The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1873-08-28
Is it Wicked to Be Amused.

This matter is more or less earnestly de-
bated by various religious bodies. Sometimes
their scruples are purely fanatical and some
times again they are coupled with very just
apprehensions There is. q great complaint
made concerning Americans that they have
so few recreations. There is, or rather was,
a good deal Of justice in it. 1t is not an
edifying spectacle to behold man of busi-
ness at summer resort, fdgeting and fret
ting through all hours of the day, except
when he can get his city morning paper, or
engage similarly y-minded acquaintance in
talk about money making. But the tide has
turned the other way Of late, and various de-
vices, from the gentle clicking Of wooden
balls on the croquet lawn, to the fierce ex-
citement Of the race-course, have been ea-
gerly sought after The one evil influence
which seems to be creeping into all American
amusement is its tendency to promote gam
bling. We do not advocate horse-racing I;
but the thing itself, the mere trial of speed
between ligh.bred and daintjly-trained ami
mails is not itself absolute sin. Still less is
there deep deprayity in yacht sailinga or
canoe racing, or boating, or baseball, or
cricket. Why, then, must these be- tainted
by the insane passion of winning another
persons money. Is itnot possible to have
anything at which one may look on. with
sympathy and enjoyment, without the dis;
agreeable thought the direputablc and fhe
vicious are turning it into a mere pool-selling,
swindling, betting concern 2 Private betting
cannot be stopped That every one knows,
who knows anything about the mania for
gambling which peryades certain classes
But there can be such management and con.
troll Of any public amusement as 10 confne
the betting to those who, having no morals
to be injured thereby, can only ruin them
selves. - "a sr's
: We object utterly to that sort of licensing
and toleration, of the sin which admits it into
any society calling itself decent. fla man
with depraved tastes wishing to indulge III
og-6ghting, he has now to go down into the
society of the depraved TO crafty his morbid
desires. But lift were allowed to come ont
Of ite filthy and disreputable dens, presently
that would be creeping into popular favor
and find its advocates, until it became, like
the Spanish bullfght or the English prize
ring. as it once was, national institution
1t is kept where it is by the force Of law,
backed by a. righteous public sentiment.
We believe that gambling over public,
might be put down to the same
lnw level OF cofirse u-u - -ssssst sss' utsfissoe
ment should be upheld of which the tcnden-
cy is questionable. But that is more than
can be hoped for, and the only way is to
make things that it will be in spite Of all
that can be said as little hurtfnl as possible.
For instance, the practice of pOol-selling has
been encouraged to very reprehensiblc ex-
tent by the secular press. No decent news
paper, which is taken in Christian families.
has any business to publish details which are
simply temptations to the. young. There is
a great outcry by certain Journals, and they
deserve all honor for it, against immoral
literature. They also have very unexcep-
tional homilies against business dishonesty
1t is hardly in keeping with the sermon in
loaded type on the editorial. page, to print in
finer type such devils htanics as the record
of the various pools sold, and the chronicle
of the betting at the great summer racing
meetings We do not expect the secular
journals to be critically nice in all their sery-
ing up Of items for public curiosity. But
we do not wonder at the assurance which in
one and the same issue lashes an unhappy
cashier who has misused the funds entrust-
ed to him, and also informs his yet uncon-
taminated brethren how and where to find
for the same sin. What We
complain Of in these journals is, that they
are lending their aid, and that the more
powerfully because of their high and not un-
founded pretensions, to make legal and re-
spectacle that which law and morality alike
condemn.
This is matter within their control
There is pleasant reading in the letters OF
summer correspondents Of the daily journals.
No one is disposed to exact pulpit ascetl-
cism from the light and graceful sketchea
of watering place ways. But they have no
more right to mention one form of vice than
another, especially when by so doing they
directly pander to its spread.
We lately read very clever and powerful
English novel; which turned upon this very
vice Of gambling upon the races, and which
exposed the deep-seatcd and widespread in
iquity of the system. Play upon the turf is
bad enough in its acknowledged habitudcs.
Where men, with money Of their own TO
throw away, choose to waste it in dealings
with their equals, and where there is GER
tain rude code of honor controlling them, it
is vicious and miserable as well it may be. But
outside of this. there is in England great
area of outer darkness,-of mere unbridled
rascality. 1t is promoted and sustained by
just these devices, against which we now
inveigh. BY them the unwnry are entrap-
ped All the silly, halfAedged boys, the
young clerks, shopmen, and the like, who
are led to rob their employers, and to invest
in turflotteries, are tempted by these