Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-21
1MRITNG

There are good many of our citizens
who are probably as anxious to see the
vice of gambling stamped out in st. Paul
as is the Jealous Minneapolis gentleman
who recently made a raid on the lairs of
the tiger here, but they are not fully salts
fed that efforts that may be made in that
direction will wholly cure the evil. Had
the means been available and the law suffi-
Gent every gambling den in the city would
have been suppressed long ago, and the
keepers, dealers, steerers and cappers
would have been driven from the city or
compelled to seek some honest means OF
Obtaining a livelihood.
Perhaps the excuses that the police Off
stalls are not disposed to interfere with
gambling, and that the laws are difficult
to enforce by reason of the reluctance Of
persons to testify against the keepers aud
inmates of gambling houses, are peurile.
In the opinion of the GLOBE the society
for the suppression of vice was too easily
discouraged by the failure of their attempt
of two years ago, and might have succeed
ed in driving the cormorauts under cover
if not out of business. There has been a
woeful lack of persistency among the
members of the society that is not at all
to their credit, and has cost them the re-
spsct of the community.
The evil of gambling is one of the worst
that affiicts our modern cities. Some insist
that it is a necessary evil--that men will
gamble in one way or another in the hope
of acquiring sudden wealth with little eff
fort despite all legal prohibitions. But if
a necessary evil, al agree that the influence
of the gambling dens should be circum-
scribed az far as possible. There are scores
of instances that can be called to recollec-
ton by any OF our citizens of young men
who have been lured to ruin by the fascina-
tions of the card table. Holding respon-
sible business trusts and a respectable if
nota high social standing, they have grad
ually lest the confidence of their employ
ers, the esteem of their associates, and
have gone from bad to worse until some of
them now occupy felon's cell at Still
water, while others are outcasts from their
homes or fugitives from justice, their fam
lilies left to live on the charity of friends or
relatives, bearing through life the stigma
which attaches to the wife and children of
gambler. The wrecks that have been
made by the passion for gaming are seen
on every side, and many of them are pitia-
BILE to the extreme, and cause the heart to
ache.
The eradication of this giant evil has
commended the earnest effort of some of
the best minds of this and other countries.
That all have hitherto failed does
not argue that all will fail. Means
have proved effectual in controlling and
mitigating the evils of gambling in other
cities, and there is no reason why a per-
sistent and determined effort should not be
made in this city to exterminate the vice
entirely. It may prove successful, and
certainly will drive away large proper
ton of the gamblers, who, finding their
profits Iessened if not entirely obliterated
by frequent fines and their liberty en-
dangered by repeated convictions, will HE
them to some more congenial cline. Men
who have regulations TO lose viii not
frequent gambling dens as long as there is
danger of q raid from the police, and the
professional sharks. driven to plundering
each other, Will soon weary of the amuse-
ment.
That men who are determined to hazard