Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-04-10
Games and Gambling.

AS OUR elderly and middle-aged readers
recall their childhood, they can remem-
Der but few games of chance or skill that
were considered legitimate to the family,
and these were such games as Checkers,
F0r and Geese and Itceloea2en Norris,
played with red and yellow kernels of
corn on designs scratched on the opposite
sides Of a plain pine board. The various
games of cards were generally considered
contraband, and hence had wonderful
charms for the boys, who keenly enjoyed
the stolen fruit in back garrets, wood
sheds and hay-mows. In the youthful
days of the younger of our adult readers
the games of DR.. Bus5y and The Ma7as5u3s
Of Happiness were added to the list recog-
nized by the heads of most families, and
we we'll remember our doubts concerning
the propriety of reporting at home the
fact that we had been exceedingly fasci-
mated with the game of DR.. Busiy at the
house of a playmate, and also happi-
ness when the game, after coming a
little known in the neighborhood, was
introduced to our flreside by parents who
had the good sense to believe in making
home pleasant to the youngsters.
From these simple beginnings few
other games came into general use, and
parents began to learn that it was not
beneath their dignity to devote 8 part of
their evenings to making home interest
ing and attractive to the children.
The word game" is at present used to
denote a wide range of amusements and
recreations adapted to the home circle,
such as charades, parlor magic, fortunes,
wax figures, pantomimes, etc, as well as
games of chance and skill played with
various kinds of cards, or on boards with
dice and men, all of which we believe are
each year becoming more popular in
American homes.
But while this is so, we would not have
a parent forget for moment that the line
should be drawn between innocent home
amusements and what we understand as
gambling Many are unable to see where
this line is, and in what it consists, and
while they admit the necessity of making
home the most attractive place to the
children, argue that games played at
home in childhood tend to gambling in
manhood This is not so; it is the use of
the game that decides which side Of the
line it must be placed. That delight of
every boy, the game of marbles, is as in
nocent as any other childish recreation,
and yet many boys have received their
first lessons in gambling when playing
| marbles for guns and many parents have
allowed their sons to count over the con-
tents Of their marble bags at night in
their presence, who would have held up
their hands in holy horror at the game of
Bezaque around the evening lamp. Here
| is just the line we would draw. Never
countenance any game played for per
manent gain, Or in which money or its
equivalent is the object played for.
That this must be the one and only dis
tinction between innocent recreation and
harmful gambling must be seen from the
| fact that the simplest recreation or amuse
ment Of chance or skill may be used for
gambling purposes, and hence no divid
ing line can be drawn between two games
uHless, indeed, one of them involves
vicious habits or practices in itself.
But if all games are made simply mat
tiers of amusement, it is not likely that
| those boys who stay at home in the even
ing to play them, with their parents
and sisters, will be attracted in Their
manhood by the temptations of the gam
ing tables.
On the other hand, boy who has beer
encouraged to be proud of his constantly
increasing bag of marbles, as the reward
of his shrewdness and skill in playing
will be apt enough to consider it legiti
mate in after years to keep his purse filled
in the same manner, although ivory ball
and pieces Of card may be substituted fo
the marbles. 1t is a matter of satisfac
ton to ali who have given the subjec
thought, that innocent games and home
amusements are fast becoming promi
nent feature in our homes, thereby estab
fishing counter-attractions to those of til,
saloons and haunts of vice that crowd 81
closely to our doors, not only in the
arger cities, but in every country villag
in the land -" Home and Society,"" a
| Scr,b,,er's HOutby,,