The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-08-05


RaEateIle and Billiards. .--The Moral
Differences.
From Good Words. Repuolt'hed IN LttteH'
lTsHf- Lfrtng. A0e.
For instance, it is no doubt quite as
easy to play at chess for money as 10
play at whist for money; but people
who want the excitement of gambling
are impatient of the tedious length to
which the one game often extends, and
prefer the more rapid movement ofsthe
other. The two games are equally
games of skill, Snd require an equal
amount, though different kind, OF in-
tellectuat effort; butby the one clever
player may win good number oil six
pences or half-cTOwns In an evening,
while the other is too solemn and slow
to be made subordinate to the pecuni-
ary profits of success. Professionals
may play for a heavy stake, and heavy
bets may be laid on the rival players as
the fortunes of the game ebb and how;
but under ordinary circumstances
chess is not convenient disguise for
gambling. This isprobably the reason
that u cheSS-bo may be found In hun-
dreds OF houses where the difference be-
tween spades and diamonds Is quite un-
known. There can be no more harm
in playing with pieces of colored paste
board than with pieces of carved ivory:
with gambling, and chess has not. Nor
is it difficult to explain why bagatelle
Is allowed, and billiards are forbidden.
A billiard table is large and costly
piece of furniture. It needs room for
itself, and room such as few tnmi-
lies belonging to the middle classes
have ever been able to spare for the
purpose. 1t must be treated as tender
" as a new Dor n infant-kept in an un-
varying temperature, If it is to be OF
any real use. To play at billiards,
therefore, people have had to go to a
public table, and generally to hotel.
The game has come to be associated
with late hours and brandy and water.
Public playing has brought gambling
with it. But bagatelle boards, sufti.
ciently accurate to afford considerable
,amusement, are cheap enough to be
within the reach of persons of very
moderate means; and they have been
made of a form and size which render
a special room unnecessary. BaRatelle,
therefore, has been dissociated from the
evils which have given an evil name to
billiards; It has made home pleasant;
the girls and boys have played with
their father. While the nobler game
has lost its reputation from bad COM
pany, the inferior game has kept its
honor almost stainless. Again, there
are large numbers of good people who
look kindly upon the rod and the line
though they regard man that carries 4
gun (unless he happens to be an Afri.
can missionary or Western settler,
as belonging to the DEVILS regiment
How Is this ? Has IZaak Walton made
all the ditference2 Would shooting
have been as innocent as fishing, If Its
praises had been sung by a spirit as
pure and simple as that of the bioE.
rapher of the sanity George Herbert
Hardly. Perhaps the root OF the distinc'
ton lies in this-that men commonly &c
alone TO the river, and in parties to the
stubble. The angler is generally quiet
meditative man; he Is silent, solitary,
and gentle: he "handles his worm ten
derly;" half his enjoyment lies in pene'
tratinR into the secret places of Nature
| in surprising her shy and hidden beau.
ties, in watching the pleasant wooing
which is always going on in shady
places in summer time between the
murmuring, ripping waters, and the
ash, the beech, and the willow, which
stoop to kiss them as they pass. He
loves stiffness and peace. The country
parson may think over his text while
his float drifts lazily with the current,
or while he wanders by the stream
watching for the silver flashes which
tempt him to throw his fly. The men
| that delight to hear the whirr OF the
partridge are generally of another sort,
Anyhow Septeuoer oElnBS huooLlhE
dinners as we'll as birds; and with many
people heavy drinking is inseparably
associated with heavy bags of game
They do not object to eat the partridges
when they are shot; but they have the
impression that the men who shoot
them are a registering, rollicking set,
with whom 1t Is undesirable that their
sons should be too intimate. All this
is rapidly changing; in many parts Of
the country it has quite disappeared;
| of those whom 1 know best-thal
Though Nonconformist minister, with
a cast OF flies on his hat, and rod OF
his shoulder, would feel no shyness al
meeting accidentally the very gravesl
of his deacons, he would rather be or
the other side of the hedge II he hap
pened to have on his CATERS, and TO be
carrying his gun. a ".fl