Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1915-05-07
An Old Story, Always New.
From Chicago Tribune.

| Inc peIldlLleS VI CTlIlle are IlOI
| written in the statutes. They
are branded on the hearts and
minds of men who wrong their
fellows. Every day gives pathe-
tic evidence of a higher power
than that of man to afflict and
scourge. There died in the Coun-
ty Hospital at Chicago the other
day a charity patient calling him.
self a name not to be found in
the city directory. No one knew
him, but no one cared about the
identity of a man in the last stage
of tuberculosis, the small rem
nant of whose life must run out
almost as the sand in an hour
glass. He was a stranger and
they took him in; sick and they
mlniStered unto him.
Before the end came. but not
until death was standing at his
elbow, the pauper announced
himself to be Ignatius J. Chlies-
XII, who four years earlier had
fled the city, and the country. a
fugitive from justice, after hav-
ing had, as lawyer and private
banker, inspired and then be-
trayed the confidence of nun
dreds of poor people who placed
their money and their property
in his charge. Not until after he
had stolen and lost 100000 of
trust funds and the day of his
reckoning was at hand did he
flee the wrath to come. Escap-
ing the vengeance of the law,
and the trailing of pursuers, he
became a wanderer on the face of
the earth, all of whose ventures
were dogged by ill luck, and
whose strength, under the strain
of adversely, fear and remorse,
was yielding to the weakness of
disease. And ever there was a
hand reckoning him back to the
scene of his cricc, where. at
least, ne came, ufoken in fortune,
health and spirit. to say to the
wife and children called to his
mendicant deathbed: Tell my
old friends have paid for my
folly. with y h my life. Gambling
did it all" "
We need jump at no conclusion
that it was gambling on the stock
or grain exchanges, though it
may have been. We do not have
to assume that it was gambling
with cards or with dice any more
than we have to assume that it
was not. What we know, with a
positive certainty past all doubt
ing, is that the man is gambling
who does that thing which is a
crime not only against it's victim,
but against both divine and hu-
man law. In this city we have,
at this moment. striking exam
Piles of the desperate chances
taken by gamblers who gamble
with fate in the hope of winning,
by taking risks of exposure and
retributive justice, for fraudul- |
ent gain. There is no form of
gambling worse than this. 1t is
gambling against God. 1t is bet
ting that divine as we'll as human
law can be suspended or evaded
by false pretenses and shallow |
subterfuges. The men who play |
such games of chance think to
load the dice against others, but |
eyer they are loading them
against themselves, whether the
game run for days or for years.
EDery pioiafon of the moral ldW, |
eDeyy sitting of conscience and
eUerp SHINING against light, is a
bet that nature and natures idlDS
can be defeated. II is the bet OfI
fools, the bet of men gone mad
in lust of wedlh, fame, or pleas
ureS of amp kind Which break the |
laU ordained By mdnkind for the |
preservation of organised society
and the keeping ofthe social com
pact. Such men are the most de-
luded of all gamblers. for they |
delude themselves with the no
ton of defrauding the state itself
with the tricks of the card shark. |
They lose, as Ignatius Chlieski
lost. Gambling does it all, wheth-
er the bets be laid against bulls
and bears or against the world |
and the most high God.