form. The statutes of this the existing company are dated December 14. 1882; they were approved and signed by Prince Charles on March 15. 1883; and in them are embodied all the con ditions of tile original concession, cer tain modifications liPing made to meet the requirements demanded by the new management. A Close Corporation with S6.000,000 Capital. The capital of the concern was fixed at $6,000,000, divided into 60,000 shares of $1)0 each, to bear a fixed interest at the rate of 5 per cent, or $5 per an num, payable after the half-yearly meeting in November and a dividend upon the profits of the gambling of the year—the amount to be divided by the directors at the annual meeting in April. A clause was inserted in the statutes to the effect that, in order to be able to take part in these meetings, a shareholder must own at least 200 of the shares, or $20,000 worth of the Casino stock; and, when the allotment was made, good care was taken that only members and friends of the Blanc family should be permitted to take up this uumber, so that the control of the concern should remain in the hands of their little coterie. Some years ago. however, all that was changed; and the paternal Blanc-Bertoru administration gave place to another of a very differ ent character, with two Paris hankers at its head. Five thousand shaies were, as al ready stated, given to the Prince of Monaco; Prince Radziwill took 4,800; Prince Roland Bonaparte, 4,000; M. Ed mond Blanc, 4,200; M. Camille Blanc. 4,000; Count Bertora, 2,000; the Wag aUw family rotated to the Blancs, of Monaco Is entirely governed and controlled by the hank, and if Prince Albert were to attempt to break the contract it "might cost him his crown!” Financially such a step would j he much against his interests, seeing that, in addition to the $250,000 which he receives from the concession, he gets revenue upon 5,000 shares, and on this his average profit amounts to $200,000 per annum. Altogether the in come of the Prince of Monaco cannot he less than the comfortable revenue of $750,000 a year. Found Ciulneaf to Loie Them. One of the most cruel stories that we have read for a long while is that of the remarkable find of guineas, some j 50 In number, by two little girls at play in a garden of the village of Lud dlngton, near Goole, in Lincolnshire. It Is a fine marshy country that con ceals excellently well any secret com mitted to its keeping. Here these lit tle girls found one of the guineas lying on the grass and called their mother. The soli was dug up, when about fifty were discovered. At this very pleas ant point in the story, the inevitable marplot of all children's best devices swoops down in the shape of the police and the law, claiming the guineas as ! "treasure trove" for the crown. The guineas were in a firm state of preser vation. Their date Is 1774 and later, and. no doubt they must have belonged to some former owner of the house, pulled down last year, which stood in the garden where the little girls found the guineas of which the hard law de spoiled them.—Country Life. Sldepatli* for lllcyrlM. The New York statutes authorizing the construction and maintenance of side paths for the use of bicycles along public roads and streets and for use of such paths by persons riding bicy cles have been declared constitutional by the supreme court, appellate dlvi i sion, in the ease of Ryan vs. Preston, and held not to impose an additional burden on the highway, and not to be a use of the highway for which the abutting owner is entitled to compen sation. The court said that the regu lation confining the bicycles to the use of such paths no more imposed an additional burden upon the use of the highway, as affecting the right of an abutting owner, than would a statute requiring all vehicles going in either direction to keep to the right. It was objected that the bicycle paths would interfere with the custom of hitching horses, but the court said that no case had been cited establishing the abso lute right of obstructing travel upon a highway by hitching horses. Agreeuble Friend*. I have friends whose society Is ex tremely agreeable to me; they are of all ages and of every country. They have distinguished themselves both In the cabinet and in the field, and ob tained high honors for their knowl edges of the sciences. It is easy to gain access to them, for they are al ways at my service, and I admit them to my compay. and dismiss them from it whenever I please. They are never troublesome, but immediately answer every question 1 ask them. Some relate to me the events of the past ages, while others reveal to me the secrets of nature. Some teach me how to live, and others how to die. Some, by their vivacity, drive away my cares and ex hilarate my spirits, while others give fortitude to my mind, and teach me the important lesson how to restrain my desires, and to depend wholly on myself. They open to me, in short, the various avenues of all the arts and sciences and upon their information I safely rely in all emergencies.