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Show GAMBLING an INSTINCT Most DIFFICULT to SUPPRESS ! WHY LAWS to STAMP Out Games Often FAIL to Accomplish Results Re-sults That Were Intended GAMBLING Is oue of the most deep-seated deep-seated instincts in the human soul. And naturally so. says '.science, for life itself is a gamble. Only those animals which took risks, hoping that they would succeed, could have survived in the primeval struggle for existence. S'3ys a noted psychologist: "Consider the sparrow seeking its food In the street, consider the sly fox and the timid liare, consider. In fact, all the undo-mestlc-ated animals, and you will see what a gamble animal life is. From tie moment if birth on through childhood the human being gambles with nature for its existence, and how very often does it lose! Later, when the young man has to choose a profession pro-fession it's a gamble; when be marries, it Is slill a gamble, and so it continues to the end of his (lays. "War is the greatest same of all, and commerce could not be If men were unwilling unwill-ing to run risks and take chr.nces. What inventions, think you, should we have if scientists did not now and then take a gambling chance in their experiments? The scholar who writes a book and the publisher pub-lisher who brings it out take a chance; the physician takes a chance every day of life; so does the lawyer, the business man, the soldier, sailor, miner, policeman, detective, the bridge builder, the street cleaner, the fireman, the farmer, the factory man indeed. in-deed. It would he very difficult to find a trade or occupation in which the element of risk does not exist. "I have tried to show In a few words that gambling pervades the warp and woof of our whole existence; that it is found among all peoples and In all ages, and that without it in some degree there could be no evolution or progress. This country, for ex- W - - i 7 "Try your luck," barks the faker at the fair, appealing to the oldest propensity in our souls. ample, would still be in the hands of the Indians if Columbus had not taken a big gambling chance ; nor would it be larger than New England If the doughty pioneers had not risked tholr lives and blazed a way westward and across the Rockies. But examples are innumerable." in-numerable." And then the psychologist goes uu to explain why gambling has such a powerful fascination fasci-nation for us. so that we sometimes leave our homes and businesses and indulge in it for clays at a time why, for example, exam-ple, all the laws against it, from the Egyptians down, have often been honored more inthe breach than in the observance. ob-servance. "In the first place, it is because be-cause gambling is such a deep-rooted instinct, and instinct in-stinct is more powerful than reason, custom or 1 a v," continues the psychologist. "Our minds are like skyscrapers which have been i n progress o f construction from the beginning of time. Each century cen-tury or two adds a new story, but tue foundation and the ground floors were built in the dawn of . history, and it is in these that we spend most of our time. And what are the foundation and ground iioor of our mental skyscrapers? Instincts. In spite of our boasted civilization civiliza-tion and culture we are still, to a large extent, ex-tent, creatures of instiuct. Gambling satisfies satis-fies our instinct to run a risk or take a oliar.ee in the hope of gain, and because be-cause it is generally gener-ally a contest it appeals to our in-stinc in-stinc i-hunger for the j(.ys of victory vic-tory over our opponents. op-ponents. To compel com-pel your opponent t o acknowledge you his master has there ever been greater satisfaction' satis-faction' See the happy, self-satisfied expression on the face of the girl who has won first prize at a whist party, and you will get an inkling of what the gambler's feelings must be. "Again, gam-b gam-b 1 1 n g satisfies some old superstitions super-stitions and notions no-tions about luck which are stored away in the cellar of our mental structure, like ancestral an-cestral heirlooms. 'Try .your luck" barks the faker at the fair, and whether he knows it or not, he is appealing ap-pealing to the oldest old-est propensity iu our souls. Who will not spend a few cents to find out whether he is lucky, and now many men trust- i .fair; A-.-r 'r- v.-- "b f The happy expression of the girl who has won her first card prise gives an inkling of the gambler's feelings. ing in the wheel of fortune, as the Greeks did in the Delphic oracle, have launched into business ventures which they otherwise' other-wise' would have hesitated to undertake? "Superstition lurks in all of us. We like to think that we are the favored ones of fortune, the chosen one of the gods; but in the gambler these superstitions become almost a religion. A whole book might be written on the superstitions of gamblers and the many absurd things they do In the belief that it will bring them good luck. But the gambler has only In exaggerated form that which exists In all of us. "Another reason why gambling Is e- fascinating is because It has the power to drive dull care and ennui away. Many a man indulges in it at first to get recreation Man INHERITS Mania to "Take a Chance" From What Was Daily Routine Rou-tine in ANIMAL Kingdom after the monotony of his routine work, and others do so to forget their business worries wor-ries and demesne troubles. "Finally, its greatest charm to many is that they can thereby acquire wealth without with-out working. To earn one's bread by the sweat of the brow is :io disgrace, but there are not many who v.viiM not pro-'."' to earn it in easier ways, and anything that holds forth an opportunity to do this will necessarily neces-sarily be powerfully fascinating." Such are the motives and impulses that lead men to gamble. How to remove these motives ai! withstand these impulses are other problems. Why Meteors Burn in THREE Colors THE earth's atmosphere is now believed to have three fairly distinct strata, the first, extending np to about forty-five miles, having nitrogen as the leading constituent; con-stituent; the second, with Its upper limit at about 125 miles, being chiefly hydrogen, and the third, at a still greater height, consisting con-sisting of a very thin gas, which has been named "geocoronium." Dr. Alfred Wegener Weg-ener has attempted to explain the striking differences of color in meteors or "shooting stars," and says that meteors coming from outer space are not sufficiently heated in the exceedingly light gas to become luminous. lumi-nous. Their fall through the hydrogen layer causes them to become incandescent, and before they reach the lowest stratum most of them are completed dissipated. A few of the largest, however, penetrate th nitrogen atmosphere, a very small number reaching the earth's surface. It is found that the deep-falling meteors pass through three stages of color yellow-white, green, and deep red and it 1b concluded that the green is due to incandescence of the hydrogen hydro-gen and the red to that of the nitrogen. Only the first stage is seen in the quickly dissipated meteors, the white, yellow or sometimes reddlshness being evidently the glow of the meteor substance. |