like, as unnatural or artificial tastes and passions. But is this the fact ? Gambling has been practised by all people in all ages. In the infancy of the race, and in rude societies, it assumes the form of games, physical and animal contests; in more advanced communities, stocks and securities become the favorite gamble, and indeed, the spirit of gambling underlies all commerce and industrial activities. And so with regard to the other vices named, there appears to be in man natural appetites craving indulgence. Intoxicating drink is common to all time and places and to avoid excess in this or other things is simply perfection. Why did all the world take so quickly and so naturally to the use of tobacco when it was discovered, if the craving for it did not spring from a natural appetite ?
So with a hundred other great and small tyrannies and swindles, such as those so frequently perpetrated by gas and water companies, by boards and officeholders, by men in any and every position where they happen to hold some power over their fellows. So long asthese gross iniquities are permitted ; so long as the grinding monopolist and the unprincipled stock-jobber are permitted to ply their nefarious trade, why be so hard on the honest gambler who stoops to no such vile advantage? He, alone, who makes it a profession is disgraced. He, alone, is infamous. An honest man he may be, courteous, chivalrous, unselfish, yet the filthiest blackguard that ' bucks' against his bank may hold him in social contempt.
The prudish English put the finest point on this absurdity. It is all right to play whist and like games, all betting "just to make it interesting, you know," all of necessity pretending that they care nothing for the money ; but change the game, and bet a little more freely, and the clergymen and women particularly are horrified. The game of poker is becoming reputable in America among free-and-easy and not over-refined people, provided the stakes are
