The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-04


ing the frames into symmetry and grace,
! that it were a pity If room were not
kept for people who can never aspire to
professional proficiency. They are po-
tent safeguards against two of the
most deplorable deformities to which
human nature is liable-dullness in the
hard worked and vanity in the idle;
each of which brings many man and
woman into tragic degree OF ridicule.
Some young people are SO constituted
as to feel no inclination to games. but
very much the reverse; their minds ara
of such fiber as to retain elasticity
without having recourse to syste-
matte diversion. That they are not
characters of small capacity which
exhibit this trait may be shown by
quoting two well known instances
OF men highly distinguished in
widely different careers. The duke OF
Wellington could never be induced
when at school to throw any spirit in 20
the sports OF other boys; he preferred
wandering about alone to the engross-
ing occupation of football or cricket.
Rousseau consumed days and nights in
close study in an attempt TO master the
game Of chess; but, though be perse-
vered in repeated endeavors they all
came TO nothing, for as often as he sat
down to a game all that he had learned
went out of his head But such in
stances are exceptional, and In most
characters hard work, unrelieved By
competitive games, is apt to produce
'grooviness"-and superhuous leisure,
stupidity. 1t is difficult to imagine q
young woman fond of lawn tennis fall.
ing prey to the morbid self-conscious-
ness which consumed the Comtesse de
Senecterre, whom TallemanJ des Reaux
describes as beautiful but very fool
ish woman. One of her fancies was to
have pillows OF every size in her bed
even for her tbuTn bs-for she prided
herself on her beautiful hands and
slept with them open. to keep the
joints small. Athletes, it is true, are
peculiarly prone to vanity, but the form
that vice assumes in them is that of the
pride of life, by many degrees more
pardona BILE than the deliberate self-loue
of Incidence.
1t is a long descent from games which
exercise mind or body to those OF pure
chance, yet these have as firm hold
upon human inclination as if they pos
sessed merit ia themselves. No more
piteous impression can be made upon a
mind capable of reflection than is left
by visit to the ia bles at Monte Carlo.
Hour after hour, day after day, year
after year, the same crowds gather
round them, blind to the beauty of sap
phire sea and glorious sunshine, con-
tent to swelter and scramble and
wrangle-for what? Well, they are
under thrall of one of two motives
two depiorable motives; one the lowest,
the other the saddest that can be con-
ceived. For the first is avarice-of all
lust the most obscene. of al passions
the most disastrous Valor self-devo-
ton, truth, humanity, may (so complex
is human nature) coexist with much
that is evil in a character, but avarice
taints the whole being; unlike other
desires, it is never satisfied, it is never
at rest; nothing sweet can flow from
the source which it has polluted Let
there be no mistake or palliation about
this: Avarice is the primary lure to the
Casino. Take away the gold and who
would be so childish as to play for
counters or weetmeatS? The other
and subsidiary motive which collects
crowd round the tables is the desire of
idle men to rid themselves of that most
precious possession-time- once
it is gone, can never be recalled, the
loss of which is ever the cause of fruit
less regret
knowledge comes, but wisdom tar
ries;" but here even knowledge seems
to be set at contempt Crowds of edu-
Gated people, with ready access to all
the stores of knowledge laid up through
the laborious ages for present use, af-
firm the contemplate creed of luck.
Never was there god So false. never
one before whom so many bowed the
knee in profound and ignorant faith.
1t would be lost labor to combat the
belief-almost universal and wholly in
eradicable among gamblers-in an in
scrutablc influence upon human occa-
sion, capable of being offended or
propitiated. 1t differs in no respect
from idolatry: for civilized, well edu-
Gated people behave just as the pagan
does in regard to the Great Spirit; the
souls of his ancestors, or the deifed
powers OF nature 1t is. in fact, kind
of lusorial animism. Don't disappoint
your luck!T-the gamblers cardinal
precept-implies the same dread of of
Tending powerful being. impatien of
slight, as still moves the inhabitants Of
in Indo-China, to lay brandy
and cheroots on the grave of certain
British officer whom they hated and
feared on account OF his tyrannicsl TIL e
over them, believing that his spirit can
only be kept from mischief by being
piled with the same little luxuries he
loved when alive. The Lord thy God
is jealous Lord!'' is dogma not peculiar
to Jewish worship: it is the idea upper
most in all religions. -Blackwood's
Magazine.
-She-"Tne brides father gives her