The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-03-18
MISCELLANY.
As to Card Parties.

loCNs III Ia IL lbNAAOlu VI OhO " III
versalist church, Columbus, Ohio, has
issued the following address, giving his
views as to the influence of social card
playing where prizes are offered:
To the Christian Card Players of
ColunbuS:-Ladies, word with you.
l wish to call your attention to a matter
which, it seems to me, many of you
have overlooked. l take up the morn
ing issues of our daily papers to-day,
and, on looking over the society"
columns, see that our city is largely
given to card-parties, and in nearly all
the reports see that " prizes " consti-
tute pretty uniform feature, and the
names of the successful players are fire.
quently published. These parties are
given by all classes of Christian peo-
ple-Congre gationalists, Presbyterians,
Baptists, Methodists, Universalists and
all others. 1 ask your attention 10 the
prize feature. The prize is something
won at cards. 1t is furnished by the
hostess, it is true, but it is won by
somebody else. Let us suppose that a
good Christian wife and mother comes
home from the party and exhibits her
pllLC-lb may DC q Culo SdoO, al VI hu-
mented cup and saucer or what beside,
at the dinner table to her admiring hus-
band (perhaps) and sons. They ask
where she obtained it and she replies:
"Oh, at Mrs. BIS or CPS at the card
party" The next night Tom comes
home and lays down a five-dollar gold
piece at his plate and his mother asks:
Where did you get that, TOMB" and
her son replies: ooh, won it last
night at Charities" Suppose the
mother begins to berate him for gam
bling and predicts his ruin, and then
he responds: " Well, mother, bring out
your card cases and cups and let us
pool out gains and strike balance"
What is she going to say in reply?
notice that in our Christian conven-
ton held in Columbus last week the
"gamblers were severely condemned
by the visiting and local clergy, but not
word that l saw or heard was pointed
at the domestic gambling that seems to
have invaded all the churches. People
may call the prizes " souvenirs" but so
may Tom call his money "souvenir "
the principle is the same.
1t may be replied that prize adds
interest to the social game, but woman
who cannot play with zest without the
stimulant of a prize is precisely the
woman who ought not to play at all.
If the hostess should lay down five
dollar bill instead of the article abe
bought with the bill, think our good
Christian ladies would see the gam
bling features at once; but what is the
difference in the principle?
l have no objection to social game
OF cards, but the prize feature, think,
is exceedingly hazardous. Unless. a
woman is willing to see her husband
aud sons bring home money won at the
gambling tables of our city, do not
see how she can be willing to exhibit
her winnings at the other gambling ia
bles of the city. If she is, and if the
ministers are willing, she should let
them modify their condemnation of
the other gamblers. / would have
bling is to win value without return
ing an equivalent, and when the breth-
rem start out on the next inspection OF
the gambling places, let them step into
the elegant Broad street and State
street and Town street and Dryden
road homes and witness the good Chris
tians gambling in genteel fashion and
taking home the prizes to exhibit, per-
haps to the very ministers themselves,
as trophies of their skill.
call the attention OF the good Chris
tian ladies to what l regard as a serious
and dangerous evil, and ! ask them to
think about it seriously. do not be-
ieve they intend wrong, but it is
hazard of thoughtlessness.