Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-12-30
THE GAMBLEK Pa.KIs.r

That gambling leads to ruin is a truth
commonly accepted, and in the course OF
time gambling in futures, and specultions in
non-existing commodities will be found full
az ruirous as cards or horse-race betting
How many banks and mercantile firms and
trading establishments have gone 10 rxin re-
Gently, and are going 10 ruin every week,
because principals and clerks, bank presi.
dents and cashiers, have INDUCED in gam
bling until their own money was gone, and
have then continued 10 gamble with the
money OF their creditors or deposi,ors
Aud the miserable, clubbing falsehood is
SET up that this ruinous course il in toe re-
ulsr course of trade; that TO sell and buy
twice the cotton and 1--WE times the
oil there il in the world is legiii-
mate commerce! The man that handles
honest and truthful enough to avow his
occupation, but his brother gambler, who
regards him with contempt add loudly con-
demns his way of making money, cheats, or
tries to cheat, himself, and the world, and
God, when he goes to church-ss he usually
"business," IN the sense that the man who
handles, and weigh, and counts what he
deals in does business. The claim is false.
The man who buys merchandise that he
never intends to receive, from another who
sells goods he never means 10 deliver, is a
gambler, as the rouge ct nOir aud faro bank
man is a gambler. His thin Disguise, his
paliry, evil.round-the-stump trick
OF betting on the price at a certain date of
Germ, or oil, or cotton, with the difference Of
price between the date of the bet and the
date Of settling the bet for stake, saves
it in no respect from being The identical
thing the man does who bets on the turning
of card. This phsrisaical whine and cant
about Cuisines" in the whole dishonorable
game, is device by which the crafty catch
their dupes, and the dupe himself becomes
partner in the guile when he endeavors TO
palm upon himself and upon others the cant
about Cuisines" az if it were truth. 1t is
this way of gliding lie that leads cashiers,
clerks, merchants and tradesmen to ruin, and
not seldom to crime. It's yotaries may go
before legislative committees and take their
hired clergy with them, and all OF them may
declare that this kind OF gambling is honor
able trading, ana the money it brings is the
honest profit of well-directed toll. When
they have done all this, the plain, simple,
clear truth, as it stands out in Gods day
light, is that the practices tn at have of late
years been introduced as fair speculations,
are bare, sheer, shameful gambling, and he
who engages in them is gambler. Convic.s |
now toiling in penitentiaries, ruined men in |
rags; and the blood OF suicides, proclaim |
these practices to be gambling The base,
1iscreditable cheat of pretended buyings and |
fictitious settings, pretenses and 6ctions that |
define the difference between these trausac- |
lions and ordinary trading, pretenses and
ictions propped up by false news, altered
quotations, m manipulated kilograms and SIM
Ilated transactions, cannot be CLOSED and
over by assertions that future de-
iveries are necessary 10 commerce, that they
make active markets, extend trade and build
Up prosperity. Such allegations are like the
irunkard's assurances that whisky brightens
lis intellect, cheers his heart, increases his
trength and promotes his health. Like
whisky 10 the body, futures are stimulant,
pernicious, destructive, deadly stimulant
o trade, and, like that stimulant, it also
sada To crime. and shame, and want, and
Ieafh |