Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1885-10-16
The Pool Boa.

The Oregonlan said recently thatthe
horse feature of our state fair should
be made of interest TO farmers and
horse breeders and not vast gambling
game, adding the remark that cne
method of reform would be to do away
with the pool-box A correspondent
comes to the defense of the pool-box
and charges the faults, which he ad.
mits, upon "mercenaly men who offici-
ate in job races" From his letter
(printed in full elsewhere) we quote:
The pool seller is not SO much of An
auctioneer as broker One man is
desirous Of betting on one horss
and another man desires to wager
his coiu upon different one In
front of the pool box these men meet
on equal terms, and the pool seller de-
duets his commission first, for finding
the better on the winning horse de-
sirable customer; and second, for tax
ing care of it as stakeholder. The
writer could not huve argued better
against his own side Of his case. 1t is
just this that we charge against the
pool-boy, that it promotes gambling by
acting as s'broker' for gamblers. By
facilitating their operations, making the
game simple and easy for them, it
makes the fair a resort of gamblers and
this leads to Iobbery in racing. IF the
gamblers were away, there would be no
trickery and no dishonesty, for there
could be no object but to win, and ey.
cry race would be for blood. There
| would he an interest in the trials Of
speed, now deplorably lacking.
It is idle to say that to abolish the
pool-box would be to abolish racing
and 50 to seriously injure the fair.
Prior to 1869 wien pool selling was
introduced In Oregon our fair was mora
successful than it has been since: rae
ing was every whit as interesting and
as well patronizcd sport as il, is now.
To abolish the pool-hox would be to-
discourage gambling. 10 cause gamb-
lers to stay away, and nothing could be
better for the fair than this. Every
miserable scrub Of them who attends
keeps twenty decent people away.
There are many fathers and mothers,
and they form the best element in our
population, who will not expose their
children to the brutalities, vulgarities
and immoralities Of the stase fair as it
is now carried OH; who stay at homo
because they will not put themselves IN
contact with low phases of life. We
| do not believe that the fair would suf-
fer by the abolition of the pocl-box
and By the absence of gamblers. We
believe on the other hand that it
would profit thereby.
A fair whose moral tone and moral
effects are bad is worse than no fair at
ALL The state would be better off
withontit. Let it dieas it deserves to
die We cannot afford to debanch the
youth Of the country, to make it par
take of vile things, even for the bene-
fits resulting from AIN annual exhibit of
stock and products and an annual ex-
change of ideas on the part of farmers
of the state We believe we speak the
best sentiment of the people of Oregon
in saying, reform the fair or let it die.
EDITOR REvIEw.-Portland has put
on her Sunday clothes, face washed,
hair cut, shaved and is looking well.
The Mechanics Fair is the prime NOV
er in this matter and do not question
but that it is good thing in the. way
of adyertisement-its a good thing any
way-but how much better it would
be if it was made up chief, of Oregon
manufactured goods With what pride
aud exultation would he mechanics Of
Oregon come to this fair if the goods
on exhibition came from their own
workshops and were the products es
their own hands. True, there Is -
exhibition goods made IN Oregon thai
is credit to the manufactures, and
may we not hope that the time will
soon come that, like our farm products,
a. r 4.