The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-10-09
4-11-44.

As q means of demoralizing and i'm
poverishing the masses of the people of
!. large cities there is hardly a form o.
social i.e-intemperance not excepted
that does its baleful work so inSidi-
ously and effectively as the variety of
gambling commonly known as policy
plaYing. 1t is the special enemy of the
| laboring man, whose wages it conveys
away cent by cent, dime by dime, dol
lar By dollar, until, the habit of saying
being lost, and morbid trust in luck
being substituted for it, he becomes q
moral wreck. Its victims are the me-
chanic, the day laborer, the domestic,
male and female, the newsboy, and
others, who. needing money greatly.
and obliyious of the enormous chances
against them, are easily induced to
venture what little they have on bare
possibility of gaining large stake.
Those who have not given attention to
the subject are hardly liz o position to
understand the extent to which the
practice pervades the laboring COM
munity. Policy playing is, in fact. a
form of betting peculiarly adapted to
tempt the poor. 1t presents them twice
4 day an opportunity to venture such
small sums rs they can conveniently
raise, and holds out the inducement Of
prize enormously Gisproportioned to
the sum ri sked. The dealer will receive
q deposit of one cent, engaging in case
his customer succeeds in naming three
Of the numbers drawn in q lottery draw
ing that takes place daily in Kentucky
Or elsewhere, to pay him in return
$3.50. There is no connection between
the lottery dealers and the policy deal
erS other than the fact that the pub
liShei drawings OF the former furnish
the latter convenient numbers upon
which his customers may exercise their
skill in guessing. their luck, or their
suDerstitious lore. The lottery num-
berS range from to IS, and two draw
ingS, the first of twelve. and the second
OF thirteen numbers. occur daily. \
policy before the writer contains the
figures '19, Il, 23-S)," which means
that the customer bet five cents that
the three numbers here would be
drawn, and was to get 81 in case nc
succeeded. He did not succeed, as the
number OF possible combinations or all
the numbers between l and rs, as any
mathematician could show, is immense,
ana the chance OF guessing correctly
correSpondingly small Persons in
fatuated with the game can not see
that the chances are all against them,
and 90 on playing until their ruin is
complete. There is, perhaps, no way
of stopping it except by discussion. AS
there is no apparatus or any appliance
of any sort needed in making q policy
bet, other than memorandum book
for recording it, its prevention, there
fore, becomes a matter of peculiar diff
Guilty, but not beyond the power of the
police 1t is wrong, of course, in the
same way that other betting is wrong,
but the great evil of the system lies in
the fact that it follows its victims into
their usual haunts, into their very
homes and workshops, through the per-
sistent efforts of its writers, solicitors
and agents. What makes it specially
regrettable is the wide havoc it plays
with the earnings of a portion of the
community, who, from their very
poverty, have been hitherto compare.
lively free from the debasement Of
mind and heart to which the gambler
is eXposed.-Baitin1Ore Sun.