—Pe trarch. Book* as Leveller*. In the best books, great men talk to us, with us, and give us their most precious thoughts. Books are the voices of the distant and the dead. Books are the true levellers. They give to all who will faithfully use them, the society and the presence of the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am; no matter though the prosperous of my own Thk Lakck Gammi.im; Room in tkl Casino time will not enter my obscure dwell ing, if learned men and poets will en ter and take up tlieir abode under my roof—if Milton will cross my thresh bold to sing to me of Paradise, and i Shakespeare open to me the wo~ld of ; imagination and the workings of the | human heart; and Franklin enrich me ; with his practical wisdom—I shall not pine for want of intellectual compan ionship, and I may become a cultivated man. though excluded from what is called the beat society in the place where I live. . . Nothing can sup ply the place of books. They are cheering and soothing companions In solitude, illness or affliction. The j wealth of both continents could not compensate for the good they impart.— Channing. King's "StandofUshness.'* The prediction that the king would follow the example of ffis ancestor, Henry V., daily finds fresh confirma tion. Since his accession he has devel oped a ''standoffishness’ towards his old intimates, which is little short of 1 startling. Intimations that he will not | In the future dine or sup with a sub i Ject have caused endless heartburn i lngs. ‘ Favorite" Is to be an unknown i word in his court, according to present ' calculation.—London cable. Patriarchal I.a w makers. Senators Hoar. Stewart, Pettus and Morgan are a patriarchal group in the upper house at Washington, but they are overtopped in age by the dean ol the British house of lords. Lord Owv dyr has just completed his ninety-first year. He took his degree at Cam bridge in 1831. Miss Lucy C. Coolidge recently ret ceiv#d the largest vote ever cast for one person in Portland, Me. She was on all tickets as a candidate tor the school board and got 8,113 votes. * DIED ALMOST INSTANTLY. Ttn>aght of Halhtr Kill. Ron Willie l>le« tatlne HU Hinjcrmphf. A distinguished public man of In diana. who has died recently, was en gaged at the time of his sudden death in writing his biography. He was nar rating to his daughter, who was writ ing from his dictation, the story of a terrible temptation which assailed him in his youth. "By attention to busi ness and correct deportment 1 had won the implicit confidence of all who knew me. This confidence was shown, when on one occasion—before the day of easy and rapid communication by means of railroad and telegraph—I was entrusted with $22,000 to deliver in the then far-distant Cincinnati. Day after ! day, on my long horseback Journey, I guarded my treasure without a thought of dishonesty. But there was a mo ment, a supreme and critical one, when the voice of the tempter penetrated my ear. It was the old tempter that sung in the ear of Eve. It was when I reach ed the crown of those imperial hills that overlook the Ohio river, when ap proaching Eawrenceburg from the in terior. The noble stream was the great artery of commerce at that day, before a railroad west of Massachu setts had been built. What a gay spec tacle it presented, flashing in the bright sunlight,covered with flat boats, with rafts, with gay-painted steamers, ascending and descending and trans porting their passengers in brief time to the Gulf of Mexico, the gateway to all parts of the world. I had but to sell my horse and go aboard one of these with my treasure, and I was ab solutely beyond the reach of pursuit. I recall the fact that this thought was a tenant of my mind for a moment, and for a moment only. Thank God, it found no hospitable lodgment any longer. And what think you were the associate thoughts that came to my rescue? Away over rivers and moun tains, a thousand miles distant. In a tumble farm house, on a bench, an aged mother rending to her boy from the oracles of God.” At this point his voice suddenly choked, his emotions overcame him, he said to his daughter, "We will finish this at another time,” laid his head back on the chair and died almost instantly. THREE FORMIDABLE BASES. French Plan* for Worrying England Are Quite Cotnprehenelve. Apart from Bizerta and ouher Med iteranean stations, which arc intended to get the mastery over the Gibraltar and Malta route, says the Engineer, the French are creating three formida ble bases on the Cape route to India, and the extreme East. The first of these is Dakar in Senegal, for which a fresh grant of 10,550,600f has been made. Dakar is to be the headquar ters of a fleet of cruisers which will sweep the Atlantic along the West coast of Africa, and it is also proposed to constitute a station at Pore de France, in Martinique, so that the commerce destroyers will be able to patrol the ocean east and west, and extend their operations northward across the path of merchant vessels running between England and the West Indies. The second basis is at Diego-Saurez, in Madagascar, which commands the route between the Cape and India. The work of equipping this port is regarded as one of the most urgent and necessary, and the Chamber voted an additional grant of 10,000,000f to allow of the construction of a dry dock. Diego-Saurez is lie coming the most forn.idable naval sta tion in the Indian Ocean, and is likely to be a perpetual menace to South Af rica. The works at Saigon, for which a further sum of 3,000,000f has been voted, are being carried out for the protection of the Indo-Chinese posses sions, and affording a basis for the ships of war which will operate in the Chinese seas. Relative Coat of Public I.ifthtlng. New York city will pay $5.22 each minute for Its street lighting this year, which means 78 cents for each Inhabitant, or $2,745,000 in all. A big bill, the largest of its sort In the coun try, but not the largest in proportion to population. Of the great cities of the country, Baltimore comes next above Chicago, and pays 68 cents for each of its 509,000 inhabitants, or $250,000 in all. Then comes San Francisco’s 343,000 population, paying $245,000, or 71 cents for each one. Next above that is New Orleans, where each of the 287,000 inhabitants pays 80 cents, or $230,000 in all. Washington follows with 83 cents for each of its 279.000 residents, which equals $233, 000. Each Clevelander pays 2 cents more than each Washingtonian, or $325,000 for the 382,000 inhabitants. Wc then jump to $1.10 for each of the 561.000 Bostonians, or $650,000 in all. Another jump makes the 324.000 per sons In Cincinnati pay $425,000, or $1.30 for each one.