The speaker now proceeded to criticize the law relative to gambling, passed at the recent legislature, in which he said that if a man has a fixed place of residence and carries on a dry goods business, he might gamble as much as should please him and the law would not take hold of him.  He would ask anybody to read the law understandingly and then deny this round assertion.  This act, said he, is bugbear—­it is a disgrace as it now stands, for it smacks of cowardice.  The legislators, he presumed, had a little sense, and they knew that some kind of a law must be passed, and they were ingenious enough to know how to frame it to sound well, and yet be comparatively powerless.  They knew by such a statute that nolle prosequis could be entered—­and solicitors make more money—­they well knew that there were many religious people among their constituents, and it would not do for them to act singular, or else they would find so short an account at the next ballot-box that they would not be sent back.  He would spurn such legislators and keep them for ever in private life. (Applause.)

In conclusion, he said that he was decidedly an anti-gambler, and he did not defend the subject morally.  In order that he might enlighten the people on the subject of gambling, he would give one lecture, in which he would relate his experience, and promised that it should be the richest and most interesting thing that could be listened to.  He did not want money.  He would only ask enough to pay expenses of the room—­the ladies and the reverend clergy may come in gratis—­all he wished was that the truth should be told about gambling.

Mr. Green now took the stand, and said that it appeared to him that there was something in the law which seemed to stick to his opponent, Mr. Freeman.  He complains that the Jaw is dull—­that it is trash—­a bugbear, and heaps other similar epithets upon it, and yet he appears to make considerable noise about it, and why should he attempt to ridicule me, in connection with the law.  Every man in this state knows that Mr. Green himself could not pass the law without the aid of the legislature.  He (Mr. Freeman) goes on to take many other positions which he (the speaker) could not understand, and therefore would not further allude to them.  He thought that if the young men were warned properly to keep aloof from the gambling shops, and they should heed the warning, they would escape a life of infamy.  ’Tis true, a young man may go from the parlour to a gambling-place.  He will first find the gamblers fascinating—­rooms handsomely furnished—­fine suppers given, and in fact, every temptation may be set out to catch the unwary novice.  The gambler will tell him this reform is all priestcraft—­you can see for yourself that we (gamblers) are not the assassins which we are represented to be—­these reformers don’t speak the truth.  The young man is blinded—­he thinks he knows by this time all about the gamblers—­but in fact he knows