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THE COLBORNE EXPRESS, COLBORNE, ONT. APRIL 11, 1957 The Riddle of The Gamblers' Suicides Ever since the Casino at Monte Carlo was founded, the admin-( istration has depended, among other people, on spies for its efficient running. The founder, Francois Blanc, first thought up this espionage idea. One of the jobs of these spies is to keep watch on people--and there are quite a few of them-- who pretend to have lost fortunes at the tables and then ask for a sum of money to enable them to return home. The abuse of the Casino's willingness to give assistance to real "hard luck" cases was exploited beyond all measure. It was even known for gamblers who had won money at the tables to transfer their gains to confederates, apply for their expenses to Paris and, having received the desired sum, go to Nice and start gambling there. In order to prevent this kind of swindle, the Casino decided to send an official with the applicant to the railway station to buy him a ticket for his destination. But according to legend, the administration was once tricked by an ingenious Scotsman who, with the assistance of his hotel proprietor, induced the Casino to pay out $150 on his behalf. The young Scot had been seen gambling heavily, though the amount of his losses was not, in fact, as great as the croupiers at the tables thought. When he applied for assistance to return to Britain, he was informed that if he would be at the railway station the next morning, a third class ticket would be given him. He was bowed out, and the Casino hoped they would not see him again. Nevertheless he reappeared late at night and said a very hard-hearted hotel proprietor would not let him leave Monte Carlo until he had paid his bill, which amounted to a considerable sum. There was a brief and hasty consultation among the officials and then one of them went with the young Scot to his hotel. He came back to the Casino and said he had seen the hotel account, everything was in order and the hotel bill had been paid. But what the Casino did not find out until afterwards, was that the hotel proprietor and the Scot had split the money. There is the story of a very rich gambler who was so mean that even when he won at the tables he tried to get the Casino to pay his fare home. On this occasion, another of the Blanc family, Camille, happened to be in the room when the applicant was being cross-examined. M. Blanc became very suspicious and told the examiner to take the applicant with him to the table where he claimed he had lost all his money. When they got there the gambler was recognized immediately by the croupiers who all declared that he had had a very good run of luck. The Casino spies are dressed just like visitors and wander about the rooms and the gardens, the shops, the hotels and the cafes. There is also the peephole system. If one looks at the highly gilded and decorated ceilings, and directs one's eyes to the right places, one can see that not all the panels in the ceilings are alike. Some have quite apparent spy holes in them through which someone can watch what is going on down below. What is the reason for this very thorough espionage system? Years ago there was a great fear of the scandals that might be caused by the suicides of unfortunate gamblers. A certain number of suicides have taken place, but the stories have been very much exaggerated. Every few years a story crops up about a secret cemetery where suicides are buried. One can nearly always find someone in Monte Carlo who knows exactly where that cemetery is, but if one presses the point and asks to be conducted to it, there is always some unfortunate hitch and one never finds it. In Monaco there is a small vehicle which used to be drawn by a pony and which is now motorized, that goes around picking up stray cats and dogs. One day an American woman was driving from the railway station to her hotel and noticed this pony-drawn cart and asked what it was. Her facetious companion said: "Oh, that? That is one of the carts that goes round here collecting the bodies of sui- The visitor believed the story and wrote home about it. The recipient of her letter showed it to her friend who was on the staff of one of the New York newspapers. He immediately took it to his editor who sent off a reporter posthaste to Monte Carlo to write the story of the suicides. Among the true stories of suicides is one of a former Nice chief of police who had never gambled in his life. He was invited to lunch in Monte Carlo by an old friend, a rich silk merchant from Lyons. During lunch the silk merchant told the chief of police that he had paid for his holiday over and over again by working out a gambling system and he would be very glad to give the system to his friend. The chief of police laughingly declined the offer but he happened to pick up the piece of paper on which the system was explained and put it in his pocket. He was heavily in debt, and a few days afterwards when he was worried how he should meet his creditors he happened to put his hand on this piece of paper. While he was reading it two of his colleagues came in and put on his desk $1,500 which they had fetched from the bank to pay the week's wages. The sight of the money was too much for the police chief. He took it, went over to Monte Carlo Casino and started to gamble. The system which he followed gave him a tremendous profit for a time, but suddenly his luck changed. He lost every penny, not only his winnings but all the money he had embezzled. When the police went to fetch their pay, they were told their chief had blown out his brains. Although the sun has been setting on the rock of Monte Carlo ever since the first world war, it is a long and