hope
of winning more than you hazard. The instruments of gaming may differ,
but the principle is the same. The shuffling and dealing of cards,
however full of temptation, is not gambling, unless stakes are put up;
while, on the other hand, gambling may be carried on without cards, or
dice, or billiards, or a ten-pin alley. The man who bets on horses,
on elections, on battles--the man who deals in "fancy" stocks,
or conducts a business which extra hazards capital, or goes into
transactions without foundation, but dependent upon what men call
"luck," is a gambler.

It is estimated that one-fourth of the business in London is done
dishonestly. Whatever you expect to get from your neighbor without
offering an equivalent in money or time or skill, is either the
product of theft or gaming. Lottery tickets and lottery policies come
into the same category. Fairs for the founding of hospitals, schools
and churches, conducted on the raffling system, come under the same
denomination. Do not, therefore, associate gambling necessarily with
any instrument, or game, or time, or place, or think the principle
depends upon whether you play for a glass of wine, or one hundred
shares in _Camden and Amboy_. Whether you employ faro or billiards,
rondo and keno, cards, or bagatelle, the very _idea_ of the thing is
dishonest; for it professes to bestow upon you a good for which you
_give no equivalent_.

This crime is no newborn sprite, but a haggard transgression that
comes staggering down under a mantle of curses through many centuries.
All nations, barbarous and civilized, have been addicted to it. Before
1838, the French government received revenue from gaming houses.
In 1567, England, for the improvement of her harbors, instituted a
lottery, to be held at the front door of St. Paul's Cathedral. Four
hundred thousand tickets were sold, at ten shillings each. The
British Museum and Westminster Bridge were partially built by similar
procedures. The ancient Germans would sometimes put up themselves and
families as prizes, and suffer themselves to be bound, though stronger
than the persons who won them.

But now the laws of the whole civilized world denounce the system.
Enactments have been passed, but only partially enforced. The men
interested in gaming houses wield such influence, by their numbers and
affluence, that the judge, the jury, and the police officer must
be bold indeed who would array themselves against these infamous
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