The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-12-20
Taking the Chances.

the morning of their lives, the brightest,
strongest, bravest days they have TO
live, go through various courses and
come out reformed and all right at last.
There are some men who do this. Once
in awhile you will find one; and you
think you will do just as he did. But
the hundred, or the thousand men who
started in with him and never got
through? The swimmers who plunged
into that turbulent sea of dissipation
and recklessness with him and never
gained the shore again, but went down
in the combing pillows and the yeasty
breakers? How about themp Aren't
you more than likely to be one of the
multitude, than you are to be the excep-
ton? tell you, my son, ten young fell
lows of your age may embark together
in the prodigal business, with good cap
ital and the usual stock of red paint for
municipal decorative purposes; their
hands are steady, their brains are clear.
their hearts are brave, and they are
ambitious and hopeful and earnest; they
only want to have their racket and see
the town before they settle down TO
hard, steady work. They are not going
to be drunkards. They're all right;
they don't believe in this sort of thing
at all, but they are yoHng, and it's quiet
on the farm with nobody but the old
folks and the older. brother. and they
want to travel and see the world little
before they become good citizens, props
of society and pillars of the church.
And, by and by, when the State, and
society, and the church, wants them
nd 10 ho fa11
and there are not found, returning to
give glory to God for mercy and
strength and cheering grace, save the
stranger, the Samaritan. And we ask,
Where are the nine?" My dear boy,
there is more hope for the stranger, for
the street waif. born in haunts of vice
and walking in its ways all his life, than
there is for the young man, who, born
in the light and taught in the ways of
uprightness, deliberately turns his back
upon wisdom and virtue, and intelli-
gently makes vice his choice. The
stranger, charmed with purity and
cleanliness so new and beautiful to him,
comes back, but the nine, my son?
Now, my boy, be sensible in this mat
ter. You say, ..Oh, well, I'll take the
chances on it. y Well, now, that's all
right. Come, you and are men of the
world, we are reasonable men, we'll
'.take the chances on it. That's all
ask you to do. Just "take the chances
on it as you do on the horse race, the
turn of a card, on the election, on the
prize fight, the regatta, the walking
match. Just give your moral conduct,
your higher life, your good name, your
hopes and ambitions an even show with
the horse race and draw poker and the
slugging match. / won't even ask you
to do better than that. Just give them
fair field and no favor, and may the
best one win. At the horse race do you
deliberately buy one chance in ten, in
the pools? Do you put your money on
the horse that has record of ten races,
nine of which he lostp True, you back
| the favorite against the field sometimes,
but the favorite isn't the horse with the
losing record. You don't draw to a
poker hand that you know won't
fill once in ten times; not if you can
just as well draw to something that is a
dead sure thing nine times out of ten.
You don't bet on the last man in the
walking match! OF course, in all games
of chance and athletic contests anu
games of skill-and they all go in the
same boat in these days-the chances
are always against you, but you don't
select the worst ones, do you? Now be
honest and give yourself as good a
chance in life as you do at the horse
race.
And then-getting tired? Well, just
one word, and I'll let you 60. In three
card monte, in the poker room, at the
faro bank, at the horse race, at the
walking match, in the grand lottery, in
the little bunco scheme, who ''take the
chances9n Honest, now, who .'take
the chancesP' Yes, my son, the bet.
ters every time; the pool buyers; the
people in the grand stand, the ticket
holders, the visitors from the country,
the fools. And who rake in the pile?
| Who gather the stamps? You are cor
| rect; the dealer; the bunco steerer, the
managers of the lottery, the poker
sharp. They don't take the chances, -
my son. They are .'children of this
| world who ''are in their generation
wiser than the children OF light. They
do not .'take the chances" and they
"take the pot" You may go, my son.
Have some sense. Not too much. You
needn't burden yourself with more than
You can manage. A few grains of sense
is as much as most men need, and more.
Oh, tons more than great many men
have.-R. j. Burdette, ia Burlinqtoas
| HdWkeye.