Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1897-06-30
A n OF ALL VICES.

Spencer calls gambling 1.-THE meanest
of all vices.n A writer in the Chicago
Interior says: ut is a striking fact
that the lower in the moral scale any
sin sinks the more its victims endeavor
to surround it with the halo of suppo'
sititious chivalry. Drunkenness is cele'
brated in a thousand songs as good fel'
lowship and lust as love. But it is re-
served for that which is neither begot-
ten of badly appetite o allied to any
virtue, to be named a transaction of
honor. The one thing that gives gamb.
ling its grip upon the soul of man is
the most ignoble of passions, avarice.
1t is the stake which distinguishes
gambling from games. The lads that
bend above their board engaged in
playing fox and geese are interested in
a trial of skill and engaged by the un.
certainty of the result. But the same
elements of sport are not sufficient to
excite the interest of the joded. Pile
a stake in money ON the board and the
habitue of Monte Carlo would as soon
play fox and geese as vint.et.u n. In
fact, all conversant with the various
forms of gambling know thatit is only
the intricacies of the game of chess
which has effectually barred it from
the gamblers grasp; and even amid
the various combinations of cards the
one reason why every tramp can play
eucher. but not one in a thousand
whist, is that the gamblers passion be.
comes too impatient of possession to
wait for thirteen tricks instead of FIVE.
The base origin of the gamblers pas.
sion is shown further in its hideous
progeny. 1t needs much talk of honor
to disguise the fact that its natural and
inevitable ally is fraud. The tourist,
who visits the Royal Museum in Ma.
pies, Pompeii and Herculaneum, may
toss in his palm the dice with which
the Romans of two thousand years ago
gambled away their sesterces; he will
not need to throw often before he dis.
covers that like dice used today upon
the Bowery and the levee they too are
loaded" In a book published not
long since an expert tells us that in
London alone he found and noted $50
different sort of cards, all of which
were marked so that a professional
could read the faces from the backs as
well as if aces, kings and jacks were in
full view. II have acted as Judge at
horse races" said a quiet mar once to
the writer of this, "off and on for 90
years; but if ever l have seen an hon.
est trial of speed, l am ignorant as to
when it occurred" 1t took a great
Deal of whitewashing in the courts of
England to conceal the fact that even
when lords and earls play with the
heir of the crowx there is the same
game played, and the same low cheat
ing going on, as when the partners are
from Cowbay and st. Giles. Nor il
this the whole truth. Greed and lying
are not the only vices called forth
There is not a race track or faro table
in the land that is not stained with
blood. Within the past twelve months
one race course in New Jersey has cost
the community three suicides and one
murder; while in the same period thu
casino of MANAGE has witnessed five
deaths by self inflicted violence. And
this is the pet diversion of our aristoc
racy. This sport, whose dam is greed.
whose twin is fraud, whose whelp il
murder, is becoming the fondling oil
young women who listen to the gospel
OF the Son of God in the family pew or
Sunday, but who for a few moments
of excitement lend the glamour o.
youth and beauty and wealth to the
devils favorite ambuscade.
The worst aspect of the case today /.
the purchased connivance of legisla
tors in the perpetuation of the evil. TIT
vampires who have grown plethoric In
purse and pigmy in soul from long as
ISOLATION with the Louisiana lottery
attempted not long since to foist thei
knavish schemes upon some Northern
State. There was no trouble in pur
chasing legislatures, the only troubl,
came in the delivery of the States. Ii
all the history of American States
fouler disgrace has never been perpe
trated upon an American State. VIVA
may be the average price of q law
maker in such q State we know moi
but that the profits of the gang wi
permit them to keep plenty of sue.
tools In their service may be inferre
from the fact that at one race purse /
n State the boss gambler, euphemil
tically called book makers" paid fl
their privileges at the track S43, 900 fC
a five days meeting The most obser'
ant and philosophic of writer's O
America has lately said: "Towerin
over Presidents and State Governor
Congress and State Legislatures, pu'
lie opinion stands out in the Unite
States as the great source of power
We need to realize the truth of Pro