The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1883-06-02
THE ,.sDRAw POKER" DISEASE
Little Rock Gazette.l.

Little Rock Gazette.1
Draw poker has drawn another army |
officer to the bar of public disgrace.
Two weeks ago fell Paymaster WATSON,
stationed in Texas. Now, Paymaster
Morrow, Washington pet, is the VIC
tim of inability to beat four aces With
q ssbobtail flush." Poker is seductive.
Its tentacles, once firmly fixed, do not
readily relax. 1t is no respector of
persons. Like Times scythe, it ssCuts
down all, both great and SMALL" but is
especially fatal to men with little of
their own money to lose, and the GUS
todians of the funds of others. The
man in whom the germ of the disease
known as draw poker becomes fully
developed will play whenever occasion
offers. And he will walk long dis
lance over rough ground to put oppor-
tunity in the humor to offer. He will
first exhaust his own means. Next he
will borrow. And then, unles, possess
ed of a will of iron, he is a fortunate
man who will not hazard any funds
within reach, reckless of ownership.
It is a popularity of draw poker that
no chronic victim of this form of moral
distemper wins. Everybody loses.
It would be difficult to find one OF the
long afflicted who could make true
affidavit that his poker account bal
ances on the strong side. His exper-
fence is that the only balance is "bal-
ance due'' some one else, whose pock-
etbook the elephant has also fiattened
with great vehemence. Nor does the
loss end with accumulated debt. Ad.
ded are the loss of good habits, and
finally the loss of character; for, like
smallpox, the disease is almost certain
to leave deep, broad marks.
When seized by the disease no man
of whom its ravages have made NOR
, al wreck believes his personal integrity
in jeopardy. He believes in his star.
Neither WATSON nor Morrow meane to
, take and use that which neither should
J have touched. But concomitant OF
this disease is the delusion that one
, must win. This delusion delivers
over to temporary responsibility those
upon whom its fatal grasp is fixed.
They prove powerless to resist; they
hazard all on a card; and at last delus-
f ion surrenders to the dread realization
9 thatf without originally intending to
2 do wrong, they have become felons
e and outcasts. Position, honor-all
r that sweetens and brightens lite-every-
/. thing worth for-is gone.
/ Yet, what comes of it all? He who
/ still stands irresolute, on the brink OF
n the awful precipice into which men
!. like these have plunged to their moral
n death, rocks not their fate. They were
o mere novices. They were unfamiliar
e with the treatment of the disease. He
e is strong-in his own conceit-wise-
!. in his ignorance-and will never sue
s cumb- So he stands, until the eve
II ming comes, until the colder
8 suset ends; until the shad
Is ows lengthen before and around him
e And then he plunges down the abyss
# and is lost.
This is not fiction. 1t is not mer'
q word painting. 1t is not mere figure
n of speech. 1t is not mere idle warning
It 1t is truth-simply truth. But it will
d nothing avail. For on one on whom
l. the dread malady has taken firm holt
e will not be convinced until he shall
Is himself have passed into the shadows