The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-31

New York Tribune, under date OF Aug. |
"a, as follows:
saratoga, Aug. '2S.-Saratoga is to-
dav the wickedest place in the coun- |
trv. l write this deliberately, without
onv desire to be sensational, but with |
q strong belief that the facts should
he known and not 'scamped" or blink |
ed at.
came here upon the promise of the I
eavest season and most prodigal dis
nlay of wealth the place had ever
seen. 1t was supposed that this would
he accentuated by notable dinner par
ties. grand dances, an extraordinary
display of rich gowns and jewels. the
extensive adornment and decoration
of private cottages, and by original
and striking entertainments by and
for the fashionables, and the million
aires. Only one feature of all that
was looked for has thus far marked
the season now drawing to its close.
That feature is the prodigality. But
this has all taken one ulrectloh-
gambling.
The pastimes of those who lead in
the ruling pleasures here are the most
demoralizing that have ever disturbed
the even tenor of our staid and Writ
nous American holiday life. Moreover,
the decentralization has this year been
more general and has struck deeper
and spread wider than ever before.
The ruling vice of the old and historic
resort is precisely that of the Western
mining camps of twenty years ago,
but it is aggravated by many phases
that the lawless camps never knew.
The feature of dissipation which
Roaring Camp" Devils Gulch," and
like places Gin fiction and in real life)
did not shelter, and that Saratoga
does exhibit is the. daily, constant
gambling by the wives and sisters and
mothers of the men of those camps
and the gambling by children, which
is another distinctive feature of the
life at the Springs to-day. There is
fever of betting and gambling on
games of chance, an orgy of illegal
speculation, a madness for risking and
winning money. 1t RACES on almost
every hand among the persons whose
names find their way into the news
papers-and these are leaders in So
ciety, in Wall street and in trade; it
is carried on as openly as the sun
shines, it provokes neither rebuke nor
comment in the local press or pulpit |
or from the lookers-on.
PrOmiscuOusness.
L.
es as fashionable dissipation in nearly |
every corner of the world, have never |
before seen such publicity and promis- |
cuousness in these follies; have no. |
where else known gambling TO begin
close upon breakfast and be- carried |
on, in varied fields of chance, until |
after midnight; have in no other place
found young maidens, new brides and |
family domestics risking bets side by |
side with the heads of families. And |
never before or elsewhere have l seen
fathers and mothers teaching the
tricks of gaming to callow chlldren
or fathers looking with smiling races
at their sons beside the faro taples III
a gambling resort.
Such are the especial peculiarities
of Saratoga, our Monte Carlo, which
outdoes the little French principality
with multiplication of its gambling
nv SIX. with the addition of
Wall street as morning flip or cock
Ia pe.ore the main attraction, and
which is complicated in all its features |
by retaining it's ancient character as
an invalids cure" and a family wa
tering place. That all the tens OF
thousands who have f1ocked to the
Springs this season are concerned in
the practices of which l speak is by
no means the case 1t is easy to cal
culate the number in the offending
between, four, and, perhaps, seven
thousand persons, and in the gam
bling resorts one may count up less
than a tenth as many visitors, the
majority of whom do not play the
games. / never on any single night
saw more than forty-five or fifty per-
sons playing in the principal clubhouse,
or a larger number than sixty look
ing on.
If these players and spectators were
changed by newcomers four times in
a night, and If the total were multi
piled by four to represent the bust
ness of all the gaming houses, the ex-
tent of the nighttime gambling and
of the crowd which encourages it by
looking on would be fairly estimated.
so, also, at the race track there may
be thousands Il suspect hundreds" is
the likelier term) who do not bet on
the horses. Nevertheless, in both
places, the men and women to whom
the public has ben trained to look for
guidance in the fashions, in manners,
and in public as well as private life,
together with certain persons who rep
resent great corporations in which the
public is asked to invest, are as con-
spicuous by their gambling as by their
wealth and celebrity.
If you live at either the United
States Hotel or the Grand Union, the
ceaseless interest and importance or
gambling in the lives of the majority
around you is rapidly and deeply i'm
pressed upon your mind. No class or
sort of people is wholly uncontami-
mated. When you rise in the morning
the chambermaids and elevator boys
either ask for a tip on the races or
contlde to you that some one has told
them of a horse on which to bet. The
manager of Saratoga branch office
OF Wall street broker told me that
the negro boy who runs his errands
and the woman who sweeps the office
Doth hail him in the mornings with,
Anything good to play to-day?"
Two Exceptions.
Look high or low among the en-
ployes or the guests. and everywhere
You find the same feverish interest in
the races, and 'often times in "the
straet" and in roulette and faro.
met with but two exceptions: my ply
slcian-who had never been to a horse
race in his life-and an under head
waiter, who said to me: II heah dat
MI Gates los $1,000 on de races yes
terday. My goodness Here Use been
saVin' thirty years and I've got $4,000
saved up. Do you think I'd risk a
cent Of dat on a hose race? Not
much"
~ breakfast your neighbors discuss
the gossip about the play the night
before. how this one lost small for
tune and another person won a hatful
or hundred dollar bills. This is often