BRIDGE PLAYERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19995, 12 January 1927, Page 7

BRIDGE PLAYERS

ATTACK BY SIR ARBUTHNOT LANE. A SWEEPING CONDEMNATION. (Press Association—By Teleurapb—Copyright.) LONDON. January 10. That bridge, in certain circumstances, is most harmful is the enfphatic declaration of Sir Arbuthnot Lane. In a letter to the Daily Express he vigorously attacks idle women playing all night with money provided by their husbands. “Such people,” he says, ‘‘are rarely of active dispositions, anil are usually stouter than the average consequently they prefer a sedentary occupation, such as bridge. Undoubtedly bridge, like most drugs, is beneficial in moderation, but poisonous in excess. When indulged in too long it hypnotises the players, and makes them blind to their own interests, ns well as the interests of those depending upon them for comfort and companionship. Followed excessively, it must have a deteriorating influence upon the intelligence, and react harmfully on health. It is detrimental physically and morally, and is too frequently associated with habits such as excessive smoking and alcoholism. Most likely all this class suffer from the same complaint, which tends sooner or later to terminate what, to the community in general, is a more or less useless existence. Bridge fiends, like hunting and golfing enthusiasts, become an intolerable nuisance j but the latter recreations have the advantage of being carried on in the open air.” The Daily Express editorially says that a declaration from such a source is certain to create a groat controversy. The more statement that women who play bridge are stouter than the average is sufficient to overwhelm the writer.—A. and N.Z. Cable,