Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-11-11
AUSTIN. WEDNESDAY. NOV. IL, 1885.
A TALK ON GAMBLING.

1t is safe to say. remarks the San Fran
cisco Examiner, that to more or less ex-
tent the love of gambling is innate in
the human race, from the child, who
with its companions recognizes pins or
buttons as. the stakes, to the capitalist
who ventures his thousands on the rise
or fall of stock quotations. This fact
has been taken into consideration by
certain class Of people who have made it
a business to take advantage OF the uni
versnl weakness, thereby reaping har-
vest by the aid of snares into which the
victims readily fall. Under the head OF
"Sure Thing Games" the Examiner has
published from time to time an expose
of various devices which are daily put to
use by professional gamblers in the pur-
suit Of their calling, and the readers OF
those articles have been made sufficiently
acquainted with the inner workings of
the mechanical part of the games to be
able At glance to recognize the impossi
bility an outsider has of winning when
pitted against them. There are hundreds
of devices that remain to be explained,
where dexterity in card handling and
impudence on the part of the sharper
answer in place of mechanical contri-
vanccs. The result either way is the
same, the non professional invariably fall
ing victim to the smooth work of his
opponent. No particular game is resort
ed to by the sharpers in which cheating
is to be done-all the games are lnclud-
ed. Family games, such as euchre and
whist. are as disastrous to the animated
as is poker, seven-up, faro, lansquenet,
or baccarat. The great American game,
poker. which is excluded in the list of
short card playing from the fact that to
play it there Is no need that the full deck
should be dealt out to the contestants,
probably offers better chance for cheat
ing than any other game. A sitting may
be made any place where pack Of cards
may be had. and it does not require that
the cards should be of any particular make
or be "doctered." That technical term
signifies marked cards, so the sharper
may read them equally as we'll from the
back or face. Poker is essentially fast
game, and but a short time. usually a
few deals, takes place before the victim
is robbed of all his coin.
The gambler is generally possessed
of such thorough knowledge of the
game that on that score alone he is a
formidable adversary, beside the various
card manipulations with which he is also
conversant.
And yet, and yet, after all this, Chris
tian men and women sit down to the
card table with their sons and other
parents sons, and teach them these very
same games, using the very tools that
satan himself devised, to. fascinate and
lead on down to death if possible these
very young men. There are gamblers in
Austin. There are gambling dcns here
also, as there are in almost every town
in the land. Christian men and Chris
tian women of Austin, did you teach
these Austin gamblers how to
play? There are young men of this city
tall and straight as the cedars of Lebanon,
the pride of fathers. and the JOY and de.
light of fond mothers, who spend many
an evening at the card table, with bee1
upon the table, for stakes. We offer
hear also Of cards being used by tho
young men Of this city. in more than one
place of public resort. Christian father
| and mothers, we ask you once more
whose sons are you training for the
gambling table?