The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1895-12-16
GAMBLING IN FUTURES"
mis- Subject Furnishes Text for
Sam Jones.
FJIER FROM A MAN IN HOUSTON.
..u BaIi.yes That Specializing In Fu.
tures shou be LegisIatcd Out
OF Existence.
CopYRrGBT 1895.

COPYhlOBT lSpo.
me following communication was
..nt TO me when | was holding evan
rslist meetings in Houston, Tex, a few
days ago.
aREv. SAM p. JoNEs-Dear Sir: There
!, nm evil which | have never heard of
rou mentioning in your sermons. 1t
has become the most appalling and far
reaching devastating curse with which
country has ever been afflicted.
nrunkenness is horrible evil. Horse
ncing. il carried on wrongly and ma
nipulated dishonesty, has and will ever
continue to wreck loving hearts. But
they all pale into utter insignificance
when compared to the balcful effects
| Of future gambling. ! am not cxag-
rrating when | assure you that when
cotton dropped so suddenly week ago
aver 100000 went out of this state to
the southern headquarters of future
| mmbing-New Orleans. In conse.
ouence, the country merchants are fail
inc all over the state; even banks are
NOT secure when their officers deal in
|
state of Texas passed law against it,
! they dealt in grain and cotton futures.
| The great bucket shop centers of New
York and New Orleans have their
agents In every city to take orders and
wire those centers to buy or sell, as The
case may be. They are now called
bookers, and every cotton exchange
seems to be Matching places of all the
trouble. Cotton took an upward turn
Yesterday, and to-day most all the flu
ture men in Texas being bulls, they
have consequently lost millions, and
you can expect many failures in the
next few days. So yentilate this evil
before you leave Houston
The above letter, written in a straight
forward business hand, give in full.
Take it for what it's worth. For more
than dozen years have denounced all
dealings In futures as gambling, and it
no higher type of gambling in my
honest judgment than the dealing OF
faro or the game seven up with the old
greasy deck.
morally to imperil his character and de-
inud his creditors in stock speculation
FIXTURE gambling than he has to stand
IN front of a faro bank and gamble
away the money of another,
The reason of thousands of failures
sns country given to the public, car
~ lie on their faces. Hard times,
pasollections," etc, as the reason for
Mixtures is as ridiculously false us
tat when an old topper is burnt out
With liquor and dies, that doctors adj
Nrse to the world, in order that he
may protect the feelings of the family
iud friends. that he died of heart
failure" but give no reason why his
heart failed.
The world npplauds the stock gam
bier and the dealer in futures SO long as
Ais on the winning side. The world
taxes no note Of the honesty or dis
honesty Of the matter, thanifit involved
10 questions of this sort. The mer-
chant or banker or business man who
made 100000 year ago on future
deals is applauded by the world, That
same mau with the same methods this !
year has lost Sl,000,000 and is now a
bankrupt with the cry of orphans and
ae walls of widows piercing his ears,
ne is Condemned and fallen NOW and is
aoboed by all decent people. There is
much moral terpitude attached to
lae business man who wins as to the
easiness man who looses. No man who
DEALS in futures ought TO be trusted
care not how honest he desires to be |
~proposes 10 be. There are storms on |
these seas, no ships can outride, for |
The most sea-worthv of them have gone |
Gown carrying their crews and pas
sengers with them.
verify believe that in the last 60 /
days the south has shipped her millions |
10 Wall street to put up on margins |
which Wall street has gulped down |
with the gluttony OF an alligator and !
The cunning of an byepa. These book |
ers like the Mississippi river, Wall |
street like the gulf and all sections of |
the country round about emptying |
through the bookers into the great gulf /
called Wall street.
ibeievo the legislature of ever, state /
IN this union ought to pass law put