Anti-Gambling Crusade.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7074, 21 February 1893, Page 3

Anti-Gambling Crusade.

The increase of gambling in England has caused much grief and perturbofcion of mind in those who feel deeply the mischief this vice produces in society, and the great success of the “ missing word ” competitions about the end of last year drew the greater attention to the evil, and also to the efforts being made to check it. One of these means is the Anti-Gaocbling League, of which a member writes in a London paper as followsl had the honour of starting the league nearly three years ago. Having formed an influential committee we commenced operations by holding a crowded meeting in St. James’s Hall. Since then great anti gambling demonstrations have been held in all tho large towns and cities of England } an energetic and most useful brrnch is at work in Scotland, and hundreds of thousands of our publications have been judiciously circulated. We have also enrolled at headquarters a thousand members who have signed a pledge against gambling, and paid a subscription of Is towards the expenses of the campaign. By means of honorary effort and strenuous economy all this work has been done for a little more than £IOO a year. But we feel that the time baa now come for a forward movement, and we ask for adequate financial support to enable us maintain an uncompromising opposition to that evil which, accoi-ding to Mr Herbert Spencer, “ soar* tho sympathies, cultivates a hard egoism, and so produces a general deterioration of character ” Some time ago I communicated wi l h many of tho leaders in thought and action throughout the country concerning the growing evil of gambling. Your readers may be interested in a few brief extracts from tho replies which I received. The Bishop of Exeter wrote: —I am most thankful to hear of the great and strenuous effort you are making through young men to deliver their brothers from the dreadful curse of betting and gambling. It is hard to say whether impurity, drunkenness or gambling commits thqrdeadliest havoc in our land now. They are all unclean spirits from the mouth of hell.

The Bishop of Wakefield also wrote to the same effect.

A very interesting letter readied me from Edna Lyall. Wrote the popular novelist : I sympathise most heartily with your object in making a practical protest against gambling ; and believe that a crusade against betting and gambling is as much needed as a crusade against intemperance. V* hile writ* ing the second volume of “ Donovan,” in which the hero is roused to the realisation of his true position as a gambler, I visited Monte Carlo, being anxious not to draw a fancy picture, but one that should be true to life. I don’t think that anyone who has really observed the gamblers at the Casino can help longing to fight this evil to the death —can fail to realise how utterly degrading is the whole atmosphere.” The great cricketer the Hon. and Sev If, Lyttelton (headmaster of Haileybury College) is not a man likely to exaggerate or to be carried away by Beaumont, yet he declare?, in a letter to me. that if the gambling evil “is not checked the ruin of England is not vt ry far off.” Dr Ballinger, too, is a man whose calm and deliberate judgment is not to be ignored. Ho writes to me as follows :—Morally, gambling is veiled felony ; scientifically it can be proved that, apart from the fraudulent use of gambling, the immense majority of those who employ it must lose. Every individual gambler believes and desires that he may be enriched by the inevitable loss of others His aim io to possess without earning what others stake with similar hopes. If not veiled by custom —sanciioncd and employed by men who lead in the political, civic, and social circles of the world —tlie vast majority would see at once, and shrink from, this morally noisome and un-Chrirt-like thing. That, the successful gambler only wins whit the many have chosen to stake, is true ; but this in no way affects the deeper question of the principle involved. The morality is the same. Introversion on the gambler’s own part is all that is needed to prove that it is for the sake cf winning that he has risked his property. • bus every group of gamblers (acting without fraud) is made up of individuals who desire tbeir own enrichment at the expense of all the rest —a negation of the first principles of Christian moralily ; and a method which, if universally applied, would result in the destruction of human i society. The Kev. J. W Horsley sends me this valuable testimony ;My experience as a prison chaplain showed me that amongst those of a hitherto good character (as distinct from members of the criminal class) gambling as a cause of crime and ruin was only second to intemperance. Prebendary Berry Jones calls my attention to a very important point, namely, the tinsettlement, of mind caused by gambling. He says :—Gambling disintegrated the grit of true humanity. It weakens belief in honest work. It tends to destroy that genuine individual self-reliance which is the social hope of a people, and diverts energy from productive operation. I think these letters are a pretty sure indication that the enlightened public opinion | of this country is dead against gambling. But long and wordy discussions will do but little good. The question has been debated for years, and we are still bea'mg the air. The fact is that instead of silvery rhetoric wo must have stringent reform. The first thing we have to do is to clear our minds of cant The wisdom of arresting a poor gambler, and asking a rich one to open a church bazaar, is scarcely perceptible to the man in the street. Gambling proves a very risky excitement for the rich and a hideous fever for the poor —it shows men how to get hold of theis' neighbour’s property without giving any honest equivalent, which means, in plain English, that it makes men’thieves I therefore call upon all honest citizens to support the anti-gambling crusade, and thus help to stamp out a degrading and unchivairons habit.