sittings. He
made the statement that, even so, he had been a loser in the end.

"The reader may take his choice of the two statements, but among
frequenters of the rooms at Monte Carlo it is generally considered
impossible to amass large winnings without risking large stakes. Even
then the chances are 1,000 to 1 in favor of the bank. Yet occasionally
there are winnings running into four or five figures, and to
human beings the possibility of chance constitutes an irresistible
fascination.

"Only a few years ago a young American was credited with having risen
from the tables $75,000 richer than when first he had sat down. It was
his first visit to Monte Carlo and he had not come with any system to
break the bank or with any 'get-rich-quick' idea. For the novelty of the
thing he risked about $4,000, and lost it all in one fell swoop without
turning a hair. Then he 'plunged' with double that amount, but the best
part of that, too, went the same way. Nothing daunted, he next ventured
$10,000. This time fickle fortune favored him. He played on with growing
confidence and when his winnings amounted to the respectable sum of
$75,000 he had the good sense to quit and to leave the place despite the
temptation to continue."

V

The "man who broke the bank at Monte Carlo," and gave occasion for the
song, was not named "Wells" and he was not an Englishman. He was an
American. I knew him well and soon after the event had from his own lips
the whole story.

He came to Monte Carlo with a good deal of money won at draw-poker in
a club at Paris and went away richer by some 100,000 francs (about
$20,000) than he came.

The catch-line of the song is misleading. There is no such thing as
"breaking the bank at Monte Carlo." This particular player won so fast
upon two or three "spins" that the table at which he played had to
suspend until it could be replenished by another "bank," perhaps ten
minutes in point of time. There used to be some twenty tables. Just
how one man could play at more than one of them at one time a "foreign
correspondent," but only a "foreign correspondent," might explain to the
satisfaction of the horse-marines.

I very much doubt whether any player ever won more than 100,000 francs
at a single sitting. To do even that he must plunge like a ship in a
hurricane. There is, of course, a saving limit set by the Casino Company
upon the play. It is to the interest of the Casino to cultivate the
idea, and the