JAMES JONES; OR, THE LITTLE GAMBLER.

“What can be meant by ‘the little gambler?’ I never heard of a boy’s gambling in my life!” my little reader will, no doubt, exclaim. Though it may seem very strange, yet such things often occur. I will relate to you an incident that occurred in my school-boy days, which, perhaps, may bring to your recollection the fact that you have indulged in it yourself. Boys as well as men are frequently found to be gamblers, though, of course, on a much smaller scale.

At the corner of a street in the city of —— was a gaming house, kept by a boy not more than twelve years old. It was one of the most beautiful and pleasant places I ever saw, well calculated to entice within its polluted walls the heedless and inconsiderate youth. Here, after school hours, quite a number of boys were accustomed to assemble and spend their evenings.

Passing near the above place one pleasant evening in May, I saw a youth, whom I shall call James Jones, who seemed to be intently engaged in the issue of a game. He was successful; and when he gathered up the “stakes,” a smile of exulting joy passed over his face. I saw nothing more of James till some eight years after the above occurrence. I was standing in the court-room one morning, when I heard the clerk read out a charge against James Jones for forcibly breaking into the trunk of a certain gentleman, and stealing therefrom the sum of $500.

On examining the appearance of the young man more closely, I found him to be the same youth whom I had seen in the “little gambling house.” A widowed mother sat by his side, weeping most bitterly. His appearance had altered very much. Long confinement had turned the healthy, robust man into a mere skeleton. His countenance was haggard, his cheek sunken, his eye dim, his step tremulous.

He was found guilty, and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in the State Penitentiary. When he arose to receive the sentence the most perfect indifference was manifested by him, while his poor mother seemed as though she would die beneath the weight of such heavy affliction.

She informed me that James, at a very early age, became fond of bad company, and would often steal away at night, and spend the time allotted to rest in the most dissipated assemblies. He finally became involved in debt, and determined to get out at all hazards. He was thus almost forced to commit a deed which brought the grey hairs of his mother in sorrow to the grave, and ruined him for life.

Doubtless, you would like to know what was James’ first act in his downward career. It was betting at the “little gambling house.” There he learned to do evil rather than good.

I have neglected to explain to you what the gambling house was. It was a wide-spreading elm tree, beneath the hospitable shade of which the boys of the neighborhood were accustomed to meet and play marbles for have-ance; that is, each boy kept all the marbles he knocked out of the ring.

Have any of you ever been guilty of this? If so, then you were gambling, and, unless you stop it at once, the gallows or the penitentiary may be your end. Do not gamble with marbles; it may be your ruin. Truly, “The way of the transgressor is hard.”

TAKE HEED.

“Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”