The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-09-10
SOMETHING ABOUT GAMBLING.

The picnvttfte has been seized with u
sudden and severe attack of morality,
and howls for the suppression of the
gamblers and gambling saloons by the
police. We wish that we could believe
the pious old fraud Of Camp street ID
prompted In its feeble crusade by q
sincere desire TO correct q great evil and
a courageous purpose to perform pub
lilo duty. But we cannot do SO. Every
good citizen must desire the discovery
and adoption Of some plan or policy
which can utterly break up gambling
saloons and prevent men from indulg-
ing In the vicious and dangerous pas
time Of gambling. But the evil cannot
be eradioated or even abated by spas
modic outcries against 1.-THE sports.
nor by occasional raids Of the police
upon their dens.
The passion for gambling is deeply
seated Ia our natures, and 1t can only
be repressed or regulated by o healthy
public opinion which severely condemns
Its excesses and Furnishes It's lieentious
exhibitions. Those who feel sincere
desire to abate this very great and grow
ing vice. II they have any knowledge Of
human nature, or any acquaintance
with the history of the efforts to repress
the evil, will not base any very sanguine
hope of success on demand for
ita sudden and violent determination.
We believe that the police should, az
Tar as practicable. enforce the law against
gambling; indeed, whenever they fail to
do so they are unfaithful to their duty.
But any raid they may make now or In
future will do very little toward repress-
ing the gambling houses Of New Or
leans unless the Legislature or the
charter of that Ubiquitous preparatory
school for the faro banks, the Louisiana
Lottery Company. No one has live.
Tier sense Of the debasing influence Of
gambling than we have: but we know at
the same time that the Louisiana Lot
terry is an infinitely greater curse
TO this community than all the
faro banks, keno shops and bunko
dens that exist In this city.
The gambling saloons are at least con-
cealed from public view; they can only
be found when those who desire to gam
BILE seek them out; their keepers can
not advertise them over whole pages of
leading newspapers, nor can they own
or influence public journals. The law
denounces the faro dealer as a criminal
and he is forced to retire from the pub
lilo gaze to ply his trade. The law may
not be able to utterly destroy or sup
press him, but 1t Keeps him In some sort
of subsection and affords the youth and
the women Of the community protection
against his cunning and his art.
Not so, however, with the lottery. It too
is gambling scheme pure and sim
pie; the men who run the lottery are In
every sense Of the word as much gam
blers as the faro dealers; the managers
of the lottery make their money by the
same means and through the existence
OF the same passion that the keeper of
the roulette table does. The single diff
ference between the lottery dealer, the
faro dealer and the roulette player is
that they play different games, and the
lottery dealer plays the most wicked,
debasing, fascinating and ruinous game
Of the whole fraternity of gamblers.
Yet, through q corrupt Legislature the
lottery dealer obtained the sanction and
protection Of the law for his game, and
he opens his tables, his dens. his schemes
ateyery corner; he establishes his cen.
ters Of operations in every village Of the
State, on every street Of the city, and ad-
vertises his schemes in the public jour-
mails; he tempts the boy; he encour-
ages the youth; he teaches the women
and even decoys ministers of the gospel
to gamble with him. Will any intelli-
gent citizen Of New Orleans deny these
facts, and can any conscientious man
deny that an institution which leads and
educates men. women and children to
gamble, and tempts servants at every
corner to steal money for stake. is a
far more dangerous, degrading and ini-
quitous gambling scheme than the faro
bank or the roulette table?
And yet, when was the voice of the
virtuous Picdyane raised against this
great, this shameful, this Ubiquitous
curse of the community. Nay. when
has the Picdyataae been free of its power
and independent of its influence? That
pretentious sheet calls for the extirpa-
tion OF the gambling bells" Of New
Orleans; it taunts the police with their
neglect to pursue and hunt down the
gamblers: it threatens to convulse So
ciety with the thunders of its wrath
against faro, keno and roulette; its