The New York herald., 1870-08-19

law oficer Of the Crown made .ns usual squirt
that generally follows prokiDitory law, and the
games were played only In great secrecy. few
months passed by; tiD.o mollifed the executive
powers; open house prevailed and soon the
statute was dead letter. Gambling again re-
suGed its sway, and society drifted along TO
luxuriance and the ease Of George I. Gambling
became frightful The law Of Queen Anne's time
was exhumed In It was found a section allowing
the loser to sue at Common Pleas and recover tho
full amount Of his misfortune. A victim implored
the court and British Justice awarded him the
damages. There was also another clsnse; it gave
to the informer a sum three times the amount
staked and lost by any player. The courts were
again sought, and the informers were triumphant.
The peeragc, the gentry and tho throne, too, be-
came alarmed. The law was speedily repealed.
Since then practical restraints have ever op.
posed the English mania for gambling or bettiug.
Men seldom digest the food they cook for others.
Il there be any wisdom in this assertion it is COM
prehensive enough to embrace the voluminous
tones in which all prohibitory law might be COL
lated. This, at least, is the experience of the
United Kingdom. In its other aspects gambling is
susceptible of much wordy elaboration, particu-
arly in it's historical view; but this 1t Is proposed
to ignore. Concerning
IT'S GEOGRAPHY
and identity with different degrees of civilization
we have written cmsorily, without intending to
treat the subject comprehensively. One might
go iato the details of Chinese gambling, where
more than fifty million adults spend the larger
portion Of their lives in Oriental dominions along
the Mississippi, whore the fitting accompaniment
the game has been thievng and der; at
Washington, where Congress- and Sehutors
bet Oh the same cards with Lobbyists and proFes-
siona gamblers; or among the rude savagery of
Africa, where untutored minds render the vice
comparatively irreprehensbe; but we will leave
these fields and enter the circumscribed domain
Of our metropolitan city.
GAMBLING IN NEW YORK.
OF gaming here great deal has been written,
most Of it well written but the most not under
s.andingly written. The purpose would seem TO
have been to treat the subject as bold, reckless
and ungovernable mania, destitute OF system and
without any organic principle. We take different
view. American gambling is pure y American.
It's objecS is gain, not pleasure, not Indifference
to money ana the satisfied luxury Of easy hours.
Any one who cavils at this opinion, an opiuon
residing as near the facts as possible, must ac-
cept the statement in general terms. There are,
doubtless, a large number Of professional gam
blers in thscity, who, whatever their resources
or worldly prospects, could scarcely forego the
fascinations Of playing at games Of chance, yet
their tendencies come rather from habit than any
inborn proclivites of gamblers in other parts of
the world As we write now only of the highest
class Of gamblers, IL " uld hardly be within our
scope to treat OF gambling in all its phases and
Of erin charv aa Mi In
New York. However, n few facts ii brief may
render the subject clearer.
There are
TEX GLASSES OF GAMBLING uEILs
in New York. Beginning with the lowest, we
note the vile dens injecting Thompson aud Sul.
van streets, which are patfooized by negroes,
with whom playing at chance games amounts to q
constitutional disease. In these houses
''PoLIoy'
receives the most attention. 1t is the worst
swindling that enlists the credulity of mon. Cum
ningly organized by those who have means, which
they could devote to better purposes, it is sup
ported by lavish capital, which has increased with
the spreading Of The game, till now 1t is sef-sus-
tanning. Elaborate systems of fraud are prac-
tsed, IN which the object is to give away con-
siderable inconsiderable sums as "drawn"
The amounts varied to suit the class Of
people among whom the drawer associates. He
Then noises his good luck about His success in
duces greed with his companions, and the shrcwd
advertisement Is the magnet attracting the money
of those who are easily sulled The direct
result is constant excitement, con-
ture. Thousands pursue this fruitlcss la
Dor. They spend their surplus earn
ings, and often go into their wretched
substance, thus compelling their own lives to be
tributary to their superstitious anticpatons. Re-
siding in the midst of filth and vermin, with large
families 10 support, their incomes are constantly
depleted by gaming; neighbours contrivcd good
fortune stimulates them to fresh trials; they are
always losers; eventually they become criminals,
and with whom lies the burden Of guilt? With
the miserable gamblers or their brutal deceiyers
Society could make this game poor policy.
Next higher in the scale Of the vice we touch
the hives of
CHERRY AND WATER STREETS.
Sailors feed these places with their hard-earned
stipends. OF course fairness ID never known in
the play; it is o bold game Of cheating, and
when not cheating downright robbery rules The
natural consequences of the games OF chance,
which are various-cards, domin0es or faro-are
murder debauchery in its vilest forms and
then sinking into forgetfnlness. Women of the
worst classes play extensively. Dollars earned in
sin flow through the same channels again and
again.
GAMBLING AT HOUSES OF nL-FAus.
Extensive gambling is carried on throughout
the houses OF ill-fame on Manhattan Island In
these localities the vice s frightful. A girl no
sooner takes her first step in guilt before she en-
wherever she lives, are generally gamblers they
induct her into the mysteries Of cards; they are
played in the parlor; she joins; she soon becomes
an expert Gambling is thus fixed fact in most
every house of prostitution in tho city. The girls
play among themselves. When they can en-
list young men about entering dissolute
lives it is their interest and object
to do so. These same young men play with those
they regard as innocents, but they pay dearly for
their experiments. Here we might stop to point
out where more than one-haf of the gamblers of
New York are made. We do not speak of pro-
fessionals. One evil leads to the other in either
case, and it makes no difference which Is the
initial vice. In some cases it Is one in the remain
der the other. VIII some one say which is the
worst, the financial or the social evil?
THE FOURTH CLASS,
and therefore still higher in the scale of re-
spectablty constitutes gambling at the lager beer
gardens and saloons. We place these here not
because they operate very powerfully, as an
ant-socal force, but because they prevail,