The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-06
INCIDENTS
AND OBSERVATIONS.
BY Il. u. GRAY.

bows with his kind there are in the
laws that control action and events
certain puZZling breaks in man-made
logic which force into the mind of the
philosopher the SOLDERING thought that
nature is not mathematician. There
is something, too, of a certain humour
in the method with which Fate is
wont to discountenance the predictions
and the calculations of men. The
problem is permitted to run its orderly
course almost to the last calculation,
the sands drift to the bottom globe of
the glass and, presto, the solution
which had been but moment before
apparently in sight becomes in an in
slant nothing more than one of the
ludicrous mistakes with which the
record of experience is filled.
AS has been, so often tritely put wo-
man is, of course. the main problem
of the ages; and it is well known that
the sewing machine and the type
writer run or stop at their own sweet
will. with every particle of their ma
chinery well-oiled and accurately dis
posed, and the manifestly weaker
teams continue to win now and again
at foot-ball-but presidential elections
throw quadrennial fits into hundreds
of thousands of the "cock-Sure" clt1-
zenship of the county. The above are
but isolated instances of the GUESSING
Rule-the streak of the perverSe that
lies dormant behind the surface of
units-the principle of which each in
dividual man is always certain or
holding the key-and which from the
times when the Arabs invented dice
has made of gambling the most fool
ish. the most fascinating and the wis
est OF occupations.
Take a man who gambleS-and by
that l do not mean the soft-headed
individual who fancies that he has the
original system fated to do ma
chine having a mathematical advant-
age of from ten to thirty per cent. or
chances-but the citizen who backs
his judgment. Explain to him that
gambling is foolish because II one
loses he has paid the toll to chance
and if he wins he squanders his stakes
in high disregard of the laws OF re-
curing series, and he will agree with
you to the letter, the while he regards
you with pity as an Ignorant Person
who has not made a study OF the
game. For deep in his heart your
gambler knows that he is the one
chosen and predestinated master or
luck and that the losses he sustains
are but the Christening rules that he
must learn to be Master of the Art
Yet any gambler will tell you that
the most dangerous antagonist is not
the man who knows most ABOUT what
he is doing, but the enthusiastic tyro
who planks down his coin at big ODDS
regardless of probabilities and deaf 20
the advice and entreaties of his wiser
friends. Chance seems almost always
to have a deep antipathy to the crowd.
Whether or not ii is that the law or
luck is seeking vainly to thereby dis
courage the habit, it is true that there
are always more losers than winners.
That is one of the laws that is inexor-
able; so we'll known that 1t has come
to be put in the brokers' proverb OF
copper your customers and get rich
If gambling is to be suppressed as
immoral why is it that it is not err
United for the crowd to win and the
few to lose? In that event. there
would soon be no gambling. since 1t
would be a simple matter to break the
bull-headed minority. AS it is. the
gambler gets in the fortunate company
of the minority only often enough TO
whet his appetite and confirm him In
his Self-eSteem. travelling for the most
part from disappointment to disap-
pointment along with the ever LOSING
but always confident majority
All of which is by way of apology
for the prediction that the name of
the next President will be Alton
Brooks Parker.
The gentle reader smiles? Take the
trouble. an you will. to listen to any
one of the hundreds of political dis
cussions going on at every hour ana
in every place. Consider, also. that
this is the South. That ninety-nine
men out of every hundred are unable
to think of the Chief Executive ex-
cept as something a little less worthy
of respect than the most imDudent Of
negroes. Listen to these discussions
and tell me what name you hear de-
termined upon as next occupant or the
Presidential chair. Is it not Teddy.
the revied and, in the South, depised
as no man has been in the history OF
ArG of hat 81
the trend of the gambling crowd
Therefore the trick is an easy one
that is cooper the Roosevelt predic-
tions and get rich" There was never
a fairer mark for the application of
the Guessing Rule than in this present
election. And unless Roosevelt be. III
reality, man of Destiny to set the
soundest rule of all at fault. the doom
of defeat is already set upon him. as
testified to in the confidence of the
gambling fraternity.
Be it known that by gambling fra
ternity, | mean not only the sport with
the horse shoe pin who puts up his
money on his belief i'm the cash value of
his opinions and the citizen who bets
only as a flyer on big things like an cleo
ton. These form the smallest portion OF
the gamblers of the country. The real
gamblers exist almost in equal num-
Der as the mass of the population it
self 1t is the possession of the gamD-
ling instinct that constitutes gamb-
Ter and the gambling instinct is scarce
ly more than the possession of the
most fragrant of human passions. the
desire to enforce opinion. The man
who, too timid or too pfous or too hyp-
ocritical as the case may be to make
up his mind and then bet his money
anu the three reasons operate In the
matter in about equal proportions
1t l. Al1f Nf tab lAtr
ing friend by the lapel of his coat ara
arguing him black in the face as TO
why his pet view of the pending ':lfc-
ton is the correct one. To satisfy the
passion he regards not convenience.
nor propriety of time or place. nor
even the dictates of common couFtc-
sy Try to turn the trend of his mln1.
to interject a thought Of your Owl
and one is met b. an Indifference tna
does not attempt to conceal conteb'h.'
1t makes no difference 70 the de2 1.
beat sport that he has inflicted tie
same punishment on score OF peopie
the same day. He is simply gratifying
the gambling instinct without risk