to the world that the famous waters of Hombourg were able to cure

every disease to which flesh is heir, and that to enable visitors
to while away their evenings agreeably a salon had been opened,

in which they would have an opportunity to win fabulous sums
by risking their money either at the game of _Trente et Quarante_

or at _Roulette_. From these small beginnings arose the
"company" whose career has been so notorious. It has enjoyed

uninterrupted good fortune. During the twenty-six years that
have elapsed since its foundation, a vast palace dedicated to

gambling has been built, the village has become a town, well
paved, and lighted with gas; the neighbouring hills are covered

with villas; about eighty acres have been laid out in pleasure-
grounds; roads have been made in all directions through the

surrounding woods; the visitors are numbered by tens of
thousands; there are above twenty hotels and many hundred

excellent lodging-houses.'[77]
[77] Correspondent of _Daily News._

`Let those who are disposed to risk their money inquire what is
the character of the managers, and be on their guard. The

expenses of such an enormous and splendid establishmentamount to
L10,000, and the shares have for some years paid a handsome

dividend--the whole of which must be paid out of the pockets of
travellers and visitors.'[78]

[78] Murray, _ubi supra_.
Mr Sala in his interesting work, already quoted, furnishes the

completest account of Hombourg, its Kursaal, and gambling,
which I have condensed as follows:--

`In Hombourg the Kursaal is everything, and the town nothing.
The extortionate hotel-keepers, the "snub-nosed rogues of

counter and till," who overcharge you in the shops, make their
egregious profits from the Kursaal. The major part of the

Landgrave's revenue is derived from the Kursaal; he draws
L5000 a year from it. He and his house are sold to the

Kursaal; and the Board of Directors of the Kursaal are the real
sovereigns and land-graves of Hesse Hombourg. They have

metamorphosed a miserable mid-German townlet into a city of
palaces. Their stuccoed and frescoed palace is five hundred

times handsomer than the mouldy old Schloss, built by William
with the silver leg. They have planted the gardens; they have

imported the orange-trees; they have laid out the park, and
enclosed the hunting-grounds; they board, lodge, wash, and tax

the inhabitants; and I may say, without the slightest attempt at
punning, that the citizens are all _Kursed_.

`In the Kursaal is the ball or concert-room, at either end of
which is a gallery, supported by pillars of compositionmarble.

The floors are inlaid, and immense mirrors in sumptuous
frames hang on the walls. Vice can see her own image all over

the establishment. The ceiling is superbly decorated with bas-
reliefs in _carton-pierre_, like those in Mr Barry's new

Covent Garden Theatre; and fresco paintings, executed by Viotti,
of Milan, and Conti, of Munich; whilst the whole is lighted up by

enormous and gorgeous chandeliers. The apartment to the right is
called the _Salle Japanese_, and is used as a dining-room for a

monster _table d'hote_, held twice a day, and served by the
famous Chevet of Paris.

`There is a huge Cafe Olympique, for smoking and imbibing
purposes, private cabinets for parties, the monstersaloon, and

two smaller ones, where _FROM ELEVEN IN THE FORENOON TO ELEVEN
AT NIGHT, SUNDAYS NOT EXCEPTED, ALL THE YEAR ROUND_, and year

after year--(the "administration" have yet a "_jouissance_"
of eighty-five years to run out, guaranteed by the incoming

dynasty of Hesse Darmstadt), knaves and fools, from almost every
corner of the world, gamble at the ingenious and amusing games of

_Roulette_, and _Rouge et Noir_, otherwise _Trente et Quarante_.
`There is one table covered with green baize, tightly

stretched as on a billiard-field. In the midst of the table
there is a circular pit, coved inwards, but not bottomless, and

containing the Roulette wheel, a revolving disc, turning with an
accurate momentum on a brass pillar, and divided at its outer

edge into thirty-seven narrow and shallow pigeon-hole
compartments, coloured alternately red and black, and numbered--

not consecutively--up to thirty-six. The last is a blank, and
stands for _Zero_, number _Nothing_. Round the upper edge, too,

run a series of little brass hoops, or bridges, to cause the ball
to hop and skip, and not at once into the nearest compartment.

This is the regimen of Roulette. The banker sits before the
wheel,--a croupier, or payer-out of winnings to and raker in of

losses from the players, on either side. Crying in a voice
calmly sonorous, "_Faites le Jeu, Messieurs_,"--"Make your

game, gentlemen!" the banker gives the wheel a dexterous twirl,
and ere it has made one revolution, casts into its Maelstrom of

black and red an ivory ball. The interval between this and the
ball finding a home is one of breathlessanxiety. Stakes are

eagerly laid; but at a certain period of the revolution the
banker calls out--"_Le Jeu est fait. Rien ne va plus_,"--

and after that intimation it is useless to lay down money.
Then the banker, in the same calm and impassable voice, declares

the result. It may run thus:--"_Vingt-neuf, Noir, Impair, et
Passe," "Twenty-nine, Black, Odd, and Pass the Rubicon_" (No.

18); or, "_Huit, Rouge, Pair, et Manque_," "Eight, Red, Even,
and _NOT_ Pass the Rubicon."

`Now, on either side of the wheel, and extending to the extremity
of the table, run, in duplicate, the schedule of _mises_ or

stakes. The green baize first offers just thirty-six square
compartments, marked out by yellow threads woven in the fabric

itself, and bearing thirty-six consecutive numbers. If you place
a florin (one and eight-pence)--and no lower stake is permitted--

or ten florins, or a Napoleon, or an English five-pound note, or
any sum of money not exceeding" target="_blank" title="a.超越的，非常的">exceeding the maximum, whose multiple is the

highest stake which the bank, if it loses, can be made to pay, in
the midst of compartment 29, and if the banker, in that calm

voice of his, has declared that 29 has become the resting place
of the ball, the croupier will push towards you with his rake

exactly thirty-three times the amount of your stake, whatever it
might have been. You must bear in mind, however, that the bank's

loss on a single stake is limited to eight thousand francs.
Moreover, if you have placed another sum of money in the

compartment inscribed, in legible yellow colours, "_Impair_,"
or Odd, you will receive the equivalent to your stake--twenty-

nine being an odd number. If you have placed a coin on _Passe_,
you will also receive this additional" target="_blank" title="a.附加的，额外的">additionalequivalent to your stake,

twenty-nine being "Past the Rubicon," or middle of the table of
numbers--18. Again, if you have ventured your money in a

compartmentbearing for device a lozenge in outline, which
represents black, and twenty-nine being a black number, you will

again pocket a double stake, that is, one in addition to your
original venture. More, and more still,--if you have risked

money on the columns--that is, betted on the number turning up
corresponding with some number in one of the columns of the

tabular schedule, and have selected the right column--you have
your own stake and two others;--if you have betted on either of

these three eventualities, _douze premier, douze milieu_, or
_douze dernier_, otherwise "first dozen," "middle dozen," or

"last dozen," as one to twelve, thirteen to twenty-four,
twenty-five to thirty-six, all inclusive, and have chanced to

select _douze dernier_, the division in which No. 29 occurs,
you also obtain a treble stake, namely, your own and two more

which the bank pays you, your florin or your five-pound note--
benign fact!--metamorphosed into three. But, woe to the wight