Monaco

mon'a-ko, an independent principality on the Mediterranean, inclosed landward by France. It lies about nine miles east of Nice. It is a rocky bit of hilly coast with an area of but eight square miles. The population is 15,180, residing chiefly in three cities of which Monaco and Monte Carlo are best known. Olive oil, citrons, oranges, and perfumes are exported, but the principal business of this diminutive kingdom is that connected with hotels and gambling. The climate is considered delightful. Winter resorts are maintained on a magnificent scale. A syndicate of gamblers with a capital of $6,000,000 pays the petty prince of the realm for a monopoly of gambling privileges. In 1904 the sum of these payments had reached a total of $1,130,000. The concession runs to 1937, at which date the annual payments are to have risen to half a million a year. Far from being confined to shady, disreputable characters who gamble in private, the hotels and the gambling palace, the Casino, of Monte Carlo are frequented by a brilliant throng, at times a crush, of the most fashionable people in Europe. Many stake and lose or win entirely within their means. Others in their desperation stake family jewels and mortgage their all in hope of winning back what they have lost. Suicides are of frequent occurrence. For one form of play, see ROULETTE.