The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-07-01
the large. the almost epic. simplicity of
the inciIIstry itself.

The amount of the capital employed in
prosecuting it is a mere accidental cir
cumstance; the method of its prosecution
is the essential thing. For the purposes
of the philosopher it matters nothing
whether we have to do with syndicate
of prosperous financierS, with something
like a million and a quarter sterling be
hind them or with a snoeblack, who has
saved up five shillings' worth of coppers
to open bank with, and offers to toss
his mates for half pence on the under
standing that once in every thirty-siX
times it shall be "heads he wins tails
they LOSE If the world was governed
by right reason the offers of the shoe,
black and the strictly analogous proposal
of the syndicate would be rejected with
equal scorn. AS matter OF fact we
'.punters'' fiocks in it's thousands to
Monte Carlo to accept the terms OF the
syndicate, and we have no doubt that the
shoeblack, if he held himself out as
sundry, and to go on until his copper
bank was broken, would meet with a IKE
success. His 'droit' would be as willing.
ly conceded to him in consider "a OF
the convenience and facilities with when
he unlntentionally supplied ms pupnc;
Nay, it is probable enough that he might
of their rejection. skilled ma
thematician published not long ago
what purported to be a maine me
NAUTICAL demonstratlon OF the Sn,x lae at
Monte Carlo were far in excess OF WhaI
could possibly result to it from It's aVoWeu
and conceded advantage, ana the WIlser
went on to hint not obscurely that these
additional profits must be earned by unIair
means. We are not aware that ms arll-
Gle attracted any notice among the lI r.
quenters of the tables, but we may pc
pretty sure that it would not nave Ill
Unfinished their number by so mucn as a
fraction per cent. systems are aS Il nic
stronger than mathematics as the passion
of cupidity is more potent than the warn
ings of the reason.
How exceedingly Unmatched are these
two last influences, a glance at the world
around us is sufficient to show. We boast
and in some particulars not without plaus-
Utility, that we are more arnenable to rea-
son and less swayed by natural instincts
and inherited superstitions than were our
forefathers We credit ourselves with
greater self-restraint than they possess
ed, and declare that the advance of civil
ization has weakened the effective force
of many a mans primitive impulses, while
it has brought others more fully under
the control of the intelligence. Yet the
spread of popular education and of Schol-
astic discipline throughout a large body of
the people hitherto untouched by these in
f1uences has been attended by at least
an equally wide diffusion of the spirit and
entire community.
| For one man who was in the habit of
betting upon horse races a generation ago
there are twenty who indulge in it today.
I
quarter of the present century was a pas
| time of 1.-THE classes has become the COM
mon and almost everyday excitement of
1.-The masses" The artisan, the shopboy,
the domestic servant has become as close
a student of turf news, as habituai spec
|. Ulator in turf events" as We're ever. the
idle rich of the early Victorian era. In
! deed, they are even more so, to the extent
! that the immense modern development of
the sport of racing has multiplied opportu-
mites for the qualification of the gambling
propensity. The evidences of this fact are
too plain and too abundant to be missed.
/ 1t is brought home to one at every moment
| by the commonest sights and sounds Of
! the streets, by the crowds that throng the
| paVements when the result of a race is
being awaited, by the cries of the evening
newsboys at every corner.
| And as is usual with u.s. we shut our
eyes and ears to these patent proofs of its
existence, and devote all our energies to
discoura ging it's obscure forms. Our leg
! islature tir.kers with the betting laws; our
police make raids upon petty gambling
clubs; we hasten to suppress any attempt
: ed imitation of the foreign lottery, and
| fortably In our cloaks of hypocrisy and
! thank heaven that We are not as our con-
tinental neighbors. 1t is true that those
who live by gambling, as opposed to those
/ like the directors of the Casino of Monte
| Carlo; and no one set of persons in this
| country are able to point to a net profit
+. of over 600 derived from the eXploita-
we'll for us not to fiatter ourselves toe
much on that account. After all, the pat
rons OF the great gaming tables on the
! Riviera are, comparatively speaking, q
! small class; and. if it were possible for us
/ to collect all the innumerable rills of dis
aster and despair, of shame and crime and
madness which flow from the same source
in this country the aggregated result