The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-11

From the Anaconda Standard
 The gambler has a pleasant lot,
 He's flush of money-I guess not.
 He wins one bet and loses two
 And leaves the place without a sou.
 But, like the moth around the flame,
 He always hunts another game.
 He hopes next day for better luck.
 Hes in the game for sports to pluck.
 The man who gambes is hopeful cuss. No sooner does he. get the worst of 1t than he comes back for more. He tries the same game ovef and over again and generally loses, but he keeps his eye on the future and tries again. At tempt to remonstrate with him and he'll tell you of some one he knew who once won at the same game. That's enough argument for him. He has his lightning rod up and expects to secure re- suits some time.
 The particular game makes no differ- ence to the man who gambles. He may have the stock bug, the poker bug, the faro bug, the roulette bug or the racing bug It's all the same to him. He never wins in the long run, but he expects to some day. Nearly all the games are alike, the only difference being that in in a while. But they are all alike in another way. The man who gambles IS always playnig the other fellows game. But, the man who gambles asks, don't those other fellows gamble. too? Didn't they get their start that way? And then he wakes up. Those other fellows don't gamble. They've got cinch and some times a cold deck.
 Once in a while the man who gambies wins, of course, but he doesn't hold on to his winnings, so the other fellow doesn't care. If he didn't let somebody win once in a while he'd get no game.
 But what's the use in preaching? It's almost impossible to break man Of the gambling fever. He'll go into poolroom, slide behind the partition, put down his hard-earned dollars, listen to the guy with the voice and the telegraph instru- ment call the race and be supremacy happy. His horse is only heard from once, but as he feels in his empty pocket he consoles himself with Well, l got a call, anyway Then he goes of to work to make more money for the pool room proprietor and the dopester.
 The man with the dope is an artist at his business. He knows human nature and just how to catch the man who gam bles. He provides himself with telegraph blanks and a typewriter and just before a race is run he rushes up to man who gambles and shows him message from the track 'Neverdid is sure to win" So the man who gambles puts his money down on Neverdid. If Neverdid comes in ahead he divides his winnings with the dopester, but if Neverdid loses the dopester has to appeal to the proprietor. He knows he won't get turned down, for he's necessary to the game.
 After the race the man who gambles finds others of his kind and they tell how it happened, how the combinations they made came near winning and how their horses led to the stretch and then quit like dogs. But the man who gam bles is not disheartened. He hopes for better luck next time and he stands his creditors off for another week, borrows his wife's washing money and goes back the next day. No matter how many times he's bitten he goes back again. He's al- ways welcome. If he bets a dollar on a race he's a piker. If he bets s he's a plunger. But, piker or plunger, the end is the same, the man behind the hole in the partition gets the money. It's an old saying, and true one. that there's a sucker born every minute and none of them ever dies.
 And the man who gambles finds it's the same with all other games. The man be- hind the partition gets the dough and the outsider gets the experience. The