Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-04-26

not a cent to play with and who sit
around wistfully to pick up sleepers or
in the vague hope that somebody in
luck will give them few cents or dol
lars. These are the men who are toler-
ated for a time and then barred out.
If they are not in Richmond this is the
only city where gambling houses are
that lacks them.
You youngster with job or an in
come, look at these wrecks with pity
ing contempt. Do you ever think that
a few years ago they were just where
you are now.-beginners at the game
with jobs and prospects and hopes? 1t
Is just as sure that II you stick to 1t
you will be where they are, or perhaps
worse. They are comparatively lucky.
Hundreds of thousands who are tread
ing the road you are walking in are in
the penitentiaries or on the road. Ev-
cry year men who once wore clothes as
goods as yours or better, who had as
much sense and character as you have
and as good connections, are fished out
Of the rivers around the big cities or
found dead on freight trains or picked
up along roads and sent to die in
strange almshouses and to be buried
like as many animals with Unknown
Tramp" as their only epitaph.
The game will beat you in the end.
Every gambler will tell you that. There
| Is no doubt of it. The difference be-
tween good luck and bad Is that
with the cards or the wheel or the dice
running your way you will last little
longer. The time must come when you
must quit. If you are lucky enough to
/ be able to quit before you have ruined
yourself you will be all the money out
you have lost and many bitter day
in the future you will wish you had 1t
and see where you could do much for
yourself or somebody you would like to
help If you had it.
| Do you ever think of the histories and
the tragedies behind these old pikers
and dead beats, to say nothing Of the
tramps at whom you laugh now? All Of
them had women who loved them and
hoped for them, just as you, sonny,
probably have. Most Of these wrecks
represent humiiations more bitter than
can be written or told, long heartaches
and the sickening, sliding away of pride
and confidence and faith and all that
makes life beautiful and worth living
Every man who goes to the bad, as
rule, represents the agony Of some
helpless and unoffending woman. If
you are any kind Of man at all, that
Is something that you will take into
consideration.
We are satisfied that some man Will
read this who has already felt the bit
terness and the horror and the sting OF
the disease. Maybe you are already up
to your ears in debt, or, worse have be-
gun to dip into money belonging to
somebody else intending to pay it back
and fooling yourself with the idea that
you are honest. There Is just one way
to stop and that Is to stop. Don't cling
to the idea that some time things must
turn your way and that when you have
pulled out Of the hole you will swear
Off for good. The penitentiaries and
asylums are full of men who have been
right along there. The percentage OF
the game must beat you, If you get
strictly fair showing-which you do
about once in ten times. The gamblers
are not in the business for amuse-
ment and are not going to give you any
chance they can help. When they are
absolutely on the level you will have
the same chance against them that any
amateur has against professionals at
any other game-the same chance you
would have in a fight against Corbett
or at billiards against Ives.
Quit and do 1t without any reservation
about next time or any period Of swear
ing off. There is just the one way to
stop gambling and that Is a hard one
and you will find that it will test all
the manhood you have, If YOU have the
disease badly. Some Of you who do not
acknowledge that you have it can hard
| ly walt IOT your pidCe " CioSc VI ~ 6Ss
your suppers before you are hunting
the game; and you think Of 1t all day
and you dream Of 1t all night and try
to pick punches out Of the street num-
bers.
If you have reached that stage you
had better go down on your knees and
ask Almighty God to help you, and you
had also better go to SOMEBODY you can
trust, make clean breast of it and get
what you may need to put you some
where in haillng distance Of honesty.
Then make up your mind earnestly and
honestly. stick to it and get yourself
interested in something else until the
craving and the habit are broken.
And you who nave not yet begun, or
who are dabbling in 1t, now is the time,
] and the one safe time, to drop 1t.