Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-07-01

lueTe Is dt UulS blul6 nOTSe DcbUluS
craze. There is great danger that our
beautiful Coney Island beach should
become place distinguished for the
gathering of gamblers and scoundrels
and pickpockets. say there is groat
danger in that direction. There are
thousands of young men who have al
ready taken q long stride on the down
grade through the Brighton Beach
races and the Sheepshead Bay races.
There have been stores III New York
and Brooklyn robbed OF small sums OF
money by boys who wanted to get the
money to buy betting tickets. Last
summer, on Barclay street, New York,
there were three pool rooms for betting
on the horse races at Coney Island and
other points, and those three pool
rooms were crowded and surrounded by
boys and men, and the police had to
stand and keep the way clear, so they
could purchase tickets Hear it, you
citizens, the police of New York watch
ing the betting pools l hear there is
now one such place on Willoughby
street, in our city. I call the attention
of the public authorities to it for inves-
tIgation in that direction. Hunter s
Point, also, is the headquarters of much
of this intamy.
But what q spectacle, when at
Saratoga or at Long Branch or at
Brighton Beach or at Sheepshead Bay
the horses start, and in a flash $50, 600
or 800, 900 change hands Multitudes
ruined by losing their bet, others worse
ruined by gaining their bet; for if a
man loses in bet at horse race he
may be discouraged and quit, but If he
win the bet he is very apt to go straight
on to hell. There are three differenl
kinds of betting at horse races, and they
are about equally leprous; by auction
is called bookmaking all gambling,
all bad, all rotten with iniquity. There
is one word that needs to be written on
the brow of every poolseller as he sits
deducting his three or five per cent.
and silly ringing up more tickets
than were sold on the winning horse
a word to be written, also, on the brow
of every bookkeeper who. at extra in
ducement, scratches horse off of the
race, and on the brow of every jockey
who slackens pace that, according to
agreement, another may win, and writ
ten over every judges stand and written
on every board of the surrounding
fences. That word is "Swindle."
Yet thousands bet. Lawyers bet.
Judges of the court bet. Members of
the Legislature bet. Members of Con-
gress bet. Professors Of religion bet.
Teachers and superintendent of Sun
day schools, | am told, bet. Ladies
bet, not directly, but through agents.
Cultivate the horse by all means, drive
him as fast as You desire, provided you
do not injure him or iniure yourself or
others, but be careful and do not harness
him TO the chariot of sin. Do not throw
your Jewels of morality under the flying
hoof. Do not, under the pretext of i'm
proving the horse. destroy man. Do
no. have your name go down in the
ever increasing catalogue of those who
are ruined for both worlds by the dissi-
pations of the American racecourse.
They say that an honest racecourse is
straight track and dishonest race
course is crooked" track-that is
the parlance abroad but tell you that
every racetrack, surrounded by betting
men and betting women and betting
CuSlOus, 10 sudiBut tIaCh-l Aieau
straight down.
Do you not realize the fact that there
is a mighty effort on all sides to-day to
get money without earning it +? That
is the curse of Brooklyn, and it is the
curse of New York it is the curse of
this country-the efforts to get money
without earning it, and as other forms
OF stealing are not respectable, they go
into the gambling practices. have
received letter giving the names of the
proprietors and the locations of some
ten or fifteen ''policy' shops in this
city. / do not know whether they are
correct charges or slanderous charges.
l have no time to make an investigation
myself. 1 shall hand the letter over TO
the authorities authorities. But
let me say to the officers in Brooklyn
and New York and in Kings County
that they will be backed up in all their
efforts to extirpate gambling.
In closing DIR. Talmage depicted a
Christian-his father-who liked fast
horses and was yet Christian. He
liked speed, but not gambling.