He knew he was protected by the Constitution from
arrest, or responsibility for words uttered in debate, and this was all
he knew of the Constitution; yet he was afraid that for such words as
might be offensive he would be likely to meet some one who would seek
revenge in the night, and secretly. These responsibilities he chose to
shun, by guarding his tongue by day, and keeping his chamber at night.
Sometimes, however, in company with those whom he could trust, he would
visit, at night, Prado's or Hicks's saloon, and play a little, just for
amusement, with the "tiger."
Now, in the heyday of Larry's political usefulness, gaming was a
licensed institution in the city of New Orleans. The magnificent
charity of the State, the Hospital for the Indigent, was sustained by
means derived from this tax.
It was the enlightened policy of French legislation to tax a vice which
could not be suppressed by criminal laws. The experience of
civilization has, or ought to have taught every people, that the vice
of gaming is one which no law can reach so completely as to suppress
_in toto_.
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