The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-12-19
FOOLISH TO PLAY POKER.
So Declares a Man Who Gives Interest,"
ing Information.

Poker? Not again. And l would ad-
wise all young men who have reputa-
tons to make or to sustain
to AVOID the game. If they can hold
their own and have a desire to find all
the flaws in alleged friends, why, my
brethren, 1 say play poker. The lovely
game of draw shows I'D a man. 1t
strikes right at the lea and brain, his
liver and bowels. One who can go
through a season without r%eproach is
a friend to grapple ito ones soul with
hooks of the lnest HarveyiZed steel as
hig as bridge cables. Never let him
get away, for he is about the scarcest
article in the universe.
n oman can play poker in reason or
with reason unless he is born with a
gold spoon in his mouth and every
hin turns to diamonds. Some of the
closest lends l ever had were eX-
posed at the poker table, and we do
not associate now. / found out more
about them in six months at that game
than 40 years of intimate acquaint-
ance would have taught me in any 9TH
er line of friendship" Poker costs a
young man valuable time, lots of mon
ey and stacks of friends. l use the
word friends" in a general sense,
which means sue chaps as a young
fellow runs with" One real friend
is as much as a m a can expect. All
the others try to DO nm.
1 have been through the poker mill.
When my table was ready and the
cards were ready, the chips ready, the
rum ready. the cigars ready and your
humble servant was ready to lose n
be banker, my doorbell rang at all
hours, and my friends" were numer-
Gus. They would willingly sit up with
me all night and sometimes remain to
breakfast. You never saw SO sacrific-
;~r n lot If f,on "A Gin mol
One night a good many years ago l
sat up late thinking about the poker
business. 1t was head hare thinking
too. I had been lifted out by friends"
hung up by friends" and had friends"
to come up when in my debt to play it
off," A case of beer in a sitting was
nothing. A box of cigars was merely
a puff. I rage now when 1 think Of
what was wasted on the canaille that
worked" me. Reason returned. 1 tore
up every ard I had, cast out my chips
and said, "NO more poker!" From
that day to this 1 have not touched a
card. I am happy in forgetting the
nightmare of draw. But no one of the
old gang comes near me now. Nothing
is to be made at my table. I cannot
be skinned; therefore they ave no use
for me. They lave found pastures new.
A few old friends who did not come
around when we had poker have come.
back to visit me since I had the sense
to quit it. They are not On the make,
as the phrase goes. They come to
talk and swap lies and have a sensible,
quiet, possibly, scandalizing time. I am
an older man than you think, but
there are other old fools who passed
the meridian before they learned that
they couldn't play poker. If I could
have o every night, 1 wouldn't a
cared for the loss of my friends" but
to lose them and my money, too, was
what brought me around. 1 gambled
to win. So does every honest man. He
il not gambling to lose. When one
says, "Ch, we'll, 1 don't want to win
your money" he lies. Tell him so in
his teetn.-New York Press.