Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-03-21
MbI Be a EOOlI

The Boston Herald, in timely and sensi-
bic article, puts this question to the men who
are betting money By hundreds of thousands
of dollars, al over the country, on the issue
Of walking matches:
What is the use of being TOOL? If any,
body cas answe. this pointed question, it
must be the man who invests his money in
betting on wrestling matches and walking
matches He ought to know, and, if he
doesn't, he will.
We know very well that it is useless to
protest or warn men who are bound TO back
.heir wishes with their money, but there Is
no law to prevent Us from expressing our
opinion upon the subject, which is honest,
even if it be not coinable into dollars and
cents. The average Citizen the man who
is not gambler by profession, not wrest-
Ter, not a pedestrian, not baseball player,
who bets upon match OF either OF the
kinds referred to, OF OF any kind similar
thereto, is-to put it plaInly-a fool.
Gambling is always folly. What says Sir
William Blackstone, man who knew law
and knew men, who was not 4 saint,
but Ods man Of common sense {;
"Gaming Is kind of tacit cOnfes-
sion that the company engaged therein
do, in general, exceed the bounds Of
their respective fortunes, and, therefore,
they cast lots to determine IpOn whom the
ruin shall at present fall, that the rest may
be saved little longer" Laws, he acknowl-
edges, are of little avail to restrain this mad
ness, "when men are intoxicated with 50
frantic spirit But this l. not now the
condition of few men, but of tens of thou
sands all ready to invest their hard-carned
dollars upon some fayorite who Is probably
less entitled to an honest mans confidence,
and to be made the bearer CT his fortunes,
than an April breeze. We knou abOut
the wind. We know twill change. We
do not know about these professionals They
will change, II it pays. At New Bedford,
last week, there was Il walk. woman ad-
yertised that in .O5S quarter hours she
would walk as many quarter miles. Alter
Il week she stopped on account Of "insutii-
cient patronage" Then, ami not till then,
the Judges. (base misnomcr) acknowl-
edged that her performance had been II fraud
from the beginning, and they told how, day
after day, Miss Ada Wallace had taken long
seasons of rest, emitting on one day eighteen
quarter miles, as many on the next, and 50
on. lUest luuRCS uCNtl Shlu va
the fraud was played out. Then they con-
fessed as the New Bedford Standards col
umns show. We had wrestling match at
the Boston Theatre Wednesday afternoon.
Far be it from US TO say it was not all hon
est and above board. But we know that one
man who would have been likely to invest
hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on his
iayorite, was told beforehand that the result
would be draw that he refused to take
advantage of the knowledge which hc had !;
that he told the writer OF this article twenty
four hours before the match began how 1t
would terminate, and 50 on. All tins may
have been his good luck, but, if the ordinary
man had been a. lucky, the result OF the
betting would have been different. We
certainly are not going to say,
and certainly it wcGli be painful for
US to believe, that the great pedcs-
trian contest in New Nork is anything but a
| fair and honorable one bus il the men who
have been betting money ON D ILeary,
| whether on account of his record or on ac
| count of his nationality; or the men who
! have been risking their savings on the other
contestants, had knerH the facts. how many
of them would have done what they have
done
If the people of Boston, to-day have reason
to thank the Legislature of Massachusetts
for anything, it is for the law which abolish
ed pool-sclling. Fancy what would have
taken place this week but for this law.
Still, as the great lawyer remarks, laws
will be of little avail" when 80 frantic II
spirit possesses the minds OF men. As laws
are useless, 10 is preaching. 1t isn't worth
while for US to heap up words. All We want
to do, all anyone can do, is to reiterate that
the man who risks his money and his peace
of mind on the performance of another man
beyond his control, and liable to the basest
influences, is-well-is-well,c call it stupid.