The morality of Gambling.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 128, 14 November 1885, Page 3

The morality of Gambling.

I was sitting in a room in the Maxwell House with General N. B. Forrest several years before his death, says an American journalist. " General Forrest, " I asked, "it has often been said that previous to the war you were a terror at the poker table. How much did you ever win on one hand ?" He replied : " I have played a few heavy games and many a light one. In NewOrleans on one hand I won $47,000." " And what did you hold ?" " Three kings and two nines " I have always regretted I didn't ask him what his opponent held, but I did not. He told the following story, his eyes filling with tears during its recital : " When my wife and I went to Memphis after the close of hostilities -we had $720, not a cent, more or less. We spent one entire afternoon ransacking an old portfolio, hoping to find some old uncollected account or 'I. 0. 17., which I might realise. There wasn't a thing. I said to my wife : * Rhoda, you have alway been agin me and poker j I never played a game since I first knew you that your absent face was not a haunting rebuke over one shoulder Now, I have been invited to Sneed's to dinner to-night, and I know there'll be cards. If you'll give me your blessing this once, my dear, I feel mighty sure I can come home a richer man.' "Said she: 'Forrest, we've got along without that, so far as I have known, and by the Lord's help we'll still go on without it.' " 'Yes, said I, 'but the Lord has been slow of late, and seems to be git tin' slower : what d'ye say to this one time V She never consented, but she didn't oppose it very strong, and I promised I wouldn't go over $720. It was just as I expected. Four tabUs were running at Sneed's, and I won enough at 50 cents ante to go in at a higher table later on. Well, sir, as I won— and I won from the first— l just dropped the money into my hat on the floor, and when we broke up at daylight I put my hat on with the money in it, without counting it over, and went home. As I came near to my house I caught a glimpse from the outside of my wife's white figure waiting right where she had waited all night, pale and anxious, and when I went in I just took off my hat and emptied $1,500 in her lap. I felt sorry for her, for she couldn't bless that night's doings; but, sir" "It was a great relief to me." '<

The Victorian mint will only give bullion value for silver coins which have been wilfully defaced, The young Earl of Dudley is about to visit Australia and New Zealand. His newly- fitted steam yacht Marchesa left Southampton the other day for Rio, where L ?£d Dudley and his uncle, MrMonerieffe, will join her, thence proceeding to a New Zealand port via the^traite of Magellan. The young Earl inherits to the, full ihia mother's splendid beauty' and his father's nne physique, He will be one of the. handsomest as well as one of the richestpeers in Englaod when he cornea of age, 18 months hence, and (needless to'say) a great' "matrimonial catch." Colbnia^beaujbiesi ar£ however, . warned that at .present his 'Lordship is very carefully " shepherded " by his undo and a governor, or tutor.