Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-29
GAMBLING.
ur,,o Attraction Ii HAS for Men the
World Over.

Gambling IS the most demoralizing anc
mating of plstimes. 1t is difficult +,
i sHJ any excuse for its devotees, and the,
ny ILn raralv much concerned to find any fo,
ah,oomselves; often they frankly admit the
! XIV Of the occupation, but they do no
~ D,.a TO gamble. For the average mar
,,6o is not a model OF stern virtue Gam.
, Elr has a peculiar attraction OF its own.
~ TRACTION which springs from three
oanrcas. The poor man CANDLES in the
bona of making money speedily, and
,r;tbout the trouble Of working; the rich
NAN candles because he takes pride in
-bovInc his shrewdness, skill and iudg-
,,,ant which are demonstrated by sue
,oss Add to this the excitement of the
',,-iod which pracedes the casting of the
EGe-whatever in this connection the die
NAV be-and sufficient reason is apparent
Tby the vice affects so many. The elder
D'israeli quotes to disprove a suggestion
That the passion for gaming is chiefly
nrayalent in cold climates. There is no
sort OF evidence. to show that the habit is
in anv way influenced by the weather;
on the contrary, in the regions OF eternal
snow and on the equator gambling is pur-
sued with equal ardor, though the games
nayed nav be different. The savage
gambler and the civilized man are equally
keen: though the latter, perhaps, OBJ
serves more complicated rules than his
duslv brother. TO discharge their gam
bling debts, the Siamese sell their posses
sions. their families, and at length them
selves. The Chinese play night and day
ill they have lost all they are worth; and
then they usually 20 and hang them
selves" the writer already mentioned re-
lates. The Siamese and Chinese are bar
barians. In more civilized chimes men
who experience similar miSfortunes are
less apt to hang themselves than merely
to omit the ceremony Of sending in their
account to TatterSall's on the following
Monday; or they ask for time, and in the
course Of it lose some more money; if
they are stockholders they sometimes
collect the remnants of a fortune and
modestly retire to Spain or elsewhere :;
perhaps they borrow money, and so trans
fer their debt This is bad enough, but
it is better than the proceeding of the
Malayan, who when fortune has favored
his rival and denuded himself runs a
muck and Stays gentlemen who have not
been playing.
Men will bet on anything and in any
thing, that is to say, nations which have
no coin stake their most valued posses
SONS. In some of the Pacific Islands
they have running matches. eve saw
aman," Captain Cook records, Cheating
his breast and tearing his hair in the vio-
lence Of his rage, for having lost three
hatchets at one of these races. d" Hatch
cts were here esteemed beyond all things
the three in question the man had pur-
chased for nearly hall his property, but
they went in one race. Probably the
a.culation of chances in the Pacific had
Preached that nice point when odds
@betted. There is no reason to suppose
Mr the man laid to in hatchetS on
BIS fancy pedestrian; but the three
Llchets went. The loser had no doubt
1ioyed blissful visions of his choice run
ng home easily by himself, and OF win
Ing all the hatchets in the island. Since
l. time many men and horses have
n cd to fulfill the expectations of their
4 ckers. Men of speculative dispositions
nd opportunities for gambling in every
Iectlon. These two islanders, on one of
7hom the hatchets were lost, formed an
adequate excuse. Ii the man who backed
he wrong one had been a nineteenth
century Englishman, he would have
studied the odds on the next important
handicap, and invested on the horse he
ancied the most equivalent OF his hatch
as lie would have read the papers to
ind out what chance the animal pos
9ssei and would have done a great
many things which in a state OF nature
the gambler never thinks of, doing, but
the sentiment which animated him would
have been the same as that which affect
ed the Pacific Islander. This loser of
hatchets ought to have read-only that
he did not know what reading was-a
volume called de Alea, sive de curanda
luiendi in pecuniam cupiditate. Games
Of Chance; or a Cure for Gaming" which
was written by a victim of the mania for
speculation, with possibly happy results
N the case OF some readers. The author
wrote and published the work 1850 in
the hope OF curing himself, but he did not
know TO what extent he was a slave to.
The passion, and excellent as his own ar
gmeEts against himself were, they had no
effect on his propensity. Cards are prob
ably less PLAYED now than formerly, and
dice are certainly less used. Oh course,
any man who wants to lose money at
caI1s can do so, or perhaps it should be
SAdwA wants to win, only that to lose
seems to be the general fate. The card
Guo Which had grown notorious and was
brought TO an end a few months ago is by
Iome@ns the only place OF the sort that
existed; there are others remaining, and
~ some OF the legitimate clubs, clubs,
,lai iS designed and carried on as gam
4s Establishments, there is plenty OF
a "'H Some English excuses fOr gambling
~.e disappeared, a cause for satisfaction.
Il a. Is the worst that have gone. Money
'3gnger Won and lost in the prize ring,
sd. cock hshtng-a very much more re
-aoie pastime than pugilism, for 1t IS
~e nature OF game birds to fight, while
/" men TO batter each others faces Tor
T'asy Is bruta.-has almost vanished.
ly" Widespread was the taste for cock
SUING a, one time, is shown by the
r'1 mat street where the artificial I'M
.TrI5A's Oh battle were manufactured is
Y1.el lockspur-street. Bears are no
jser 0aited, nor badgers drawn, and
s W DO not fight each other or the bulls
,,-lst which they used TO be turned
'e' al OF which things are in the in
IT'S TS Of humanity.
b'%. places where speculation finds
N range at the present day are the
G.a. Exchange and the race-course.
sI Sizing IN the former is peculiarly in
aylS and dangerous, because the gam
,, any,, Who can usually persuade himself
S&1ng, has no difficulty in feigning to
S g'lsye that operations on the Stock Ex-
conn ag are not gambling but legitimate
81 Zen '[ r9 !, transactions. The great dan
sr.,i uie Stock Exchange is that the
h. raD, does not know to what extent
qaji, involve himself. Gambling on