—New York Herald. Stopped » .Mountain** Journey. A Lausanne correspondent writes that the Swiss engineers have suc ceeded in arresting the progress of the Moving mount, near Neuchatel. The measures taken to save the village and valley from destruction were ex tremely daring and original. They consisted in building a huge cement wall to hold up the mountain, whose sides were full of small crevices, those also being filled with cement. By these means the mountain became firm and most of the danger has passed. Cieriuaim In Southern Hrnrxil. According to German authorities at least one-third of the inhabitants of Santa Catharina, southern Brazil, are | Germans The colonists live in settle I tnents of their own, their local govern ! ment being in the hands of men of | their own nationality. A SCIENTIFIC WORK [ "Riddle of the ! Universe” a Curious ; Book. Interesting, indeed, are the follow ing conclusions arrived at by Haeckel, the scientist, in his new book "Rid dle of the Universe,” according to which for thousands of years the In telligence of man struggled with these problems of the infinite: The naturo of matter and force, the origin of mo tion, the origin of life, the apparently pre-ordained orderly arrangement of nature, the origin of sensation and consciousness, the foundation of thought and speech, the question of the freedom of the will. Of these great ! seven questions some are declared to be insolublo, and each has caused end less discussion. Haeckel brushes them all aside and declares that the one sim ple and comprehensive enigma is “The Problem of Substance.” According to Haeckel, the universe or cosmos is eternal, infinite, illimitable. It con sists of two attributes, Matter and En ergy. This dual substance tills infinite space and is in eternal motion. For ever this motion continues with peri odic change from life to death. All masses are rotating constantly, and while certain ones, sidereal systems or tiny cells, move to their destruction in onp part of space, others are springing into new life and development in other parts of the universe. It has taken our earth, one little speck In space, more than a hundred million years to develop its present forms of animal life, to say nothing of long periods of cooling that preceded life. Man is only the highest among the verte brates, which in turn are the highest among animals. Ills Immediate ances tors have been here at least three million years, and he himself since the end of the tertiary period. “Our mother earth is a mere speck in a sun bean in the illimitable universe, man himself is but a tiny grain of proto plasm in the perishable framework of organic nature.” You, Mr. Reader, are a true "tetrapod.” otherwise four-foot ed creature. Two of your feet have developed into hands by adaptation. You have five toes on each of your feet, because the amphibia of the car boniferous era happened to have five toes on each foot. Your great, great, great grandfather, nine million times removed, was a salamander. Do you doubt, asks Haeckel, that you come from an anthropoid ape? Then how do you account for these facts: You and the monkey have the same two hundred bones, arranged in exactly the same order. You have the same three hundred muscles directing your move ments. the same kind of hair grows on your skin, the same groups of gan glionic cells build up the marvelous structure of the brain. You have thir ty-two teeth, just like the monkey's thirty-two; a four-chambered heart, just like the monkey's—the same organs throughout The differ ences between man and the higher apes are not as great as those between the man-like apes and the lower monkeys. AIL this Haeckel demon strates solemnly, with much pains and many details. He delights in the dis covery of the fossil ape-man of Java, which h« declares supplies the miss ing link and which he proudly calls “pithecanthropus erectus”—or, monkey shaped man standing up." He de clares we should have found millions of other examples of the missing links except for the fact that they lived and died in trees, were devoured by other animals and consequently had no chance to reach a fossil condition un less by accident they fell off a branch into the water and were preserved in the slime at the bottom. Man springs from a single cell, as do atl other liv ing animals. Hiu huge body Is simply a great commonwealth composed of endless billions of these cells, each of which is a citizen in the great cell ag gregation called man. What we ate pleased to consider our brains is .-im ply a certain combination of force and matter, acting under the influence of centuries of education and adaptation. Plants think, too. to a certain extent, and all the animals think more or less. Psychology, which assumes that the brain force is something separate from the rest of the body, is nonsenke and child’s play. Haeckel’s view of the universe is a "monistic view.