Hobbes, the philosopher, says man is the only animal that laughs.
He might have appropriately added, he is the only animal that
gambles. To gamble or venture on chance, his own property with
the hope of winning the property of another is peculiar to him.
Other animals in common with man will fight for meat, drink, and
lodging, and will battle for love as fiercely as the old knights
of chivalry; but there is no well authenticated account that any
of the lower animals ever chanced any of their property on "odd-or-
even," or drew lots for choice of pasturage. No master has ever
yet taught his dog to play with him at casino, and even the learned
pig could never learn what was trumps. Hence gambling is a proof
of man's intellectual superiority. Certain it is that men, from
the earliest ages, have been addicted to some form of gambling, or
settling matters by chance. It was by lot that it was determined
in Biblical days which of the goats should be offered by Aaron; by
lot the land of Canaan was divided; by lot Saul was marked out for
the Hebrew kingdom; by lot Jonah was discovered to be the cause of
the storm.
Even in legendary days there is a pretty story that Mercury fell
in love with Rhea (or the Earth), and wishing to do her a favor,
gambled with the Moon, and won from her every seventieth part of
the time she illumined the horizon, all of which parts he united
together, making up five days, and added them to the Earth's year,
which had previously consisted of only 360 days, and was now 365.
There is not an age of the world, nor a people, who have not been
gamblers. The Romans, the Greeks, the Asiatics--all have their
games of chance. There was, indeed, a period in the history of
the world when gambling was the amusement and recreation of kings
and queens, professional men and clergymen. Even John Wesley, the
founder of Methodism, played cards. The Rev. Caleb C. Colton was
one of the luckiest of gamesters. He was a graduate of Cambridge,
and the author of "Lacon, or Many Things in a Few Words." At one
time in Paris he won $100,000. He left a large fortune, part of
which he employed in forming a picture gallery at Paris. General
Scott, the father-in-law of George Canning, made one of the largest
winnings ever known. He won at White's one million dollars, owing
to his sobriety and knowledge of the game of whist.
Who loved his country more than Cato? And yet he was a great
gambler. Guido, the painter, and Coquillart, a famous poet, were
both inveterate gamblers.
The great philosophers Montaigne and Descartes at an early age were
seduced by the allurements of gambling.
The generality of people throughout the world are of the opinion
that gamblers are the worst people on the face of the earth. They
are wrong, for I tell you there is ten times more rascality among
men outside of the class they call gamblers than there is inside it.
Person that the generality of people class as gamblers are only
those who play at games of chance with cards. What are the members
of the Board of Trade but gamblers? The Board of Trade is just as
much a gambling house as a faro bank. Do not the members put up
their (and often times other peoples') money on puts, calls, margins,
and futures? Do not some poor people have to wait a long time in
the "future" before they get back the money some rascal has put up
and lost? Talk about the morality of gamblers. They are not
thieves and swindlers, and I never heard of one who ever served a
term in the penitentiary, or was arrested for embezzling money.