Questionable Amusements and Worthy SubstitutesJudy, J. M.
Religion
Questionable Amusements and Worthy Substitutes
Judy, J. M.
Amusements -- Religious aspects -- Methodist Church; Christian ethics
The penny novice seeks the penny gambling den. The aristocratic
speculator seeks the gilded gambling den. The expert trickster of large
luck and large fortune makes his way to Monte Carlo, the gambling Mecca
of the world. Monte Carlo is a famous resort situated in the northwest
part of Italy. It is notorious for its gambling saloon. This city of
nearly four thousand inhabitants is located in Monaco, the smallest
independent country in the world. Monaco is about eight miles square,
and lies on a "barren, rocky ridge between the sea and lofty, almost
inaccessible rocks." The soil is barren, except in small tracts
which are used for fruit-gardens. For centuries the inhabitants, the
Monagasques, lived by marauding expeditions, both by sea and land, and
by slight commerce with Genoa, Marseilles, and Nice. But in the
last century the people have converted their country and city into
a world-wide resort. In 1860, M. Blanc, a famous gambler and saloon
proprietor of two German cities, went to Monaco, and for an immense
sum of money received sole privilege to convert their province into a
gambler's paradise. Soon immense marble buildings arose in the midst
of such beauty as to make it a modern rival of the gardens of ancient
Babylon. Costly statues, gorgeous vases, graceful fountains, elegant
basins, and beautiful terraces, all of which are made alluring by
blooming plants, by light illuminations, and by free concerts of music
day and night,--these are the attractions in this gambler's paradise.
Here fortunes are won and lost in a night. For, as has been sung,
"Dice will run the contrary way,
As well is known to all who play,
And cards will conspire as in treason."
--HOOD.
Then we have the speculator in commerce. He is the denizen of the Board
of Trade hall. He speculates on the prices of next week's, of next
month's meat and breadstuffs. And still this sort of gambler may be a
book-keeper in a bank, a farm hand, or a clerk in a grocery store. It
ha become so simple and so common a practice for persons to speculate on
the markets that any person with ten dollars, or twenty-five dollars,
or a hundred dollars may take his chances. Tens of thousands of dollars
to-day are being swept into this silent whirlpool, the gambler's
commerce.
Also we have the pool gambler. He is actuated by love of excitement. He
is found at the race course, at the baseball diamond, and at all sorts
of contests, where he may find opportunity to be on the outcome. It is
a common thing for young men to steal their employers' money, for young
girls to take their hard-earned wages to stake on games and races.
Recently $175,000 were paid for the exclusive gambling right for one
year at the Washington Park races in Chicago.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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