*'—Chi cago American. III II will.. ■ III! jfrrxwnMUjjiMM'axa) mu—o— Dieting Consumptives Must Eat Six Meals a Day at T5he Massachusetts State Sanitarium Six meals a day constitute the regi men at the State Sanitarium for Con sumptives at Rutland, Mass. The first meal is, of course, breakfast, ami this, says a writer in the New England Magazine, is ready at a quarter to 8 o'clock. At all meals special diet is served when directed by physicians, but the usual breakfast menu is a cereal, chops, steak or eggs, muffins and cold bread and butter, tea, coffee and milk. After breakfast the patients are ready for outdoor exercise. This as well as every other detail of the patient's life, is under careful surveil lance. Some are allowed to walk a number of miles, some only a short distance; others must lounge in the open air in hammocks or reclining chairs. Zero weather or snow does not interfere with this order of things, heavy furs providing the necessary warmth and fresh air the stimulant that all soon learn to depend upon. At half past 10 luncheon is ready in each dining room; and it matters not if the patient has a most interesting Look, or a camp is being built, or th« top of a hill commanding an unlimited view is almost reached—all must turn toward the house in time to reach there at the luncheon hour. These ————^—— luncheons vary in kind and amount, and consist of raw eggs, eggnog, beef extract and milk. This is an essential part of the "cure.'’ building up what the disease is trying to break down. Then out of the doors again for two hours, when dinner is served. This consists of a soup, a roast of meat (and | on Friday fish), two vegetables, bread and butter, dessert, tea and milk. At half past three there is a second lunch eon. and at a quarter of G is supper, consisting of a cereal, cold meats, bread and butter, sauce, tea and milk, and occasionally rake. At quarter past 8 is the last luncheon, at which is given hot or cold milk, Chamhorlaln to the Pope. Rev. Dr. Frederick Z. Rooker, just appointed chamberlain to the pope, is the first American to be made a mem ber of the pontifical household. He is a native of New York city, 10 years old, and it was intended by his father and uncle, both newspaper men, that he should also take to their line of life. The young man’s tastes lay in another direction. He is now secre tary of the papal legation in Wash ington. No Con)P*iment Wilson Barrett I In This Nervous AudieQce I Curtain speeches are supposed to be | heart-to-heart talks, expressing the love that the talker has for the partic ular city in which he is playing at the time. Occasionally, however, an actor who moves through life outside the deep ruts worn by constant following in the conventional path surprises his hearers with a few plain, ungarntshed facts that convince even the most skep tical of his sincerity. Wilson Barrett made such a speech in Philadelphia years ago. A brazier toppled over dur ing one of his scenes and some one in the audience shouted “Are!'’ Barrett walked quietly to the brazier, stamped out the flames and went on with his lines as though nothing had happened. A stampede was avoided, but it was several minutes before the audience be came quiet. At the end of the act there were cries of “speech, speech." Mr. Barrett came to the footlights. “You are a pack of fools!” he ex claimed passionately. “I didn’t mean to tell you of it—meant merely to think it; but you have asked me for a speech, eo I have an opportunity of telling you precisely what I think of you." Then he went on to say that a man who cried “Are” in a theater was a mur derer—that a trifle like a brazier up setting could be remedied easily by those on the stage, but that a cry of alarm from any one in the audience at such a time might mean hundreds crushed to death. For ten minutes he gave that audienee a lecture on idiocy. When he left the stage the applause was so hearty he was obliged to re turn and bow hia thanks, remarking with a grim smile: “Don’t forget what I told you. will you? I meant it for your own good.” Time to Kr«*ak the Rule. There is an anecdote in some volume of French theatrical memoirs narra ting an experience of Mile. Clairon, the great tragic actress, with a pupil of hers, a girl with strong natural gift* for the histrionic art, but far too fre quent and too exuberant in her gestic ulation. So when the pupil was once to appear before the public in a reci tation Mile. Clairion bound the girl's arms to her side by a stiff thread and sent her thus upon the stage. With the first strong feeling she had to ex press the pupil tried to raise her arms, only to he restrained by the thread. A dozen times in the course of her reci tation she was prevented from making the gestures she desired until at the very end she could stand it no longer and in the climax of her emotions she broke the bonds and swung her hands | to her head. When she came off the stage she went humbly to where Mile. Clairon was standing in the wings and | apologized for having snapped the thread. “But you did quite right!" said the teacher. “That was the time to make the gpsture, not before! '— Harper's Magazine. tl«t of Royal Ueneral*. King Albert of Saxony, who fa now ! in his seventy-fourth year, is the sole | survivor of the group of royal gener- "< I als who took part in the Franco-Prua j siaa wgi'.