The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1895-06-13

and what they were doing. In my
opinion, this is infinitely better than
those secret hells in almost every
town and city, which everyone who
seeks can find; which are known to the
police; which are illegal and in def
ance of law, yet by the bribery of
officials paid to suppress them, and by
the apathy of the public are allowed to
exist. Society is responsible for this
state of things, and therefore response
BILE for the crime resulting therefrom.
But this is not all, by any means,
that can be said on the subject of
gambling Society, it seems to me, is
permeated through and through with
this vice. Look at our great social
clubs, where poker and such like
games are the nightly excitement. Are
they not gambling hells, seeking to
debauch and destroy the young and
old of the upper circles of society,
even as the bucket shops seek the mid
die Glass; and the open gambling dens
of the Rockies our working people?
They are all the same, working to one
common end, and that end is ruin.
Again, in what are the wheat pits,
stock-exchanges. and other places in
our great commercial cities where mer
chants congregate, and buy that which
they never intend to have, and sell
that which they never had to sell, in
short. where they deal in option, fut
ures, and margins; in what I ask are
these places. and these transactions
better than the open Casino at Monte
Carlo, and the transactions therein? :?
They are the same They are no better,
but rather worse, for those who would
not be seen in one. engage in the other.
They are all trending in the same
direction, all leading downward to
: ruin. During the past years, have we
5 not read the lesson? Have we not
; seen the ruin wrought by defaulting
: city. county, and state treasurers
J, broken banks, saving and trust com
e panies brought about by the gambling
J. in stocks and grain? Who can count
/, the cost? Who can sum up the tears
g and sufferings of thousands of little
;, children, widows and orphans, whose
e sole means of subsistence have beer
t swallowed up by this monstrous evil
t Bank presidents, cashiers, tellers
e treasurers Of states, county or city
n clerks and employees who held higl
is positions of trust, the DID, the middle
e aged, and the young man barely out o
his teens. ruined and disgraced, are t.
l. be seen behind the bars today, aye
If thousands of them; because they hav
er been unable to resist the enticemen
ID with which this great evil surround
g; them, and which is fostered, connive
Id at, and let alone by society.
H. AS society. that is the people, som
IL few years ago, by their represent ative
. in congress. passed the Anti-LOtteT
y law, this law being enforced, as til
H. general government does enforce tI
IL laws under its control resulted in tt
III closing of the Louisiana lottery an
IL kindred institutions. and today, 10
II teries are practically things of the pas
- AS in the case of lotteries, so in a
''S forms of gambling, society has II
ih' power if it only had the will to ena
W laws, for it's suppression, and it all
VI has the power to see that these Law
are enforced If by some means
u bottle of poison were placed on n
ny table, and member of my family di
VI thereby l might be excused, but il
u still left it on the table, and saw o.
jill after another partaking of it and d
'ts' ing, and still held my hand and
10 nothing, would not be as guilty
er- murder as though I had placed t
cry poison in their food to destroy tn
'"S lives? Most assuredly would. Ga
'ws bling is seductive poison, and secie
'he seeing day by day men who have hith
l to led pure and honest lives, falli
'ho through its influence, and yet holds
pen hand, takes no active steps for its 81
h,a M preston, but leaves it severely ale
on. to work it's evil unfettered and I
ere, CARED for, is guilty of the moral m