What My Critics will Say 49 



gives me. The articles I write may be poor 

 enough, but some people read them, and live 

 to want to read more, or publishers would not 

 buy them. 



I have a dear friend who is a cotton-broker. 

 He admits candidly that his business is gam- 

 bling, pure and simple, but he contends that if 

 people want to gamble, and want to pay him a 

 comfortable income for registering their bets, 

 there is no reason why he should refuse. If 

 people do want to buy actual cotton, he will 

 buy cotton for them, although he would 

 scarcely know a bale of cotton if he saw one. 

 But his customers want to gamble, and pay 

 him well for helping them to do so. He has 

 no taste or love for chopping wood or raking 

 oysters, but enjoys sitting at a big desk for 

 several hours a day, receiving checks from cus- 

 tomers, paying out the losses and the gains, 

 and dropping into Delmonico's in the middle 

 of the day for luncheon and a quiet talk about 

 the best card in the game to put your money 

 on. When a man's conscience can allow him 

 to do that sort of business day after day, I do 

 not know whether to be glad or sorry for him. 



4 



