Nat Goodwin's BookGoodwin, Nat. C. (Nathaniel Carll)
General
Nat Goodwin's Book
Goodwin, Nat. C. (Nathaniel Carll)
Actors -- Correspondence
Gambling of every description is debarred and all the public parks
feature "Keep off the Grass!" No wonder we are known as a nation of
travellers. How different it is abroad. Frenchmen never leave France,
Germans, Germany and the average Londoner seldom gets beyond the sound
of Bow Bells. Yet true born Americans will go anywhere to escape the
thraldom of the insular laws of this supposedly free country, only
returning to gather enough shekels to enable them to buy more freedom.
I learn from a banker of Los Angeles that more than $700,000 was
drawn from the city banks one summer in cheques and letters of credit
on European houses. Imagine anyone leaving the gorgeous city of Los
Angeles. And yet there is a reason--less climate, more freedom.
I predict ere long if the present conditions continue everyone who can
afford it and who has red corpuscles flowing through his veins will
spend his holidays abroad. Ten times $700,000 will be drawn from the
banks of Los Angeles annually unless some live one is put at the helm
of that grand ship--Los Angeles.
Contrast the seaside resorts of Ostend, Aix-les-Bains, Trouville and
Dieppe with our Coney Island, Atlantic City and Ocean Park, California.
At Ocean Park we have the same sunshine and sea as the Mediterranean,
with a few mountains thrown in. God gave us the best of it--man the
worst.
At the seashore in foreign countries are beautiful hotels, delightful
promenades and a Casino where one is allowed to gamble. Fancy gambling
by the sea and the government permitting it! And why not? Part of
the revenue goes toward maintaining its charities and churches. The
government realizes it is the duty of every municipality to enhance
its treasury for the benefit of its institutions and the poor. Ten
per cent of the revenues of the race tracks in France the government
confiscates--and quite right. I would rather contribute to the church
from my winnings, racing, than pay a like amount into the poor box
listening to a stupid sermon in a poorly ventilated church.
One can be ten times more devout paying admission into Heaven with
another fellow's money!
These far sighted foreigners have taken advantage of our insular laws
with the result that they have attracted the rich of the universe who
desire to spend their money as they wish. They prefer Casinos to
shacks--people to peanuts.
Here are we in beautiful Los Angeles with laws as arbitrary as Salem a
hundred years ago. No wines are served on the Sabbath; a race course is
going to decay; wantons and women of the street are compelled to move
on. In all the European cities the poor wanderers are protected by the
laws and placed within the jurisdiction of the medical fraternity and
housed instead of hounded. Necessary evils must be protected for the
sake of humanity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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