The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-01
AS OLD AS HUMAN FOLLY.

AS OLD AS HUMAN FOLLY.
The story told by Zschau of the cir
cumstances which have led up to his
imprisonment in the state penitentiary
for eight years is as old as human fol-
ly. Why the moral that it carries has
not been needed long ago one cannot
understand. The experience of some
thousands of years has taught us that
fire burns, and we do not voluntarily
thrust hand into the flames or do
any of those foolish things about which
there is no chance, but only the rigor-
Gus operation of a certain law. The ex-
pertinent by which Zschau came to
disaster stands on similar footing.
The young fellow clerking for a small
salary laughs at Farmer Hayseed, who
comes into the city and gets buncoed
out of what cash he has about his per-
son by a bogus check or worthless
bill of lading handed to him confiden-
TALLY by new. found friends at the
union depot Yet Farmer Hayseed is as
wise in his day and generation as his
city imitator. The bucket shop plays the
part for one that the bunco man does
for the other. 1t is an amazing thing
that men should go on and on in this
form of gambling, where all the chan
ces. and the majority of the certain
ties are against them This young fell
low began by gambling away his own
L
ter, as one would think he must be.
He had the gamblers insane idea that
he could recoup his losses by a future
lucky stroke. So he appropriated the
money of others for stake, and from
that day the shaved head and the
striped suit were waiting for him as
surely as death.
There are no exceptions to this rule.
There is nobody who gets rich or makes
as much as he loses by gambling, ex-
cept those who make a profession of
it. If young man has set his ambi-
ton upon running a faro bank or a
bucket shop, or any other kind of game,
if he thinks that a brilliant career and
is willing to make the sacrifices in
volved, he may, perhaps, hope for sue
cess. But if he dreams of doubling his
resources or adding to his savings, or
eking out petty income with the re-
wards won from chance, he is not only
the stupidest and silliest of mortals.
but he is playing with the fire that will
certainly consume him. The steps in
this course are every one marked
First comes poverty. If a man has the
strength of character to stop here. he
has simply bought with his all an ex-
perience that ought to have been his
for nothing. If he does not stop there.
and many there are who plunge head
long down the path, there comes en-
bezzlement, discovery and disgrace,
with prison or exile at the end of
it, according to the magnitude of his
offending, and the distrust of those
against whom his offenses are commit
ted.
There are no variations to this story.
There is no room for the Imagination
to work in it. 1t is as invariable. as in
evitable, as the demonstration of
proposition in geometry. When young
men, who would like to take a trip to
Europe and who have never been ten
miles away from their inland home
are told that there lies an ocean be-
tween this continent and that. which
they cannot cross without taking
steamer and paying certain fare, they
believe it. They do not insist upon 60
ing to the seashore, wading out beyond
their depth and being drowned before
they can be convinced. Why should
they be more skeptical about the exist
ence of that ocean of disgrace and
shame that lies between the individual
lowered with the gambling instinct
and either wealth or a competence
amassed by any of those forms of spec
ulation which are all organized against
the fool who trusts to them?