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Show I PLAYING CARDS FOR MONEY (liy Elbert Hubbard) j As a cold business proposition, let me give you this; I would not trust nn amateur gambler as far as you could (lng Taurus by the tail. I wll not do business wltb a man who plays cards for monev if I can help it. No Individual In iny emplo or anybody else's who plays cards for money can ever hope for promotion. The fcmteur gambler is not necessarily neces-sarily a bad man primarily his Intents In-tents are honest He first plays simply sim-ply for recreation; then, too add Interest, In-terest, the game transforms liself into in-to penny-ante. From this to getting1 all the money he has is a very easy eo!utlon when the fever is on. He wins. But to quit when you have won and rot give your opponents a chance to win their money back Is more or less of a disgrace. He plays again and loses. Then he wants a chance to get his money back. lie plays first only in the evening an hour after supper. Then, if lie can get away from work at 4 o'clock and play until supper time, he will do so, just as scores of government clerks do, where the hours are easy. In the evening he plays again excitement is In the air, chnllenge Is abroad he will come out even and then quit. Men who have work to do cannot play all night and do business th? next da, so midnight may end the game. But Saturday night the game goes on until dn llght-Of llght-Of the "morality"' of gambling nothing noth-ing need be said. All I afllrm is that it is simply absurd to entr on a habit where success is defeat and to win Is a calamity Gambling robs a man of rest, and sleep, lack of pbyslcul exercise, lr- I regular meals, bad air. excitement, from a devil s monopoly of bad things, j and the end is disgrace, madness, 1 death and the grave. ' I am not a member of the Christian Chris-tian Endeavor society, the Epworth league, the Baptist union, the Purity league or the Suppression of Vice society, so-ciety, and all I 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 wc , have in our work. j If by concentration and cutting nut I folly we succeed In a degree, we do 1 well. But I do uot believe we can rea-: rea-: sonably hope for success unless we eliminate the pastboard proclivities. : This is a cold business proposition! j l am done. the keen edi?e of his life Is lost in I shuffling the pasteboards All the gives to his employer or the world Is the discard. Outside of his play ho Is a weak. Inefficient person, and Ills weakness is very apt to manifest itself it-self In burdening his friends. If your gambler Is on a salary he veiy often comes around for his wages before pay day; then he gets to dl-eounting dl-eounting his salary to a money shark: then, If he can, he will "borrow" "bor-row" his pay before he earns It. without with-out first consulting ou. He Intends to pay it back oh, yes! He wins and pays it back. This encourages him to borrow ' more the next time. He tak'-s more I In order to win more. He is now, obliged to play heavily because hl3 I debts are accumulating. I It Is an old story and dozens of ! men In Sing Sing can tell you all , nbout it. j One bad thing about the -inker game is the poker face the Impassive Impas-sive white face, with it cold, senseless sense-less smile. It reveaLs nothing noth-I noth-I lng but untruth. And the principal-reason principal-reason if reveals nothing Is because I there Is nothing back of it to reveal; j it dos not token truth. tal?nt. sym-I sym-I pathy. kindness, love or Intellect. I If four men start In to play poker I with ten dollars each or a thousand 1 dollars i-sch, it Is Just a matter of j metbematleal calculation before all ' of them will have nothing. AH they have will go for cigars and drink and the midnight lunch, whlc-h they would ' not need If they went to bed at a reasonable hour. No man can play the races continually continu-ally and win. John E. Madden, who has made a million dollars or so out of horse racing, says that defeat, end nothing but defeat, awaits (he bettor on cards or horseR. Madden has followed fol-lowed tho business for a quarter, of a century and says: - qiju betting years ago. and If I ever bet again it j ulll be because the dlsense has got-I got-I ten the better of my business Judg-I Judg-I ment." The bookmaker gets it all he has but to wait and the whole thlnt Is tin. Do not imagine that all the gambling gam-bling i done In the cities. "Man made the cities, but the devil made the small towns." Hardly a village In America Is free from the scourge. Gambling mean blurred vision, weak muscles, 6baky nerves. Loss of |