Waco evening news. (Waco, Tex.) 1888-1889, 1888-11-26
WACO, TEXAs, NOV. 20, 1883.
DEAD OPEN AND SHUT.

The gambling instinct is as broad
as humanity and as deep as the sea.
The Louisiana lottery makes big APP
peal to that instinct and very sue
cessful appeal to its own profit. High
and low, rich and poor, the imbecll
youth and keen-sighted man OF busi-
ness, merchants, bankers, lawyers,
clerks, the philosopher in his easy
chair and the cook on the kitchen ia
BILE, the boot.black on the corner and
the Congressman at Washington,
broadcloth and jeans, section hand
and section boss, the apprentice and
his master, the swarthy miner in the
bowels of the earth and the pale dude
on the streets one and all alike and
equally bow down and worship the
Louisiana lottery, and offer up their
easily gotten or hard earned dollar
as a monthly sacrifice to what has got
to be the real Diana Of the Ephe-
slams. 1t is a craze and folly; as big
a craze as ever known, and as great
a folly as man could wish to find.
For, admitting the gambling desire to
be instructive and comparatively
harmless, there ought to be some bit
of reason and common sense even in
folly, A better or a gambler should
see some reasonable show for his
money, some tangible hope Of rich
return. He ought when he bets to be
able 10 give reason why he expects
to win. He can give no such reason
for his dollar investment in the Louis.
Ian Lottery. He can't figure out a
dollars worth of chance. Let him
take all the figures and the numbers
and work out an equation of chances
and he can't make ticket worth more
than twenty-five cents. That is all
one is worth by the doctrine of
chances. The ticket is worth about
twenty five cents, the seller gets near
ly twenty-five cents and the other half
dollar, perhaps the lottery company
knows what becomes of the other half.
We are not arguing against gambling
but simply that the buyer of lottery
tickets pays nearly three times too
much for his ticket according to the
doctrine of chances. When thing
is put up at a rattle price is usually
put on it somewhat in excess of its
value. That excess is the sellers mar
gin for stake. But besides that
small excess the man who takes a
chance, say of a dollar, gets nearly a
dollars worth of chances. In faro
and other games Of that kind, while
the margin is, Of course, with the
bank, the chip is worth nearly what
was paid for it according to the law
of chances. This is not the case with
the Louisiana Lottery and hence to
gamble that way is gambling folly
Now, men who gamble do not, usual.
ly, gamble foolishly. They calculate
chances closely. In the Louisiana
lottery men 60 it blind, hence it is cor
rect to call it carze. All men who
gamble in other things have some rea
son. some calculation, but not one ir
hundred calculates the chances If
the lottery. We may be mistaked ii
one assertion, that the Louisiana lot
terry ticket, which sells for dollar, i.
worth only..twenty.6ve cents according
OF chances. Let any one disposed t.
invest in tickets, at least, be sensible
enough to work it out for himself and
if he buys, do so with his eyes wild,
open and not be carried away by
craze. Even in gambling a maj
ought to be able to give cause TO
the hope that is in him and, if he vii
gamble, take game that is not "no,
you see it and now you don't see it.
Equanimity Of mind is always ad