“I worked very cautiously, and kept it very quiet, but my room during Junior year was scarcely better than a downright gambling den. Late into the nights we played, with drawn curtains, and our stakes ran even higher than had been known in the games of Rapello and Leisenring. I always forced the play boldly, taking pride in my reckless daring and the luck that almost invariably attended it. A change, however, came at last, and toward the end of Junior year I began to suffer heavy reverses. The passion for play had by this time taken thorough possession of me, and I could not give up the game. My position as the leader, moreover, made it doubly difficult for me to retire, had I wanted to. At the beginning of Senior year, when I returned to college, I had lost all I had ever won. “Thinking that my luck would turn, I began the game again in my rooms. Only a few college students rejoined me, for the stakes had grown high, so I sought a few companions among some of the men of the town. They were older than I, and had, as a rule, considerable money. After a month or so the game was transferred from my room――where it was risky――to a place in town. Here my ill luck began again, and all during the winter I continued to lose, until I had nothing left. Then, still unable to give up the game, and always hoping to recover my lost ground, I began to play on borrowed money. This continued until my credit was gone amongst my friends, then I played for a while without money, paying my losses in promissory notes. “As I saw these notes coming due, and found myself unable to meet them, I grew desperate, and stooped to a number of half dishonest devices in order to secure the cash needed. I can’t mention all these. They made me feel ashamed at first, but necessity forced me, and I soon became used to it. Things that had previously seemed mean and despicable to me, became matters of indifference. I found myself excusing acts that had always aroused my contempt. At length I got down to cheating――I couldn’t help it. I had to have money. I didn’t cheat in the games with town men. I couldn’t do that――they were too sharp for me; but I would play smaller games with under classmen and win money by unfair practices. In doing this I was very careful, and was never suspected. Those from whom I have obtained money in this way are good friends, and have never supposed me guilty of dishonorable dealing. But it weighed on me and destroyed my peace of mind. I was always uneasy and in fear of being detected, so I looked about me for other means of obtaining money.