The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1910-03-14
PLAYING CARDS FOR MONEY
By Ebert Hubbard)

Gjy Ebert Hubbard)
As a cold business proposition. let
me give YOU this. ! would not trust
an amateur gambler as far as you
could nng Taurus by the tail
| Will not do business With man
who plays cards for money If | can
help It,
No individual In my employ-or
anybody else's-who plays cards for
money can ever hope for promotion.
The 6mtcur gambler Is not neccs.
sarily a bad man-primarily his In
tents are honest He first plays sim
ply for recreation; then too add in
terest. the game transforms Itself in
to penny-ante From this 10 getting
all the money he has Is a very easy
evolution when the fever is on. He
wins
But to quilt when YOU have won and
not give YOUR opponents a chance TO
win their money back is more or less
o. a disgrace.
BE plays agaiD-and loses.
Then he wants a chance to get his
money back.
He plays first only in the evening
IN hour AFTER supper.
Then. If he can get away from work
at O'Clock and play until supper
time. he will do so. just as scores Of
government clerks do. where the
hours are easy In the evening he
plays ngain-excitemen is In the air,
challenge Is abroad-hc will come out
even and then quit Men who have
work TO do cannot play all night and
do business the next day. so midnight
may end the game.
But Saturday night tho game goes
on until daylight
or the morality" of gambling moth
ing need be said All | affirm Is that
It is simply absurd TO enter on
habit where success is defeat and to
win is calamity
Gambling robs man OF rest. and
tho keen edge OF his life is lost in
shuffllng the pasteboards. All the
gives 20 his employer OF the world
Is the discard. Outside OF his play he
Is a weak. inefficient person. and his
weakness is very apt TO manifest IL
self in burdenlng his friends.
n your gambler Is ON n salary he
very often comes around for his wages
before pay day; then he gets TO dis
counting his salary TO a money
shark: then. II he can. he VIII Dor
row" his pay before he earns H. with.
out fret consulting YOU. He intends
TO pay 1t back-oh. yes!
He wins and pays IL back.
This encourages him to borrow
more the next time He takes more
In order To win more. He is now
obliged TO play heavily because his
debts arc accommodating.
II is an old story and dozens Of
men lu Sing Sing can tell YOU all
about it.
one lad thing about the poker
game Is the poker face-the impas-
sIvc white iace. with its cold. sense
less smile II reveals Dothing-noth-
ing but untTuth And the principal
reason II reveals nothing Is because
there Is nothing back Of IL 10 reveal:
II does not token truth. talent. SYM
pathy. kindness. love or intellect.
II four men start In TO play poker
with ton dollnrs each or a thousand
dollars each. Il is Just a matter Of
mathematical calculation before all
OF them will have nothing. All they
have will go for cigars and drink and
the midnight lunch. which they would
not need II they went 10 bed at a
reasonable hour.
No man can play the races contlnu-
ally and win. John F. Madden, who
has made a million dollars or so ont
OF horse racing. says that defeat. and
nothing but defeat. awaits the better
on cards or horses. Madden has fol.
lowed the business for a quarter of a
century and says Il quit betting
years ago, and il ever bet again II
win BE- because the disease has got.
ten tho better Of my business judg.
ment"
The bookmaker gets IL all-ha has
but 10 wait and the whole thing IA
his
Do not imagine that all the gam.
bling 10 done in the cities. Man
made the cities. but the devil made
the small towns" Hardly a village
in America is free from the scourge.
Gambling means blurred vision
weak muscles. shaky nerves. Loss OF