connected with the gambling is the ardour displayed by many

ladies in this very unfeminine pursuit: last night out of twenty-
five persons seated at the Roulette table I counted no fewer than

fifteen ladies, including an American lady with her two
daughters!

`The King of Prussia has arrived, and, with due deference to the
official editors who have described in glowing paragraphs the

popular demonstrations in his honour, I am bound to assert that
he was received with very modified tokens of delight. There was

not even a repetition of the triumphal arch of last year; those
funereal black and white flags, whose sole aspect is enough to

repress any exuberance of rejoicing, were certainly flapping
against the hotel windows and the official flagstaffs, but little

else testified to the joy of the Hombourgers at beholding their
Sovereign. They manage these things better in France. Any

French _prefet_ would give the German authorities a few useful
hints concerning the cheap and speedy manufacture of loyal

enthusiasm. The foreigners, however, seem determined to atone
amply for any lack of proper feeling on the part of the

townspeople. They crowd round his Majesty as soon as he appears
in the rooms or gardens, and mob the poor old gentleman with a

vigour which taxes all the energies of his aides-de-camp to save
their Royal master from death by suffocation. Need I add

that our old friend the irrepressible "'Arry" is ever foremost
in these gentlemanlike demonstrations?

`Of course the town swarms with well-known English faces; indeed,
the Peers and M.P.s here at present would form a very respectable

party in the two Houses. We are especially well off for dukes;
the _Fremdenliste_ notifies the presence of no fewer than five of

those exalted personages. A far less respectable class of London
society is also, I am sorry to say, strongly represented: I

allude to those gentlemen of the light-fingered persuasion whom
the outer world rudelydesignate as pickpockets. This morning

two gorgeously arrayed members of the fraternity were marched
down to the station by the police, each being decorated with a

pair of bright steel handcuffs; seventeen of them were arrested
last week in Frankfort at one fell swoop, and at the tables the

row of lookers-on who always surround the players consists in
about equal proportions of these gentry and their natural

enemies--the detectives. Their booty since the beginning of the
season must be reckoned by thousands. Mustapha Fazyl Pasha had

his pocket picked of a purse containing L600, and a Russian
lady was lately robbed of a splendid diamond brooch valued

at 75,000 francs.[79]
[79] Pall Mall Gazette, Aug. 1869.

But the days of the Kursaal are numbered, and the glories or
infamies of Hombourg are doomed.

`The fiat has gone forth. In five years[80] from this time the
"game will be made" no longer--the great gambling establishment

of Hombourg will be a thing of the past. The town will be
obliged to contend on equal terms with other watering-places for

its share of the wool on the backs of summer excursionists.
[80] In 1872.

`As most of the townspeople are shareholders in this thriving
concern, and as all of them gain either directly or indirectly by

the play, it was amusing to watch the anxiety of these worthies
during the war between Austria and Prussia. Patriotism they had

none; they cared neither for Austrian nor Prussian, for a great
Germany nor for a small Germany. The "company" was their god

and their country. All that concerned them was to know whether
the play was likely to be suppressed. When they were annexed to

Prussia, at first they could not believe that Count Bismarck,
whatever he might do with kings, would venture to interfere

with the "bank." It was to them a divine institution--
something far superior to dynasties and kingdoms. . . .

`For a year the Hombourgers were allowed to suppose that their
"peculiar institution" was indeed superior to fate, to public

opinion, and to Prussia; but at the commencement of the present
year they were rudely awakened from their dreams of security.

The sword that had been hanging over them fell. The directors of
the company were ordered to appear before the governor of the

town, and they were told that they and all belonging to them were
to cease to exist in 1872, and that the following arrangement was

to be made respecting the plunder gained until that date. The
shareholders were to receive 10 per cent. on their money; 5000

shares were to be paid off at par each year, and if this did not
absorb all the profits, the surplus was to go towards a fund for

keeping up the gardens after the play had ceased. By this means,
as there are now 36,000 shares, 25,000 will be paid off at par,

and the remaining 11,000 will be represented by the buildings and
the land belonging to the company, which it will be at liberty to

sell to the highest bidder. Since this decree has been
promulgated the Hombourgers are in despair. The croupiers

and the clerks, the Jews who lend money at high interest, the
Christians who let lodgings, all the rogues and swindlers who one

way or another make a living out of the play, fill the air with
their complaints.

`Although no doubt individuals will suffer by the suppression of
public play here, it is by no means certain that the town itself

will not be a gainer by it. Holiday seekers must go somewhere.
The air of Hombourg is excellent; the waters are invigorating;

the town is well situated and easy of access by rail; living is
comparatively cheap--a room may be had for about 18_s_. a week,

an excellent dinner for 2_s_.; breakfast costs less than a
shilling. Hombourg is now a fixed fact, and if the townspeople

take heart and grapple with the new state of things--if they buy
up the Kursaal, and throw open its salons to visitors; if they

keep up the opera, the cricket club, and the shooting; if they
have good music, and balls and concerts for those who like them,

there is no reason why they should not attract as many visitors
to their town as they do now.'[81]

[81] Correspondent of _Daily News._
AIX-LA-CHAPELLE.

The gaming at Aix-la-Chapelle is equallydesperate and
destructive. `A Russian officer of my acquaintance,' says a

writer in the Annual Register for 1818, `was subject, like many
of his countrymen whom I have known, to the infatuation of play

to a most ridiculousexcess. His distrust of himself under the
assailments which he anticipated at a place like Aix-la-Chapelle,

had induced him to take the prudentprecaution of paying in
advance at his hotel for his board and lodging, and at the

bathing-house for his baths, for the time he intended to stay.
The remaining contents of his purse he thought fairly his own;

and he went of course to the table all the gayer for the license
he had taken of his conscience. On fortune showing him a few

favours, he came to me in high spirits, with a purse full of
Napoleons, and a resolutedetermination to keep them by venturing

no more; but a gamester can no more be stationary than the tide
of a river, and on the evening he was put out of suspense by

having not a Napoleon left, and nothing to console but
congratulation on his foresight, and the excellent supper

which was the fruit of it.'
Towards the end of the last century Aix-la-Chapelle was a great

rendezvous of gamblers. The chief banker there paid a thousand
louis per annum for his license. A little Italian adventurer

once went to the place with only a few louis in his pocket, and
played crown stakes at Hazard. Fortune smiled on him; he

increased his stakes progressively; in twenty-four hours won
about L4000. On the following day he stripped the bank

entirely, pocketing nearly L10,000. He continued to play for
some days, till he was at last reduced to a single louis! He now

obtained from a friend the loan of L30, and once more resumed
his station at the gaming table, which he once more quitted with

L10,000 in his pocket, and resolved to leave it for ever. The
arguments of one of the bankers, however, who followed him to his