The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1895-12-21
SOMETHING FOR NOTHING.
Continued from Page 1.)

the wheat pits of the Board of Trade and
bet that the crop will or will not be a success.
Every insurance association, whether life
fire or marine, is in the business of linking
risks against chance. Do not men buy prop
erty in the hope that prices may rise Are
not all of these things stalking money on
chance? Are they therefore gambling? If
the chance element is what makes gambling
wrong then why are not these things wrong +?
Chess Is not game of chance, and yet chess
is a favorite European method of PLAYING for
stakes.
If the real evil in gambling were made
plain there would be n more ready and sue
cessful condemnation of the practice The
inherent wrong is embodied in the headnp
OF this paper. 1t is system of getting
something for nothing" and is in its moral
nature twin brother to the profession of the
hiShwayman 1t is significant that among
burglars and robbers they never speak of
their wealth as stolen but as ''won' The
TACT OF agreement does not change the nature
OF the transaction. If in duel a man kills
his neighbor. he is none the less II murderer
because his ncighbor agreed to the shooting
A gambler who gets money without any
equivalent is none the less thief and robber
because he and his ncighbor have arranged
the plan by which they seek to rob each
other. The evil ia all gambling from the
catchpenny contrivances of the church fair to
the Board of Trade is that it is full-nedged
violation OF the eighth commandments ..rhou
shalt not steal" There is much ignorance
an -ttli t.t
struction in the nature of gambling and its
evil effects as much as we do upon the nature
of alcohol and its effects 1t is a principlr
that "only fair exchange j., no robbery -"
Anything that is not Il fair exchange is rob.
berry. Any transaction that Does not have
| value received in it is dishonest. The high
law OF Christ DO unto others rs Won would
have them do unto you or of Paul, Let no
man seek his own, but each his neighbor's
%ooi, '-turnsh' the only Legitimate rule
OF conduct. Any business that seeks its own
| good at the destruction or robbery of others
/ j. anti-social us well as anti-Christian. and
the man who follows it is an enemy to the
public welfare and should he suppressed a.
any other criminal is. The maxim of St.
every well regulated State viz. 'If any will
not work neither shall he eat He who gets
his living without any contribution in return
| to human welfare is violating an important
law, but when he does this mt auothsr's loss
he is at war with every good thing in human
nature and government.
Mr.. Herbert Spencer in his Studies Of
SIf.i,, ,r,,.''t 81 IL.
II conversation about gambling: and where
reprobration is expressed note the grounds
of reprobatiou. That it tends toward the
ruin of the gambler; that it risks the welfare
OF family and friends: that it alienates from
business and leads into bad company these
and such as these are the reasons given for
condemninS the practice. Rarely is gam
bling condemned because it is IL kind of
action by which pleasure is obtained mt the
cost Of pain to another. The normal obtain
ment of qualification, or of the money which
purchases gratillcaton implies. firstly, that
there has been put forth equivalent effort Of
Il kind which in some way iurthcrs the
general good: and implies, secondly
that those from whom the money is received
tons. But in gambling the opposite hap
pens. Benefit received does not imply effort
put forth, and the happiness of the winner
implies the misery Of the loser. This kind of
action is therefore essentially anti social,
sears the sympathics rultvatcs hard ego
ism. and 80 produces Il general deterioration
Of character ard conduct"
Every man who CANDLES either for large or
small stakes, 10 matter by what process, be it
chance or skill,is "th"r Il fool or n scoundrpl.
and sometimes both.
Much has been done TO repress this H.
| iIuity with Il ore or less success Lotteries
have been fairly well conquered. 50 far as
our own nation is Concerned, but the machin.
cry of the federal government was required
| to complete the work. which was not done
until this year of grace 1895, after seventy
five years of legislation.
The next point OF attack seems to be the
race track, one CT the most pernicious and
demoralizing forms Of gambling ever invent
ed. No worse curse need be asked upon
any community than that which blighted our
town of Elkton during October and Noyem-
Der of this year. Much legislation against
this form OF the evil has been enacted, but i'll
several states it has been Of Il peculiar kind.
The Maryland law is Il fair sample. Just
such law was passed by Rhode Island. and
by Congress for the District of Columbia. 1t
is put in the form of II prohibtory law, but
| winds up by excepting certain associations,
the result of which is to give these Il monop-
oily OF the business
The following is the Maryland law of 1894
referred to:
ut shall he unlawful for any person or
persons or association OF persons to gamble
or make books and pools on the result of any
trotting race or running race of horses or
race OF any kind, or to establish. keep, rent
or use or knowingly suffer to be used or
occupied any house, building or portion of
building. vessel or place on land or water
for the purpose of making or selling therein
any book or pool or OF otherwise betting
therein or thereon upon the result of trotting
race or running race of horses or race of
amy kind; provided that nothing in this SEQ
ton shall render it unlawful for any person
to make pool or book or to bet within the
grounds OF any agricultural association. or
upon any morse race which shall be held
within the same grounds race course, or
driving park. upon which said person shall