The New York herald., 1870-08-19
IN Sullivan and Thompson Streets -ilnong
'Policy' Players at tkt Bown.tcwn
Hells-lilcng Broadway ut the
tlIbS aRd Paatial Banks.
Fare as a Business Enterprise-Its Am
bushes, Lucky Turns and
Certain Finale.
The Tendency Of Playing, and How
Is is Fast Becoming a Ma
tiorlai Misfortune.
Gambling as Viewcd by
Gamblers.

Iaming has long been an evil propensity with
men-one of the worst, because with 1t has been
associated most every crime that preys upon en-
lightered society. Whether among the sporting
fraternities of Rome when Rome was in her Au-
GUSTAV grandeur, on in the era when the republic
waned before the incursons Of Northern soldiery,
or at the hour when Greece was at the height of
her proud philosophy or rushing over centuries
and travcrsing all clmes gaming is still found to
have been, to be, the institution of no particu-
lar latitude. Still there is peculiar geographi-
cal denarcation that must be noted in the bound
aries of the vice, having its distinguishing feature
in the fact that il has fourished chiefly and most
extensively whore
is more honored than industry.
Gambling at this hour Is the favored pastime of
the tropical zone. In this heated belt, encfcling
the globe and extending north and south of the
equator in such way as to include vast territory
inhabited by varying nat,onalities, intellectual
progress has been slow, ma atcrial prosperity has
staggered along at an Indifferent pace, and the
latent energies of the. people seem to have been
dssipated in widest profgacy. Beyond the
mere consideration of idle and immoral sports the
landmarks of civilization have been so family WIS.,
ibe that one can hardly fail to observe the stag
nation gathering for centuries Intuitively it is
compared with the rapid flow of progress
in the United States-a domain lying in
close contiguity--but exhibiting character
istics in dametrcal opposition. In America
people work. They are the lovers of abundance
and the producers of almost boundess wealth.
IN BRAZIL,
-.
Tor instance the people, the sovereign people, do
not work. They are the patrons of gambling and
the pensioners of extravaganza and dissipation
The slaves are the producers; their masters are
the autocrats of society. Therefore vice exists
under the equator by tho comparative opuence of
the higher classes, while in America the same
leaven of Intelligence and application runs
through all strata of society.
Gambling in Brazil is pursued as q recreation,
as q sport--in the United States as business, as
paying investment upon the actual capital in
terested. In one case man is drawn into the
vice by personal attraction which is q part OF
his nativity, and which, be he winner or loser,
will remain with him to his latest day; in the
other avarice is the pr vaing incentive,
and whatever fascination he may become pos
Sessed OF as devotee Of faro or kindred games
arises from moments Of extraordinary success,
from the recklessness of despairing mind or
from hope of retrieving the ill-fortunes of his
play. An American is after money; Brazilian
is gambler in himself. The distinction we have
made is not at all peculiar to the empire of the
Dons. 1t has been employed as representing one
extreme, of which America is the other. Let the
reader take up in his own mind the proclivites of
all purely or partially despohc States in every
of {bo r1d nd
gaming. He will find that the same truth is appa-
rent among all those natonalities but to different
degrees. Forms of society are numerous where
gambling is sanctioned by law; where games Of
chance flourish under the dgAiaed name of
LOTTERIES;
where lessehod tenures pay large revenues to
the public treasury; where salaried officials par
ticpata in affording to patrons Of rouge et noiy,
faro, roulette, and their allies, the recognized
rules of fairness and where vast amounts are
annually staked, openly and brazcnly, by the inn
piled permission of the legislator, the executive
and the judiciary, in which all these flnctionaries
are beneHciaries, though direct and positive laws
prohibit gaming under heavy penal les. But at
no time, from the primitive games of Greece-or
even at an earlier day from aught thing can bc
CLEANED from authentic hstory-have there been
legislative enactmcnts, imperial or ministerial de-
crees, auathemas Of moralists or Christians or any
aggregation of political or social forces capable
of making gambling
PRACTICAL OUTLAW.
Therefore it has q striking history from its
strange power over men and women of whatever
grade of wealth and refinement 1t has entered
into the intrgues of courts; it has had an impor-
ko,, .Upo fa fro, 10,
ous sports established institutions, of banding
loose statesmen and politicians in combinations
that have left deep impress upon the surface of
European society.
No one will forget Dore's portrait of Baden 6a-
den, wherein he has photographed faces that
were hardly as pleasant when they saw themselves
reproduced by the faithful artists hand, as when
gloating over heavy drafts from their play. Dore
succeeded in this famous work in giving on can
vas the highest type of European degradation
If degradation gains anything from quality or
gold. The reader will recall the scene. Features
familiar in the first drawing rooms of the
great Powers are accurately drawn. Beaux
dispensers of place and prerogative, trustees of
international interests, confidential advisers to
thrones leaders Of fashion and arbiters of style
ladies of wit and beauty are there, minglng in
ivory cheeks, in wine, in the repartces of the
play and the peculiar exctcmcnts OF the game.
BY producing this work Dore has discharged his
duty towards history.
1t would be interesting to trace the legal
restraints which legislative bodies have attempted
to impose upon gaming. and especially In Eng
land but this feature involves much that belongs
to jurisprudence, and would draw out the article
too extended length.
One fact alone will suffice 10 show how ineifec-
tive are
STATUTORY LAWS,
even in England, where common laws and the
Joint statutes of the Lords and Commons may
be said to have attained the acme OF legal
perfection, both in close definition and