The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1903-12-30
LAURENs. $. c.. Dec. 80, 1908.
Happy New Year!

subscribers of THE ADVERTISER!
A big cotton crop to you in 1904!
A big corn and wheat and oat crop
to you!
A big hog and beef crop to you!
And may the prices be good!
To our staunch friends and merchants
and mechanics and lawyers and bank
ers, may they all share in great pros
perity.
THE ADVERTISER has made one new
year resolution. 1t is no more than this
to be a better newspaper. To car y it
out, the first thing necessary was to add
to the printing force of the office. This
pect more news, because THE ADvER-
User Is able to print more.
a. THE ADVERTISER has had O fairly
prosperous year. Its advertising pat
ronage, its circulation and its job
printing business have been larger
than ever before. The one sore spot is
the failure of a number of people to
pay the dollar q year promised. Many
have paid, we have numerous subscrib-
ers whose words are as good as cash,
but it would astonish the people OF
Laurens county il they could know
how many hundreds, ever thousands Of
dollars this paper has lost in 13 years
by tower confidence" 1t Is disheart.
ening to know hat q number of people
subscribe to this paper, take it out Of
the post Office and read it and pay not
a dollar. Gradually we have cut
down this list and the number is
smaller now than ever before in the
history Of the paper.
This year THE ADVERTISER hopes
that It's county correspondents will
promptly send the news. We are in a
better position to handle it promptly.
Stationery and stamped envelopes can
be had for the asking.
II you have a respectable newspaper
printed in your county, you ought TO
take 1t. II you have several in the
county, you should take one. Strange
as it may SEEM, many people do not
think so. To prove 1t, every week
one or more persons call on The AID.
vERTIsER to do them personal ~favors,
to print resolutions, to get a copy of a
paper containing In article which they
wish, to print other things OF no in
terest to any save their own circle of
friends, who themselves do not sub.
scribe to the paper. Such is the news
paper business. These people do not
even understand, as a rule, that they are
obtaining favors and the publisher has
not even the poor satisfaction of feel
ing that he has placed a man under a
small obligation.
However, THE ADVERTISER, in q
general way, is doing well. 1t is going
to be, politically. this year as usual ar
independent newspaper, saying what II
wishes to say with the bounds of cour.
tesy and fairness. Many of the read
ers of The ADVERTISER do not agree
with The ADVERTISER in political
matters, but they all know hat the pa
to ask. For that reason, and no other
they trust it's motives.
Again, q happy new year to the
whole round world and all that's on it!
The Most Dangerous.
Stronger and mere. dangerous thar
any other perhaps is the evil passion
for gambling. Once 1t secures u holt
the chances are great that the victim
is irretrievably ruined. While the mar
who makes en- occasional wager is no
necessarily @ slave to the. passion, it /!
undoubtedly true that complete surren
der is quick and easy.
THE ADVERTISER does not pretend
to usurp the Office Of the sermon
preacher but from a strictly secular
point of view we wish to warn against
that form of gambling known politely
as Speculation"
When a man risks more than he cal
return in the event of loss, that means
that he is obtaining credit under 6
false pretense, 1t is not honest. When
man goes into o market and buys
thing concerning which he is wholly
i6hotoho v ID RulhuliuHJ pure anu SILL
pie.
Take the cotton market. Even OuI
shrewdest business men know moth.
ing about 1t. Cotton mill men
whose business it is to watch and study
the market, are wrong AZ often as they
are right-as a general rule. When you
or / buy futures or sell them we are
betting. Morally, cotton futures and
poker playing are on precisely the
same level. Meanwhile, it IL not ne.
cessarily immoral for o man to play
cards for money or to speculate in cot.
ton. Provided @ man risks his own
money, to which no other man has any
claim whatever and risks no mora than
he can afford to lose without involving
loss to creditors or dependents, he, in
In our judgment commits no offence.
The difficulty Is that not one mar in
10000 Is able TO 10 this. A man with q
pocket full OF dynamite would be a foo
to ride q fox chase: The man who
CANDLES is a greater fool because he
takes q greater risk-with rare excep
ti0ns.
Speculation utterly units a man fol
business. A book-keeper who has. {