Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-03-19

A6dlNtlO
stand. National Hotter.
TuE SOCIAL RAGE FOL
Despite pulpit denunciation by new
York's fashionable preachers the gam
ling mania in New York society seems
in a fair way to become a frenzy ana
extend from the upper ten" or -Four
Hundred, who are generally looked up
on as specially licensed, to the ranks
Of the respectable middle classes,
which are the real bulwark of the So
cial system.
Despite the appeals of the preachers
society appears to have gone daft on
the subject of bridge whist" Bridge
is a social fad and like many others
owes it's vogue to royal approval
King Edward VII. gave it his princely
preference some years ago and it be-
came the only game in London's smart
set. Big stakes, reckless playing, no
tiresome regrets afterwards those
were the rules prescribed by his then
Royal Hghness. The game originally
came from Russia. It got to Paris,
then London, and lastly to New York.
In comparison with bridge" we are
told, the seductions Of poker" are as
nothing, while the keenness of straight
whist is not in it. 1t is played in
every club and drawing-room and it is
said thst thousands of dollars change
hands over the tables every day. Lent
furnishes additional excuse. AS chron-
icled in these columns, Rev. DIR. Hunt
ington told the story Sunday week, of
the young man who lost his whole
years salary, $500, at one sitting and
the Rev. DR.. Rainsford spoke Of the
young society woma who boosted of
a $500 winning in an hour. Jewels
bought by the profits of bridge" as
everybody calls it, are common sights
at the opera. Teachers of the game are
working double time and charge their
fashionable pupils $40 an hour for their
services. Its delights are thus describ-
ed:
The beauty of bridge" is that it gives
the players all the intellectual combat of
plain whist with the added zest of chance
more pronounced. Straight whist has
never been a gambling game-it requires
too much skill. Luck is eliminated as far
as it can be when the hands are decided
by the shuttle and fall of the cards. Du-
plicate whist was designed to do away
with even this by playing the same cards
over again, the sides changing hands.
But bridge allows the holders of big
hands to double or quadruple the value.
The holding of honors-the court cards
adds to the score, and if all are in one
hand it increases the number of points
won in even greater ratio. The taking of
all the tricks or all but one allows the
lucky winners to add to their points more
points than just the plain winning of the
tricks would allow them.
And SO it happens that everything can
be won or lost in one hand. Thus bridge
has won its success.
1t is not the card tournament where
prizes are played for that is so OBJ
jectionable; it is the gambling in pri-
vate homes and in the social clubs
that the ministers are now vainly de-
nouncing. In some of the swell clubs
the play is very high. At a recent ses-
sion of the swell West Chester County
Club the play became so high that one
of the club officials was Obliged to stop
1t, remarking that none of those en-
gagged in the play could afford to lose
SO great a sum-. This caused trouble
In the club, where generally the play
- unrestrained as of course are the
many private games going on in SWELL
dom.
In view of this situation is it not
about time for the officials of Greater
New York to give up trying to sup
press professional gamblers? While
high society in Fifth Avenue is rival
ling Monte Carlo it is rather a farce
for the police to be raiding the Shops
OF the red light" district.