The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-05
LONG BRANCH GAMBLING.
New Jersey summer Resort Emu
Iates Notorious None Carlo.

New Jersey Summer Resort Emu
lates Notorious None Carlo.
John Gilmer' Speed in Leslie's Weekly.
Since Long Branch experienced its first
boom thirty years ago, gambling has
fiourished at this watering place without
any serious interruption. Every now and
then, when the exigencies of local politics
required that something radical should be
done, so that the partisan heart might be
fired, the gambling houses along the Jer-
sey coast have been attacked on the
stump and in the local press But these
attacks have necer meant anything and
the owners of the houses have never been
seriously disturbed by them. So, also
when the promoters of the neighboring
resorts used religion as an advertisement
of their natural advantages, the immor-
atty of the Long Branch CLUB houses
was commented on, and Long Branch de-
clared to be, by reason of their demoraliz-
ing influence, an unfit and eligible place
for respectable residence. These attacks
were also impotent to check the gam
bling, or they have so far proved to be.
Several years ago, however, there was
CONSERVATION among the sporting men of
Long Branch. This was when the con-
science of New Jerseys good people had
been stirred to the depths by the prac-
tees on the New Jersey race tracks on
those at Gutenberg and Gloucester par
ticularly These, it will be recalled. were
known variously as winter time and out
law tracks. They were called winter
time because races were given all
through the cold season, rain or shine
snow or sleet. They were called OUTLAW
because the recognized racing authorities
in the country declared that neither
fo1y
sportsrnanlike sport" could participate in
the racing at the regular tracks. The
racing was VIGOROUSLY unfair, and was
given merely for the purposes of disrep-
utable book-nakers, who plucl<ed the pub
lie in the most barefaced and unscrupu-
lous fashion. The whole matter became
a public scandal, and quickly, also,
factor in the politics of the state. A re-
publican legislature was elected on the
issue of no racing and no gambling, and
law was passed so sweeping in its pro-
visions that there has been no racing in
the state from then until now
The law, by the way, was as definite
in its provisions against other forms of
gambling as against bookmaking and
pool-selling, and even the boldest of the
ordinary card and roulette gamblers did
not a { first see how they could get around
it, The great race track near Long
Branch-the finest i'm the country-closed
up the ghost. There was wailing in
Monmouth county, for even the most
conservative and least timid of the prop
erty owners felt that the goose that laid
the golden eggs had been killed.
With race track and gambling houses
closed, what would become of Long
Branch? they asked. And this was
very pertinent query-a query which, by
the way has not yet been satisfactorily
answered, for Long Branch is undenably
in the sere and yellow leaf The glory
of the ocean drive is derived from Sea-
bright and Monmouth beach, on one
side, and from Elberon on the other.
That which really belongs to Long
Branch is mere tnsel ana pinchbeck,
while the coat-of-arms on the carriage
panels of the real sojourners of the once
gay place could fittngly be surmounted
with the sign of the three golden balls.
But there may be hope still for Long
Branch-the hope that 1t win continue to
flourish in the very line that the flash
people who made up its boisterous pop
ulation a generation ago selected for it,
Four great gambling houses-cub-
houses theX are called by way of toning
down more accurately descriptive de-
nomination-have been open all season
and last, and they seem to enjoy q great
err prosperity than any of the hotels or
restaurants or other places of entertain
ment and amusement These places are
not only open, but they are wide open
generous in their hospitality free ia
their invitations for all sojourners to en-
JOY their comforts and their Injuries. and
to risk fortune at any of a half-dozen
different games Of chance.