Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1920-06-09
CARD PLAYING

April Z0In, ISzu.
The experience which ! have mad
along this line is that which the az
erage boy will pass through In the
early years of life. In my aooies-
cence, when / was nobly WresCling
with cube root and endeavor1ng 20 nt
my fathers razor to my chin, ana IN
lother ways reaching up to mannooo'
| it was vigorously represented TO me
| by older chums who had shed tnelr
milk teeth and whose knowledge
seemed greater than that derived at
school or home, that card playing was
manly accomplishment which l must
no longer neglect to cultivate. 1hey
did not burden me with the Wnyness
or wherefores, and at that age a boy
does not often ask the "why' OF ms
free advisers Their experience is
taken as the very best. THESE were
both advisers and free instructors.
Satan's Sunday school teachers never
have to be coaxed. But the school OF
vice collects all its tuition bills later,
compound interest added. You reap
what you sow. The prodigal son
was never the man he would have
been had he never been prodlgal.
1 triumphed over cube root, the
razor, and plunged pretty well INTO
the mysteries of a greasy, dog-eareo
pack of cards. They did not do me
ANY harm, nor can see any harm IN
a nice quiet game at home providing
YOU never get away from q home to
play. Every boy and girl begins In a
harmless place and way, but not
many remain there Soon you are IN
a public place and drawn into the
game among the more hardened, us
tening to their coarse stories and
swearing. If you have not learned to
cheat, now is the chance. Soon will
follow mild ways of gambling, until
the innocent little pastlme at nome
has become the game of the dive. 1t
is game of chance and its chief op-
Ierators are the unprinclpled class.
There is no skill or science neces-
sary, in fact few brains are required
giving the greatest scope to luck or
chance. This is the reason it has al
ways been the gamblers game.
In an editorial on social meetings
in the Housewife we read, ''Never
make the mistake of allowing your
meetings to degenerate into card
playing circles. Such gatherings
conduce to loud talking, sly tricks,
! and evidence of bad breeding. Very
few women can make card playing a
, ing of standards" Business" there
means "set entertainments Notice
some of the words used, degenerate,
loud talking, sly tricks, bad breeding.
: 1t is hard to entertain a card-playing
crowd with anything else, probably
because other things take active brain
power.
Social card-playing may be the in
lnocent little lamb that some of its
champions would like to label it; if
so it had the misfortune in its youth
: to get tarred with the wrong stick.
If it is a lamb, it butts and smells
} goat fashion. It's champions will have
a difficult task to clear it of having
been mixed up, according to the his
, tory of the world, with, miserable
, lot of deviltry, in company with such
disreputabie lot of pals as the whis-
: key bottle, harlots, the dagger, the
gun, the thief, the murderer and
Sing Sing. Decent society should feel
obliged to quarantine such fellow.
In adopting a founding, or a bust
] ness, or habit, or an amusement, it
. is best to observe carefully to be fully
assured as to the possibility of a yell
low streak. You do not want that
little criminal to grow up in your
r home. Many people, who would
: shudder at carrying a knife that had
!. been stained with the blood of human
beings, even If you only used it fol-
whiting toothpickS, can smile as
they handle the instrument the devi
has used In leading many to robbery
murder, suicide, mental and mora
ruin. Besides that, there are plent,
OF clean amusements that never wen
INTO partnership with many of TIL
vices and crimes of humanity, there
lore there is no necessity of invitin,
a CRIMINAL game into the parlor evel
II we are not criminals. Checkers
chess, billiards and such like reuuir
brains and skill and are not games o
chance, therefore are not used in
gambling. Nearly all thugs, burglars
drunkards, pirates, murderers, rogue
ana convlcts play cards, and a SINAI
percentage of good people, but the
90 not whlten the tar pot much.
one is trying to live upon the plane O
Chrlstlan civilization there is no sens
in going down to the level of 0 tb
orutes that shook dice under the eros
OF our dying SAVIOR, to find an limo
cent amusement
"A friend suggests to parents r
pay cards with the children at hom
ana keep them at home and in poo
company. This looks like POL
nugget but it is only lead dipped
why not teach children to drink mod
efateiy at home. The boys will n
ooupt learn to swear. Why not hire
private tutor in genteel profanity t
introduce them to a few select. harm
less 'cuss words?" Wry not buy the,
tame tiger for pet and playmate
You cannot figure out in any, tn
notch at which the taste for bloc
will be awakened This taste stun
bers in all, your children include,
There is a fatal fascination abor
games of chance just as there is
growing appetite for narcotics. Pa
ents are not going to push their chi
dren out of the third story windo
until they are certain that the laws {
lgravlty are cancelled Nor are the