The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-05-11
THE DEAD PERFORMER.

The old injunction, De MoRTUIs NIL
NIsI BoNUM, is being strkingly verified
in the gush of post mortem admiration
and encomum that is being bestowed
upon the deceased representative Amer
lean gambler, John Morrissey. To give
all possible consistency 20 this lavish
display of eulogy over the dead game
ster, nice distinctions are being drawn
by newspaper moralists, between stock
and faro gambling. But admit that he
was no worse than the more respecta-
BILE gamesters Of Wall street. by whose
tricks many more thousands have been
ruined than ever Morrissey's faro bank
despoiled, is this phase of gambling any
more admirable by the comparison !?
We have no doubt Morrissey was per-
sonally honest That is, he would not
steal a gentleman's pocket book, but
would, upon the turning of card, take
from him thousands for which he re-
turned no equivalent. If professional
gambling can be termed an HONEST
business, then John Morrisscy was an
honest man. Not otherwise. If, on the
other hand, professional gambling be Il
disreputable business, then no amount
of gold or plate glass, no accessory of
wealth or decoration can make it re-
spectacle. John Morrissey, as the most
conspicuous representative of despic-
able business, is not one whit more re-
spectacle a man, sitting on the floor of
the House of Representatives, or in the
Senate Chamber at Albany, or any
more worthy of honorable mention, than
scores of less conspicuous gamblers,
propretors of less notorious bells =
than his. 1t is indeed an anomaly, but
none the less so because easily explain
ed, that man who has alIured thous-
ands of young men to ruin, should be
mourned when dead, as model for hon
esty and the highest type of reformer
in politics. We rather accept the "Tri-
bune's" estimate of him, ard do not
believe him to have been an exceptional
man in any respect, except in his faml-
iarity with the ways that are dark and
the tricks that are vain"
"There are many men like John Nor
rissey in the lower ranks Of American
life, but so few have stood like him in
the strong light of public Office and
political notOriety that New Workers
came to regard him as phenomenon.
He was not that his character was
rather ordinary; his faults and vices
were of a common kind; his ambitions
were not high nor strange; his virtues
were coarse and cheap. The offences
by which he first distinguished himself
III tiiC "Ollu Nclt CIilitS Vi violence,
not of baseness and after he had
emerged from the dangers of the prize
ring, and the bar-room chanee-medlev,
and the occasional riot with policemen,
and had tasted the sweets of notorietv,
he conceived, as many others have
done, perfectly natural desire to be
thought better than his old companions
and to live respectable" Ideas of re-
spectability differ Mr.. Morrissey's
scheme consisted in wearing good
coat. 1t implied no particular change
in his morals, and only little variation
in his manners. Prize fighting would
not do any longer; so he reformed him.
self into a gambler, and set up first
class 'hell;" and inasmuch as his patrons
spent a great deal of money, and did
not cut one another's threats for the
sake of the stakes, he made no doubt
that he was now entitled to the consiG-
Grafton Of a hard working citizen.
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