colourful sunset. The day of the great gambler is over. Monte Carlo Casino has had to find many expedients to try to attract gamblers who are not so well provided with ready money as their ancestors. Nowadays in the vestibule of the Casino's lobby one finds the "slot machines," what the Americans call the "one-arm bandits." Also the American dice game known as "shooting craps" was introduced. Yet, despite it all, Monte Carlo is in many ways just as romantic a spot as it always was, even if some of the gilt has worn off the gingerbread. SOBER ADVICE Ralph Lakely, twenty-six, of Cape Town, South Africa, told a magistrate the other day that he suffers from the oddest complaint in the world: he can't sleep unless he is drunk! He appeared in court on a charge of sleeping on the street "while drunk." The magistrate discharged Lakely unconditionally with this advice: "If you have to drink to sleep normally I advise you to take your bottle to bed with you and have your drinks when you are safely tucked up your .blankets." A doctor told the court that Lakely leads "an amazing life"-- for whenever he is sober he can't sleep: CROSSWORD PUZZLE !. Flpft animal ). Dessert I, Terminals !. Animal food 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 3 10 M 14 15 16 H 11 18 ?0 21 v 22 23 Si 2A 26 28 3! 32 3* 35 38" 36 31 40 41 1 43 T 45 48 ■ 5J m 57 58 St 60 61 J2*! ... Vnswer elsewhere on this page. POINTLESS POINT - While Dr. Frank Bachelor, a foot specialist, was walking Taffy, his pet Weimaraner, one night recently, the dog came to a rigid point. Dr. Bachelor looked for the cause and found it in the window of a store they were passing. The dog's "quarry" was a stuffed pheasant in a window display. THEFABM FRONT The do-it-yourself trend--like most robust ten - year - olds--is developing a new character. Many of the twelve and a half million families that have set up home workshops have gone beyond their original intention of saving money on home repairs and improvements. Now, the home handyman has developed the craftsman's pride in his work. Neither he nor his wife is satisfied with less than professional quality in home workshop projects. The home craftsman gets professional quality by arranging his shop with the efficiency of the professional carpenter and cabinet maker. And whether you are an experienced wood worker or a novice hankering to begin the pleasure you get out of your workshop will depend largely on how well you set it "P- • * * So--what's the best way to lay out a workshop for efficiency and safety? Here's what the experts suggest: Space Needed If you're cramped for space, you can put retractable casters on power tools and roll them back against the wall when not in use. Casters also permit you to rearrange your shop for particular jobs. Start With the Workbench It's best to place it against a wall near the door. Power tool experts recommend about two-and-one-half feet of space to the left of the bench and about four feet in front for assembling small projects and other work. Alight over the bench, in front of the work position, should light up the entire work surface. The workbench is the center of all hand work and should provide storage for hand tools, fasteners and other small hardware. Hanging hand tools on the wall above the bench is a good system. Some home craftsmen in cramped quarters hinge plywood panels to the wall above the bench and hang hand tools on them. The panels overlap when folded back against the wall, taking up little space, but providing convenient open tool storage. « » * Miscellaneous Hardware There are all sorts of subdivided boxes, cabinets and so forth available for this purpose, but using glass jars is as good a system as any. Many shop owners nail jar tops to the underside of shelves. When the jars containing miscellaneous items are screwed into the tops, all items are visible and readily available. » ,, Table Saw Is Center Because almost every job requires some wood cutting, the table saw should be in the most convenient spot. Experts recommend it be placed near the center of the shop and positioned so that you approach it from the left hand rear as you bring work from the bench. Since there is seldom occasion in home shop work to rip or cut wood longer than six feet, six feet of space on all sides is sufficient room for the table saw. Lighting for the table saw should be directly over the blade so it will not cast a shadow on tne woric. Placing Other Tools Because it's one of the most versatile tools in your shop, the drill press is likely to take priority over, the grinder, scroll saw, band saw and lathe for space close to the workbench. It can even be mounted on one end of the workbench. Besides drilling wood and metal, you can use it for routing, sanding, mortising, grinding and cutting plugs. Place the drill press against the wall; three feet of space on the other three sides will be sufficient for most home shop work. An individual light attached to the tool is the best way to illuminate the work. The disk sander, which eliminates long, tedious hours of hand work, requires little space. Three feet of working room in front and two on one side--the side toward which the disc turns --is sufficient. The band saw can go against the wall with about four feet in front and on the right side--less space if it's used only for cutting metals. The scroll saw can go in a corner with two feet of working space on the front and left side. If you have a lathe, you can set it against the wall--or in a corner with back and right end flat against the walls. Allow two feet on the left, or headstock end, for outboard turning and two feet of work space in front. Storage of Supplies An overhead U-shaped rack is the best place for lumber. You can