There are, however, more serious objections than these. Card-playing has a tendency of the most dangerous description, especially to the youthful. Let a young man become expert in this game, and fond of engaging in it, and who does not see he is liable to become that most mean and despicable of all living creatures--a GAMBLER. Confident of his own skill as a card-player, how long would he hesitate to engage in a game for a small sum? He has seen older ones playing--perhaps his own parents--and he can discover no great harm in doing the same thing even if it is for a stake of a few shillings. From playing for small sums, the steps are very easy which lead to large amounts. And in due time, the young man becomes a gambler, from no other cause than that he acquired a love for card-playing, when he engaged in it only as an amusement. Parents have a responsibility resting on them in this respect, of which they should not lose sight. They cannot be surprised that their children imitate their examples. With all the dangerous associations and tendencies of card-playing, would they have their children acquire a passion for it? What wise parent can make such a choice for his son? Ah, how many a young man has become a gamester, a black-leg, an inmate of the prison cell, because, in the home of his childhood, he acquired a love of the card-table. He but imitated the practice of parents, whose duty it was to set him a better example, and _was led to the path of ruin_! If, from its influences, card-playing, even for amusement, is improper for gentlemen, I conceive it much more so for ladies. A woman--and more especially a young woman--seems entirely out of place at a card-table. The associations are so masculine--they bring to mind so much of the cut-and-shuffle trickery, vulgarity and profanity--so many of the words and phrases of that _hell_, the gaming-table--that for a lady to indulge in them, appears entirely opposed to that modesty and refinement, which are so becoming the female character. I trust all young ladies of discretion will shun the card-table. I am confident every woman, who possesses a proper sense of the dignity and delicacy which form the highest attractions of the female character, will avoid a practice which is made an instrument of the most despicable uses, and to which the most vile and abandoned constantly resort. "Daughters of those who, long ago, Dared the dark storm and angry sea, And walked the desert way of woe, And pain, and trouble to be free! "Oh, be like them! like them endure, And bow beneath affliction's rod; Like them be watchful, high and pure-- In all things seek the smile of God."