CASINO GAMES 



of an hour with one or the other. I can tell you the 

 administration of that place spared neither expense 

 nor trouble to keep the dames there. Entertainments 

 used to be organised for them too. General Berg 

 gave a supper one evening at twelve-thirty at which 

 I was one of the few men present — three of the other 

 sex to one of mine. It was at the end of September, 

 but even the flowers on the table cost just on a 

 hundred pounds, which for thirty guests was doing it 

 pretty well ; but what did it matter w^hen two- 

 thousand-louis banks, and in some cases unlimited ones, 

 were going all the time. Some of the most celebrated 

 women known to all the casinos of Europe were there, 

 and the jewels were extraordinary. It was when 

 La Belle Otero was at her zenith. I have seen her 

 in shows at various vaudeville theatres with more or 

 less success, but if she could have given on the stage 

 the delightful little songs and dances with which she 

 entertained us that evening she would have been a 

 never-failing attraction everywhere. 



The mistake which English people make is to go to 

 Biarritz in what is called the English season — winter. 

 There is no more delightful place from the beginning 

 of September to the middle of October, when the 

 Russians and the Spaniards spend their money so 

 freely. My first and only experience of a bull fight 

 was at Bayonne, near Biarritz. I never wish to see 

 another one. To call it sport is a sickening misnomer, 

 especially when they are trying out some inexperi- 

 enced wielders of the sword which puts the poor brutes 

 out of existence. Bull fighting came into existence 

 in a country whose history has ever been cruel to 

 brutality, and it is revolting to think that in this era 

 it can still flourish. I mention it to show by com- 

 parison how racing should be encouraged. Racing, 



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