make it from a few pieces of scrap. Make sure the stock is well supported so that the longer pieces won't warp. You should put the rack in the back of your shop, out of the way of your work area. Somewhere in the shop there should be shelf space for paint, putty, glue and similar materials. These shelves need not be close at hand as the materials are not taken down and put back frequently in the course of shop work. One of the best ways to plan a shop layout is to use cutouts of various tools. Try using an outline of your own shop dimensions, arranging tools in various combinations. QUEER APPETITE "Don't worry about your son for one minute," the doctor reassured the anxious mother. "It's perfectly normal for him to like making mud pies -- and just as much so if he sometimes tries, to eat them." "Well, I don't tmnk it's normal," snapped the mother, "and neither does his wife!" Where Sheep Wear Plastic Coats No, you would not need to rub your eyes if, driving across Wyoming, you should suddenly see a small band of sheep in neat, form-fitting plastic jackets. Such sheep were really there this winter, several flocks in various parts of the state, but all distinguished by the plastic decor; about 400 animals in all. This is a continuation of a research that has been going on intermittently for a decade, beginning with cotton jackets back in the 1940's. The purpose is not so much the comfort of the sheep, as to find out whether it is economically practicable thus to protect their valuable wool from the usual hazards of the range -- snagging and loss by bushes and other vegetation, accumulation of sand and grime, writes Ros-coe Fleming in The Christian Science Monitor. Range sheep "in the raw" accumulate so much extraneous material in their wooly natural coats that 40 per cent or more of their wool by weight may be Since most Western wool is shipped clear to New England or Pennsylvania, even for primary cleaning, this means the ranchman pays the freight on 40 per cent of useless weight. To put it another way, the cleaner the wool at the ranch, the higher the market price. The original experiments were with various types of cotton jackets. They did protect the wool, but the untreated cotton wore out in a few weeks, and the savings, if any, were too slight to interest ranchmen. Now various companies have contributed synthetic or synthetic-treated fabrics for experiment. At shearing time the researchers will remove the coats, or rugs as they are sometimes called, and score them for durability. They will also score the protected wools against unprotected ones from equal numbers Of sheept as to clean, weight, djrt penetration, and length of staple. Some day, one or another type of these fabrics is going to prove durable and cheap enough to come into general use on the range. Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking dde ddee bhfjb ebb qeed bid hq □be eqelh bee5b eeqbb ebbe bbs ebb12e ebbe eobb ebb anon ebb eeeb ebb bbeh □bob bdbbb bbs eeqb bbbeb □□ee eebb bob □deb bbeb □□□ ubbb bdbb ebb Drive Carefully «DKH00l Memory Selection: What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? Matthew 27:22. It's hard to believe that oa Sunday a great triumphal procession welcomed Jesus inta Jerusalem and on Friday ha was led forth from the sama city to be crucified. How can w« account for it? Some will say it was so prophesied. Yes, but events never happen just to fulfill predictions. The prediction does not cause the event: The event, though later in time, may be said to cause the prediction. In that day, as now, there were many people who had n* deep convictions of their own but were easily swayed by the crowd. They were always on tha side of the majority. Th< following words would be lost on them. "Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm And dare to make it known." The will has been likened to a wagon drawn by two horses, reason and emotion. They pull well together. But emotion it very excitable and may on occasion run away with the wagon. There is no doubt that many who on Sunday cried, "Hosanna to the son fo David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest, on Friday cried, "Let him be crucified." How fickle people are! It was the leaders of organized religion who stirred up the people to cry for the crucifictioa of Jesus. They envied him because the common people heard him gladly and some believed on lam, He lorgnye tbsis sim iihd did many wSndrotiS w6rf£i These teachers didn't like his teaching for it condemned their selfishness, pride, ambition, bigotry and covetousness. They put him to death in the name of religion. Time has proven they were wrong. The question of Pilate, our memory selection, is the most important question you and I face today. On our answer depends our present happiness and our eternal destiny. On it depends whether our infiuenca will bless or curse our fellow-men. Let us make the decisioa to let him rule our lives! "What's the idea of suddenly taking lessons in French?" a friend asked a younsj married "We've adopted a French baby," explained the husband, "and we want to understand what he says when he begins t» talk." OUT OF MOTH BALLS - Workmen check the bottom of a row-boat in preparation for summertime rowing on Central Park lake. The fleet will be put in shape for the city's enthusiasts who are content to test their seamanship only a short distance from the towers of midtown. HIT BY SPRING BLIZZARD--Cars and trucks battle their way along a highway near Amariilo, Tex., as a spring blizzard lashes the western plains. Amariilo was cut off from the outside world and hundreds of persons were stranded in the Texas Panhandle. Many roads were blocked as winds up to 70 miles per hour piled the snow in six foot drifts.