of their concession. During the winter a small kursaal was
built and a small garden planted; the mineral well was deepened, and
flaming advertisements appeared in all the German newspapers announcing
to the world that the famous waters of Hombourg were able to cure every
disease to which flesh is heir, and that to enable visitors to while
away their evenings agreeably a salon had been opened, in which they
would have an opportunity to win fabulous sums by risking their money
either at the game of _Trente et Quarante_ or at _Roulette_. From these
small beginnings arose the "company" whose career has been so notorious.
It has enjoyed uninterrupted good fortune. During the twenty-six years
that have elapsed since its foundation, a vast palace dedicated to
gambling has been built, the village has become a town, well paved, and
lighted with gas; the neighbouring hills are covered with villas; about
eighty acres have been laid out in pleasure-grounds; roads have been
made in all directions through the surrounding woods; the visitors are
numbered by tens of thousands; there are above twenty hotels and many
hundred excellent lodging-houses.'(77)

(77) Correspondent of _Daily News._

'Let those who are disposed to risk their money inquire what is the
character of the managers, and be on their guard. The expenses of such
an enormous and splendid establishment amount to L10,000, and the shares
have for some years paid a handsome dividend--the whole of which must be
paid out of the pockets of travellers and visitors.'(78)

(78) Murray, _ubi supra_.

Mr Sala in his interesting work, already quoted, furnishes the
completest account of Hombourg, its Kursaal, and gambling, which I have
condensed as follows:--

'In Hombourg the Kursaal is everything, and the town nothing. The
extortionate hotel-keepers, the "snub-nosed rogues of counter and till,"
who overcharge you in the shops, make their egregious profits from the
Kursaal. The major part of the Landgrave's revenue is derived from the
Kursaal; he draws L5000 a year from it. He and his house are sold to
the Kursaal; and the Board of Directors of the Kursaal are the real
sovereigns and land-graves of Hesse Hombourg. They have metamorphosed a
miserable mid-German townlet into a city of palaces. Their stuccoed
and frescoed palace is five hundred times handsomer than the mouldy old
Schloss, built by William with the silver leg. They have planted the
gardens; they have imported