Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-04-02
The Gambler.

The gamblers of New York have led
q precarious, and on the whole wretch
| ed. existence for two or three years
past. Their places have been raided
by both the public and private police,
and whenever the attitude OF the law is
| decided toward them they read the
handwriting on the wall and take
holiday. Perhaps the least-satisfied
countenances to be seen around our ho-
| tells and public resorts are the old gam
blers, who long had complete immune
| ty, and to this day preserve a little hold
on the police and even the police JUS
tees. Cases are not infrequent of GAM
blers sitting ON our minor benches o.
being clerks of the courts Hence
certain latent sympathy in the prosecu-
ton of these men. and even on their be-
| ing surprised. The best thing the
gambler can do to satisfy himself is to
| get out of the business altogether The
occasional funds of money he raises by
his dangerous and outlawed trade hard
! II ever stay by him. and good deal of
| II goes to the police and the lawyers
and other parasites who hold vice to be
| their natural banker and side patron.
the presence of the gambling commun-
ity right among their guests, and it
seems to me to be poor thing to do
with guest who comes to town with
money which he might otherwise spend
in the proper office of hospitality to al
low him to be taken in hand by some
gamblers roper in and escorted to
some place in the neighborhood where
| he can be picked clean and has to draw
his check, more or less uncertain, to
pay his bill and get speedily out of
| town.
A sufficient number of gamblers will
devastate any territory on the globe
Long Island City, though it is the capt.
tai of a county and with the seat OF JUS
tice, has been kept back notwithstand-
ing long-witted men like Eliphalet Mott
thought it had such admirable oppor-
tunities that half century ago or more
| they made investments there for the
benefit of Union college and other
trusts. The gamblers found it con-
venient spot to halt between the rows
of tracks and the city, and in a little
while the whole city government be-
came the creature of gamblers. Detail
cations began, violence was not I'M
| common, and the tone of that suburb
began to grow lower. There is hardly
an old racing track on Long Island or
in the general vicinity of New York
which has not collapsed and left be-
hind it long pile of old board fences
and some old hotel over which fate and
ghosts seem TO hover. There are at
least two such courses on Long Island,
and in every old city their yestiges are
to be seen; and the Elysian fields in
Hoboken seem never to have recovered
from the gamblers visitation there half
a century. In truth, there can be no
occupation so unworthy of a right
thinking man as to live by temptation
and advantage, refusing work, being
in perpetual watch for men of meanSor
youths with legacies or prospects, and
thus corrupting at the fountains of So
ciety lives meant to be fully lived out
with credit and composure. A man
who expects to play this kind of game
and be a permanently happy man is
fortifying his wretched conscience with
apparent examples irregular life which
he will find on investigation he has
never understood. -Nes0 York Tribune.