immediately afterward draws in the same manner another parcel of cards for the rouge. The players, who play against the tailleur, and whose number may be unlimited, have previously placed their stakes on the red or black spots upon the table, and as the rouge or the noir parcel of cards amounts to 31 or approaches nearest to it, they win or lose; i.e., if the rouge counts for example 32 and the noir 33 or more, the money placed upon the red wins. When the tailleur deals to the second or rouge parcel of cards the same number he has turned up in the noir, it is called a refait, and another deal must be had. There are two other chances, called couleur and inverse, which are determined by the color of the first card turned up and the success of rouge or noir; those playing on the couleur winning if the first card dealt is of the successful color, and those on the inverse if the contrary. This game, with roulette, was forbidden by law in France in 1838.
ROUHER, Eugène, a French politician, born in Riom, Nov. 80, 1814. He became an advocate, and was returned in 1848 to the constituent, and in 1849 to the legislative assembly. He
was minister of justice under Louis Napoleon as president from Oct. 31 of the same year
to January, 1851, again from April till October, and from Dec. 2 till the confiscation of
the Orleans estates (Jan. 22, 1852), which he assigned as a motive for his resignation ; but a few days afterward he returned to office as vice president of the council of state. In February, 1855, he became minister of agriculture, commerce, and public works; in June, 1856, he was made a senator ; and he was president of the council of state from Oct. 18, 1863, till Jan. 19, 1867, when he resigned in consequence of the emperor's announcement of a more liberal policy ; but he was at once reinstated as the head of the cabinet with the
additional portfolio of the finances, and remained in office till July 18, 1869, a few days after which date he was appointed president of the senate. He was identified with all the foreign and internal affairs which proved fatal to the second empire, and after its downfall (Sept. 4, 1870) he fled. When he ventured to return to France he was a short time under arrest; yet he was elected to the assembly at Versailles in February, 1872, and continued to be a member of it in 1875 as a champion of Napoleon IV.
ROULETTE (Fr., a little wheel), a game of chance, which from the end of the 18th century till 1838, when it was forbidden by law, was the principal gambling game in Paris. It was the leading game in the German spas till public gambling was abolished in 1873, is still popular in Italy, and is played to some extent in Great Britain and the United States. It is played on a cloth-covered oblong table, in the centre of which is a round cavity having several copper bands around its sides at equal distances from each other. The sides are fixed, but the bottom is movable round an axis in the centre of the cavity, and around its circumference are 38 holes painted black and red alternately, and numbered from 1 to 36, with two zeros marked and 00. These numbers and zeros are painted on the green cloth, and on the margin of the table are the words impair, manque, rouge, pair, passe, and noir. The manager turns the wheel, at the same time throwing into the cavity in an opposite direction to the movement given to the movable bottom an ivory ball, which
when the revolution ceases falls into one of the numbered cells. The player stakes his
money upon one or more numbers, and if the ball falls into the corresponding number or zero, he receives for one number his stake and 85 times more, for two numbers 18 times more, for three numbers 12 times more, and so on, the gain being less as the risk is reduced. If the player stakes upon a column, or 12 numbers, and the ball enters a cell corresponding to one of them, he wins three times the amount
of his risk. Or he may stake upon an even number (pair), an odd number (impair), from 1 to 18 inclusive (manque), from 19 to 36 inclusive (passe), or upon the colors rouge and noir. If he ventures upon these six chances and the ball falls into either of the zeros, the stakes may be divided between the banker and the player, or may be “put into prison” for another trial to determine to whom they belong. Some tables have but a single zero, and with 37 cells the amount returned to the winners is but 35 to 1, the bank gaining the difference; with two zeros, the advantage of the bank is proportionately greater ; and with the divided chances on pair, impair, &c., the steady gain of the bank is almost certain, and is estimated at 4 per cent, on all the money staked. In American roulette a 28 instead of 36 table is often used, the banker paying the winner but 27 for 1, thus giving a greater percentage against the player.
ROUM. See SEIJUKS.
ROUMANIA, a state of S. E. Europe, tributary to Turkey, consisting of the united Danubian principalities Wallachia and Moldavia (including that portion of Bessarabia which was annexed from Russia in 1856), situated between lat. 43° 88′ and 48° 16′ N., and lon. 22° 20′ and 30° 15′ E. It is bounded by Hungary, Transylvania, Bukowina, the Russian province of Bessarabia, the Black sea, Bulgaria, and Servia; area, 46,708 sq. m.; pop. about 4,500,000, mainly Roumans, but including many eastern and European nationalities, besides about 150,000 Jews and 200,000 gypsies; capital, Bucharest. (For a description of the physical geography, see MOLDAVIA, and WALLACHIA ; see also WALLACHIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE.) About two thirds of the population depend on agriculture and cattle breeding. The soil is very fertile, and yields rich harvests, but of the total area only 68⋅7 per cent. is productive, comprising 20⋅4 per cent. in farm, garden, and wine land, 7⋅6 per
