The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-04-09
THE GAM BIER.
How His Presence in a Community De-
Vastates 1t.

How His Presence in a Community De.
vastates 1t.
The gamblers of New York have led
precarious and on the whole wretched
existence for two or three years past.
These places have been raided by both
the public and private police, and when
ever the attitude of the law is decided
toward them they read the handwriting
on the wall and take holiday. Per-
haps the least self-satisfied countenances
to be seen around our hotels and public
resorts are the old gamblers who long
had complete immunity, and to this day
preserve little hold on the police and
even the police justices. Cases are not
infrequent of gamblers sitting on our
minor benches or being clerks of the
courts Hence a certain latent sym-
pathy in the prosecution of these men
and even on their being surprised. The
best thing the gambler can do to satisfy
himself is to get out of the business al
together. The occasional funds of
money he raises by his dangerous and
outlawed trade hardly ever stay by him,
and good deal of it goes to the police
and lawyers and other parasites who
hold vice to be their natural banker and
side patron. Our hotels are also often
indifferent to the presence of the gam
bling community 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 other
wise spend in the proper office of hospi-
tality, to allow him to be taken in hand
by some gambler 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 uncer-
tain, to pay his bill and get speedily out
of town.
A sufficient number of gamblers viii
devastate any territory on the globe.
Long Island City, though it is the cap
ital of county and with the seat of
justice, has been kept back notwith-
standing long-witted men like Eliphalet
Mott thought it had such admirable op-
portunities that half century ago or
more they made investments there for
the benefit of Union College and other
trusts. The gamblers found it a con-
hSAAAOhO otsOe " AtblO DCtWCCH Juc TOWS
of tracks and the city, and in a little
while the whole city government be-
came the creature of gamblers. Defal-
cations began, violence was not un-
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 behind
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 vestiges are to
be seen; and the Elysian Fields in Ho
boken seem never to have recovered
from the gamblers visitation there hall
a century ago. In truth. there can be
no occupation so unworthy of right
thinking man as to live by temptation
and advantage, refusing work, being in
perpetual watch for men of means or
youths with legacies or prospects, and
thus corrupting at the fountains of
society lives meant to be fully lived out
with credit and composure A man
who expects to play this kind of game
and be permanently happy man is
f0rtifying his wretched conscience with
apparent examples in regular life which
he will find on investigation he has
never understood.-N. Y. Tribune.