Sideshow

The Casino at Monte Carlo was crowded last week for the first time since France, Italy, Germany and Austria greedily legalized chemin de fer and roulette and plunged little Monaco into Depression. True, the crowds were not around the tables but they were inside, and the directors were chuckling that it at least looked like old times. In jam-packed rows the crowds stood dumbly around one cashier's cage, staring. On the counter stood three gleaming cylinders of neatly piled gold pieces, ready to pay off the winners at one table. They were U. S. $5, $10 and $20 coins, far from their U. S. Treasury home. Last year the directors had bought 20,000,000 francs worth. Briefly they considered luring gold-hungry Frenchmen by using them as chips, giving players the genuine feel of gold. But they were afraid that hoarders would buy the precious coins, walk out without playing. Last week Frenchmen were obliged to play before they could collect the coins, the only kind of minted gold many a Frenchman has ever seen. They paid practically the current gold rate, 260 francs for a $10 gold piece, whereas $10 in U. S. paper would have cost them only 155 francs.

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