The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1912-11-22
THE GAM BIER
(By Ebert HUBBARD

it is simply absurd to enter a habit
where success is defeat and to win
is calamity.
The successful amateur gambler
graduates into a professionalism has
to, for business men shun him.
No man who plays cards for money
can keep his position long. The fact
is. none of us have a surplus of
! brains, and if we are going to sue
coed in business all the power We
have to our credit is demanded. The
man who can play cards at night and
do business in the daytime hasn't yet
been born.
Life is a bank account, with SO
much divine energy at our disposal
What are you going to do with it?
If you draw your checks for this, you
cannot draw for that. Take your
choice. And. above all, do not draw
on the Bank OF Futurity by breathing
bad air. keeping bad hours and bad
company.
The man who succeeds in business
is the one who goes to bed before 10
o'clock at night. and one thing is he
jealous Of. and that is outdoor eXer-
else.
Gambling robs a man of rest. and
the keen edge Of life is lost in shut
fling the p~asteboards. All he gives to
hi sempIoyer or the world is the dis
card. Outside Of his play, he is a
weak, inefficient person, and his
weakness is very apt to manifest it
self in burdening his friends.
The curse OF gambling does not fall
the gambler alone, and more than
the drunkard alone suffers Tor his
fault. Suffering falls upon everyone
the radius OF the gambler.
II your gambler is on a salary, he
very often comes around for his Vag-
IS before pay day, then he gets to
iiscounting his salary to a money
shark, then. if he IAN. he will Dor
his pay before he earns it,
without first consulting you. He in
tends to pay it back, oh, yes.
He wins and pays it back. This en-
courages 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 are
a-ccumuIating. 1t is an old story. and
dozens OF men in Sing Sing can tell
You all about it.
To do business with gamblers
leads as a rule to disappointment. be
cause with gamblers the idea of re
c~iprocity and cooperation, except to
skin somebody, does no exist.
From betting to b~eggardom is only
a step. No man can play the paste
boards. or the races, continually. and
win. automatically, he is bound to
lose at the last. And OF all the fools
the biggest is the man who bets on
sure thing
John Madden has followed the bus
for a quarter Of a century. and
says: 4 quit betting years ago. AMI
if / ever bet again it will be because
the disease has got the better of my
business judgment"
The bookmaker gets it al-he has
but TO wait, and the whole thing is
his. 1t is just like the game where
the dealer takes care OF all the bets
and gives the first booster an ace in
the hole. If the boosters do not get
the live ones" money the dealer
viii. He gets all the others have, as
sure as death. if they continue to
play.
DO not imagine that all gambling is
done in the cities. Man made the
cities, God the country. 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 sleep, lack of physical exercise, IL
regular meals. bad air. excitement
form a devils monopoly of bad things
and the end is disgrace, madness,
death Inc the grave.
| am not a member of the Christian
Endeavor Society. the Epworth Lea
que, the Baptist Union, the knights
Of Columbus or the Society for the
Suppression of Vice, and all l say
here is simply a little plain talk by
one business man to others, with all
soft sentiment omitted.
Boys, we need all the brains We
have in our work.
Judson Harmon did his duty in
Ohio; Underwood was faithful in AL