The south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1879-1883, 1883-10-03
n More Than Thrice Told Tale.

Une OF the cOmmoneSt OF the stories
told in the daily papers is the story of the
frank gambler who contides to thu re-
porter the methods of his class In sub
stance it is always the same story-,the
gambler leading the sucker or pr o.
Queer" or "victim" on until he /;
cleaned out and then seeking-or wait
ing, rather, to be sought by-a fresh IL
stallment Of victims, suckers or pro-
ducers. And the point upon which the
contiding gambler insists most strong
ly is that the man who attacks game
from tho outside, whether it DO q
"brace" game, "skin" game or n
square" game, is sure in the end TO
lose.
As to the truth of the story there is
no doubt. 1t is attested by the expert
ence of hundreds in every city in the
land. 1t is in the nature of things, in
deed, that it should be true. Men who
engage in business as gamblers, who
deliberately embark in the pursuit of
obtaining the money of other people by
games Of alleged chance, are not at all
likely to trust to chance. So far as the
business can be made q certainty they
will, naturally, make it so.
The wonder is that with the natural
probabilities against success on the
part of amateur gamesters 10 strug-
Cling with the professionals and with
the uniform record of Just such failure
and loss as are to be expected, the num-
Der of.victims is constantly on the in
crease. Every new greenhorn seems to
be fired with the belief that he has some
extraordinary gift denied to his plucked
predecessors, and that the unvarying
DEGREES of fate are to be suspended in
his case. His success, he thinks, will be
all the more remarkable because of the
long list OF failures preceding it. And
upon this belief and ambition the pro-
fessional gambler thrives so we'll that
he can afford every month in the year
to tell his story, and frankly to confess
that there really is no such thing us
"chance" in the business.
Most remarkable of all is the childlike
confidence of the '.sucker" who chooses
Wall Street as the place and stocks"
as the method of parting with his CAPT
tai. The crcdulity demanded of him who
believes the banker at faro takes his
chances with the players is very great.
But it is insignificant compared with
he credulity which looks forward to
:ealization of profits in playing against
the game that is dealt in Wall Street.
Yet such credulity is common. II is
manifested every day by men who
seem, in respect to all other matters, to
be gifted with ordinary shrcwdness and
intelligence.
IT n total stranger had asked the |
cashier of a bank to let him have one
or ten thousand dollars without securi-
fy upon his declaration that he was go
ing into profitable mercantile opera.
ton, and his promise to divide the
profits, he would have refused. He
would have felt that the stranger, il he
made a good thing, would probably
keep the profit, even il he returned the
advance. He would have seen, in a
word, that the proposition was unbusi-
lesslike and unsafe, and probably a
'windlc. But because the total stranger
called himself a "broker" and proposed
20 gamble with the banks money-or
'athcr with the money intrusted to it
instead Of going into u mercantile OPP
,ration, he turned it out to him rs free
y as If he had secured q return of fifty
per cent. on it. 1t never occurred to
him that the interests of the
broker so called, were wholly an
sagonistic TO his, or that he could do
lar better for himself with the money he
sent him than TO return it increased
thousand fold. On the contrary, he
with child-like confidence,
hat he would so return it, and he con-
inued to expect this until his defalca-
ions could no longer be concealed.
The case of this bank official Is the
,ase of hundreds Of others. tits case
If almost daily occurrence. There
Gems to be no such thing in this mat
er of stock gambling rs learning from
he experience of others. But it does
eem as though the stockholders and
directors in the banks of the country
night profit so far by the common cx-
,erience as to keep better watch over
heir servants in places Of trust.-Dc-
roll Free Press.