THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 
2 78 
sand, covered with cabines of various sorts and 
shapes and sizes, in which most of the visitors 
pass a great deal of their time. The females 
work, the males read, and the smaller child- 
ren frisk about on the sands. The family 
bathe, as a. whole, with other families ; they 
gambling throughout the land of France ; 
so a law was passed to put it down. The 
“ little horses ” were taken away, and, 
instead, they installed La Boule — though why 
one is gambling and the other is not no man 
knows. They are practically the same thing, 
go in well above their knees, with shrieks 
coming from the shore if they go in much 
deeper. They join hands, form a huge ring, 
dance round and round, splashing themselves 
sometimes all over. For other forms of 
“ gaiety ” they go to the Casino, where they 
play La Boule for a franc limit. Treport is 
not at all a bad place — but, compared to 
Dieppe 1 
Dieppe is M. Bloch, and M. Bloch is the 
Casino, and the Casino is Dieppe. There is 
golf on the hill , and sometimes the links, 
which are arranged on an ingenious principle, 
are so crowded that it is a wonder the players 
do not hit each other. 
Some of the country round Dieppe is 
charming. Buy is a not unpicturesque near 
neighbour ; on the other side, over the hill, is 
Pourville, a “ family resort,” with its plage 
and its Casino, and its chalet built right on the 
sands. Away from the sea is the forest, and 
the castle of Arques, whose history has great 
interest for English folk, and some really 
pleasant country for walks and drives. 
But people go to Dieppe for none of these 
things — they go to gamble. And there you 
have the real attraction of the French seaside 
town — gambling. At Dieppe you can play 
La Boule — that stupid game. There used to 
be Petits Chevaux , which, at least, was 
amusing to watch — for five minutes or so. 
The French Government, though non-religious, 
is moral. It was decided to put down 
but instead of the little horses which galloped 
round the top of the table, they have cut a 
round hole in the centre of the table, where 
the “ little horses ” used to be, and into this 
cavity they have fitted a sort of round 
wooden bowl, on which the numbers one to 
nine are painted, eafih in a little compart- 
ment of its own, arranged not in sequence, 
but anyhow, and each number recurs twice. 
An official stands in front of this round pond ; 
he takes a solid rubber ball, the sort which 
we call a dog-ball ; with his fingers he rolls it 
round the outside of the pond, into which 
presently it falls, and bobs from number to 
number, until at last it rests in one — and the 
people who have staked a franc upon that 
one get their franc back and seven more 
besides. You can also stake what is called 
an even chance on the columns ; there are 
four numbers in a column on one side of the 
table, and four numbers on the other. If a 
number which is contained in the column on 
which you have staked a franc wins, you win 
a franc ; but between the two columns, in 
the centre of the table, by itself , is the number 
five ; and if the number five wins, all bets on 
the columns go to the bank — which is good 
for the bank. 
It will thus be seen by the intelligent 
reader that La Boule is a game at which there 
can only be one winner — and that is the bank. 
A most cursory examination of the odds will 
show that to be certain. 
