Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1884-09-24
4.l1.44.

AS a means OF d~emoralizing and Inn
poverishing the masses Of the people
Of large cities there Is hardly a form OF
social vice-intemperahce not excepted
that does its baleful work SO insid-
iously and effectively as the variety of
gambling commonly known as policy.
playing, 1t is the special enemy Of
the laboring man, whose wages it con-
veys away cent by cent, dime by dime,
dollar by dollar, until, the habit Of say-
ing being lost, and a morbid trust IN
luck being substituted for it, he be-
comes a moral wreck. Its victims are
the mechanic, the day laborer, the do
nestle, male and female, the newsboy,
and others, who, needing money great
ly, and Oblivious of the enormous
chances against them, are easily m
duced to venture what little they have
on a bare possibility Of gaining a large
stake. Those who have not given at
tention to the subject are hardly in a
position to understand the extent to
which the practice pervades the labor
ing community. Policy playing is, in
fact, a form of betting peculiarly
adapted to tempt the poor. 1t presents
them twice a day an opportunity to
venture such small sums as they can
conveniently raise, and holds out the
inducement of a prize enormously dis
proportional to the slim risked. The
dealer will receive a deposit of l cent,
engaging, in case his customer succeeds
in naming three of the numbers drawn
in a lottery drawing that takes place
daily in Kentucky or elsewhere, to pay
him In return $1.S0. There is no con-
nection between the lottery dealers and
the policy dealers other than the fact
that the published drawings of the for
mer furnish the latter convenient num-
bers upon which his customers may ex-
ercise their skill in guessing, their
luck, or their superstitious lore. The
lottery numbers range from n to
seventy-eight, and two drawings, the
first of twelve, and the second of thir-
teen numbers, occur daily. A policy
before the writer contains the figures,
"19, Is, 23-$9," which means that the
customer bets 5 cents that the three
numbers here would be drawn, and was
to get 50 in case he succeeded. He did
not succeed, as the number of possible
combinations of all the numbers be-
tween one and seventy-eight, as any
mathematician could show, is immense,
and the chance Of guessing correctly
correspondingly small. Persons infat-
uated with the game cannot see that
the chances are all against them, and
60 on playing until their ruin is COM
plete. 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 a policy
bet, other than a memorandum book
for recording it, its prevention, there
fore, becomes a matter Of peculiar
difficulty, 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 vic.
tins into their usual haunts, into theil
very homes and workshops, through
the persistent efforts of its WRITER'S
solicitors, and agents. What makes il
specially regretable is the wide havoc
it plays with the earnings of a portion
of the community, who, from theil
very poverty, have been hitherto com
paratively free from the debasement O.
mind and heart to which the gambler
iS QYnOSpd - G0Hin,Ore Sim