n favor of the bank, but they are played so quickly that
the player's capital is turned over thousands of times in a week, and as
each turn means on the average a loss to him of the "percentage," the
money does not last long. Some gamblers plunge for large sums for a
short time, and are lucky enough to "break the bank at Monte Carlo;" but
they return and give it all back to the prince with interest. All he
asks of them is that they shall keep on playing at his game. The visitor
wonders most at the dexterity with which the money of all varieties is
raked, tossed and flung about the board by the croupiers, with apparently
the utmost recklessness and without mistakes. They have spent their
lives at it and know it the way Paderewski knows his keyboard. Three men
are employed at each table to follow all the betting, and they watch like
hawks every one playing. So perfectly is the whole thing done that never
a word is spoken; it's all action--simply the placing of the coin on the
spot. Most of the players have systems they follow, and prick their
cards at each play. Hundreds of others who have no money follow their
systems, just to see whether they would have won if they had had anything
to risk.

[Illustration: THE FORUM, ROME'S GREATEST HISTORICAL CLUB, WHERE EVERY
MAN HAD A HEARING IF HE HAD ANYTHING TO SAY. SOME GREAT THINGS WERE SAID
THERE AND THOUGHTS COINED WHICH ARE PASSING CURRENT AS OUR OWN TO-DAY]

We had a charming, moonlight drive back to Villefranche along the shores
of the Mediterranean, where the _Cork_ lay awaiting us, and when all were
aboard we steamed out through the Straits of Gibraltar to Liverpool.

LIVERPOOL

It was a general holiday at the time in that city, and I lounged about
the streets, looking at the crowds of people. The "Pembroke Social
Reform League" was holding a mass meeting at the foot of Wellington's
monument in St. George's Square to protest against the Government's
building eight _Dreadnaughts_ at a cost of 14,000,000 pounds. The crowd
was all composed of working men and was most orderly; the speakers were
clever and moderate in their attitude. I became interested, and edged up
to the foot of the steps in order to hear what was said. The meeting had
lasted about an hour, when one speaker in finishing, remarked:

"I see an American here: will not the gentleman step up and tell us how
America feels about these things?"

I was immediately threatened with heart disease an