“Dodd” enjoyed “Othello” as much as he did “London Assurance.”  But that night he pledged himself again not to pursue the pleasure further, as he had now seen it all.  The next day, however, he found “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” billed.  Now even “ministers went to see this play,” the bills said.  “Dodd” saw “Topsy,” “Eva,” “Marks,” and “Uncle Tom” that night!

Thursday he found “Ten Nights in a Bar-Room” billed.  He knew the story, and was anxious to see the characters in it upon the stage.  He saw them.

Friday, his friend John Oller, from Emburg, was in town, and “Dodd” confessed to him that he had been four times to the theatre.  John said: 

“Well, ‘Dodd,’ I never went, and I want to go.  Come and go with me to-night.”  The boys followed “Marble Heart” through to the end that evening.

Saturday they went down town together, and “Zoe, the Octoroon Girl,” was on for matinee.  They took it in.  Saturday night was set for “Hamlet,” and that melancholy Dane died in their presence before the city clock rang in the Sabbath morning.

Here is the story for you, good people.  Seven times to the theatre in one week, for a boy who had been to such a place but seven times in all his life.  It is the way of human nature.  I suppose that when Adam and Eve really got to eating the forbidden apples, they ate, and ate, and ate.  At least, this quality has been transmitted to their descendants.

Now, the bad thing about this affair, was not that “Dodd” had been to the play-house seven times, but that he had been there clandestinely.  When a person begins to sneak about anything, he is on the down grade to perdition, and the brakes are all off.

The result of this excess of “Dodd’s” was a still further dissipation.  It is usually that way.  The theatre soon had a fascination for him that he could not withstand.  He went whenever he could get money enough to buy a ticket.  After awhile he began to frequent places of amusement of a low grade.  The “variety” performance attracted him, and he became an habitual attendant at such places.  Here he formed acquaintances and made friendships that were not to his advantage, to say the best thing that can be said of them; and with these companions he drifted down the descent he had started on so unthinkingly.  Here, also, he learned to drink, a vice which he had heretofore escaped.

So he kept on, down, and down.  He needed money for the gratification of his desires, and to procure it he began to venture a little now and then on some gaming device.  He was cautious and shrewd, and his early “investments” were fortunate.  He won small sums at various times, and was elated with his success.  He loitered much about the “bucket shop,” and now and then took a “deal” as some friend gave him a “pointer.”  He was fortunate here, also, and even though so young, his vivid imagination began to picture the fortune he should some day make in this way.  He suddenly dropped his country ways, dressed flashily, and took on, with marvelous aptitude, the customs and manners of metropolitan life.