The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-05-05

| - night, he lost it all, was once more penniless, and after subsisting many years in abject poverty, died ragged beggar in St. Giles.
 It is impossible to conjecture tht total amount of the annual ruin caused by gambling. Fortune, trust money, provision fer children and widows, sums raised on house and land, have disappeared in "a short time Bank clerks and cashiers gamble away hundreds of thousands of dollars and become ''defaulters." Gift enter prises" extend all the way from the Metropolitan stock exchange to people who buy prize packages of candy, And it is, perhaps, in their lower va- riations that the commercial aids to gambling are most to be dreaded. The boy is entrapped into a fondness for speculative purchases by prize pack ages of popcorn, and the laboring man is confronted with food for the same passion in prize packages of tobacco. The policy shops, which swarm in every section of the great cities of this country, supply to the masses the same stimulants to the reckless and demoralizing use of money which the capitalist and speculator find in Wall street. "Playing policy" is a seduc- tive vice and is certain to ruin its victims. We hear of occasional inef- fective raids made by policemen on these swindling devices for robbing the poor.
 There are public men who have made and arc still making fortunes out of the miserable dupes of the system and no amount of persistent disap- pointment seems capable of deterring the inveterate policy player from risk ing his last quarter of dollar on still another chance. If he has not yet drawn lucky number, he has heard oi others who have done so, and it will be his turn next. One set of harpies creates another, and thus the fortune teller and the interpreter of dreams make money out of the victims of the policy shops. There are people who will produce lucky numbers to the policy player, for e consideration from pack of cards or from the bot tom of teacup. And so the increase of fools and knaves advances side by side, vast amount of hard earned money is diverted into the pocket oi the heartless swindlers, and a number of people who might have become honest and industrious members of society are dragged down to the low est level of that self poverty which is next door to crime.
 All the notorious haunts of gam bling which come within the statu- tory definition of the term ought to be rooted out. Whether it be the keno tables, where the young clerks and artisans learn to gamble, to cheat and to embezzle, or whether it be the gilded faro saloons, with their recherche suppers and their choice wines, where judges, legislators, mer- chants, lawyers and others of their class meet to stake their hundreds of dollars on the turn of card, all ought to be impartially stopped. The prize package men, too, ought also to be summarily suppressed. So should the cheats who trade in oroide watches and paste jewels as blind to the "envel- ope game"
 superstitions. In an old work on games the player is gravely advised, if the luck has been against him, to turn three times round with his chair, "for then the luck will infallibly turn in your favor." General A. l.. S., of Kentucky, called one of the best card players of the state, would never play hand or risk dollar if there was 6 black cat in the room. An ex-gov- ernor from one of the western states, an inveterate gamester, would never sit down to table in a room where there was a looking lass. Some gamblers refuse to play if on entering room the left foot crosses the threshold first, and no persuasion can induce them to do so until they leave and return with the fright foot fore most" To put your foot on the chair of player is certain premon- ition of bad luck. Some men will never play on Friday.
 A remarkable case of throwing dice occurred in London in 1913. A Mir. Ogden wagered 900 guineas to one that "seven" would not be thrown with a pair of dice ten successive times. The wager was accepted (though it was egregiously unfair), and strange to say, his opponent threw "seven" nine times running. At this point MT. Ogden offered 47O guineas to be of the bet, but his oppo- ne2: declined. He cast yet once more, and threw "nine," 90 that MT. Ogden won his guinea. Here we have an in- stance of 6 most remarkable series of throws, the like of which has never been recorded.