American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1873-04-05
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,
| For and Geese and 2icelue men Norris
played with red and yellow kernels of
corn on designs scratched on the opposite
sides of 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 Knows. In the youthful
days of the younger of our adult readers
the games of DR.. Busby and The Mansion
| Of Happiness were added to the list recOg-
nized by the heads of most families, and
we well remember our doubts concerning
| the propriety of reporting at home the
fact that we had been exceedingly fasci-
mated with the game of Or. Busy at the
house of a playmate, and also cur happi-
ness when the game, after becoming
little known in the neighborhood, was
introduced to our fireside by parents who
had the good sense to believe in making
home pleasant to the youngsters.
From these simple beginnings few
ether games came into general use, and
parents began to learn that it was not
beneath their dignity to devote part of
their evenings to making home interest
ing and attractive to the children.
The word game" is at present used to
denote 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 mnst h, he nlaced5 That delight Of
nocent as any other childish recreation,
and yet many boys have received their
first lessons in gambling when playing
marbles for gains 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
B.zique around the evening lamp. Here |
is lust the line we would draw. Never |
ce 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- |
n1ent of chance or skill may be used for |
gambling purposes, and hence no divid- |
ing line can be drawn between two games |
uIless, 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 |
by the temptations of the gam
ing tables.
On the other hand, boy who has been |
to be proud of his constantly |
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 filed |
in the same manner. although ivory balls |
and pieces of card may be substituted for
the marbles. 1t is a matter of satisfac-
ton to ali who have given the subject
thought, that innocent games and home
are fast becoming a prOmi-
nent feature in our homes, thereby estab
fishing counter-attractions to those OF the |
saloons and haunts of vice that crowd so
closely to our doors, not only in the |
larger cities, but in every country village |
in the land g Home and Society,"" IN |
Ser1b,,er's 1TO,,fIyu