Canada Bill--peace to his ashes--is dead. He died in Reading,
Penn., about ten years ago, and, poor fellow, he did not leave
enough money of all the many thousands he had won to bury him. The
Mayor of Reading had him decently interred, and when his friends
in Chicago learned the fact, they raised money enough to pay all
the funeral expenses and erect a monument to the memory of one who
was, while living, a friend to the poor. I was in New Orleans at
the time of his death, and did not hear the sad news for some months
after.
I hope the old fellow is happy in a better land. If kind acts and
a generous heart can atone for the sin of gambling, and entitle
men to a mansion in the skies, Canada Bill surely got one, "where
the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."
There never lived a better hearted man. He was liberal to a fault.
I have known him to turn back when we were on the street and give
to some poor object we had passed. Many a time I have seen him
walk up to a Sister of Charity and make her a present of as much
as $50, and when we would speak of it, he would say:
"Well, George, they do a great deal for the poor, and I think they
know better how to use the money than I do."
Once I saw him win $200 from a man, and shortly after his little
boy came running down the cabin, Bill called the boy up and handed
him the $200 and told him to give it to his mother.
He was a man, take him for all in all, that possessed many laudable
traits of character. He often said suckers had no business with
money. He had some peculiar traits. While he was a great man at
monte, he was a fool at short cards. I have known men who knew
this to travel all over the country after Bill, trying to induce
him to play cards with them. He would do it, and this is what kept
him poor.
Mason Long, the converted gambler, says of William Jones (Canada
Bill):
"The confidence men and monte players were in clover. Among them
was the most notorious and successful _thief_ who ever operated in
this country, Canada Bill. He was a _large_ man, with a nose
_highly illuminated_ by the joint action of _whisky_ and heat.
Bill squandered his money very lavishly, and _drank_ himself to
death in about a year after the incident I have related. He died
a pauper."
"But by all thy nature's weakness,
Hidden faults and follies know.
Be thou, in rebuking evil,
Conscious of thine own."
Is Mason Long converted? God and himself only know.
Was he fully converted when he wrote "The Converted Gambler"?
If the Bible be true, and it was left for me to decide, I would
answer in the language of St. Paul:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have
not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."
A true Christian will exercise charity toward all offenders, granting
a boon of pity to the erring, and cast a glance of mercy upon the
faults of his fellows. He will cherish a recollection of his
virtues, and bury all his imperfections.
Is Mason Long a true Christian? Read his description of Canada
Bill. Then read a true description of Bill's personal appearance
on page 190 in this book. If Mason Long had never seen Canada
Bill, I would excuse him, but he said he capped for him once, or
at least he tried to do so.
Has he shown any Christian charity in speaking of a man in his
grave? Read what he says, and you will see that he or I are
mistaken.
Bill was not a thief, he was honest to a fault. He was not a large
man, for he never weighed over 130. He did not have a nose highly
illuminated by the joint action of whisky and heat. He did not
drink himself to death within a year of 1876, for he visited me in
New Orleans in 1877. He did not drink whisky at all. His great
drink was Christian cider, and it was very seldom I could get him
to drink wine. He did die a pauper, and God bless him for it, for
he gave more money to the poor than a thousand professed Christians
that I know, who make a great parade of their reformation.
The public put all sporting men into one class, called gamblers;
likewise they put all church members into classes and call them
Christians, etc.
There is as wide a difference between a true gambler and one who
styles himself a sport, as there is between a true Christian and
one who puts on the cloak of Christianity to serve the devil in.
There is an old saying, "Honor among thieves." I will add a maxim
or two: There is honor among gamblers, and dishonor among some
business men that stand very high in the community in which they
live.