Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-19
CONCERTED CRUSADE
Representatives Of All Creeds
Unite in New York.
TO OPPOSE GAMBLING
PROGRESSIVE EUCHRE TERMED
INCUBATOR OF THE PASSION.
Priest Declares Some Hope for Men,
but Self Control Scarcely Ex-
lists Among Women.
TO OPPOSE GAMBLIN G.
'ecial Correspondence of The Evening Star.


NEW YORK. March IS. 1904.
A concerted church crusade against the
gambling proclivities OF women in New
York has been in progress for some time
L is non-sectarian movement The
Protestant clergyman, the Catholic priest,
the Jewish rabbi, separately and collective
ly. are denouncing the gambling maria
which. they claim. has been taking pIs-
session of New York women during rec ant
years.
Thousands Of New York women, not only
| Of the middle class. but of the highest So
cial station, they maintain-with excellent
proofs in support of their content.on-have
| developed into the veriest feve-ish gam
blers during the past half decafe. They
offer various theories to account for this
comparatively new passion among New
York women.
A noted Protestant minister, preaching on
| the topic ascribed 1t all to progressive
euchre. He said that progressive euch-e
parties made gamblers out OF four women
in five who participated in them.
Catholic priest, in denOuncing gambling
among the women Of his own congregation,
stories Of which had reached him, counted
church fair lotteries. wheels OF fortune ana
| such as among the incitations to the de-
velopment Of a gambling spirit among wo-
| men. He. too. violently denounced the
| progressive euchre party, and concluded by
| hurting the threat OF excommnnicato1 al
| the head of any woman of his congregation
| OF whom he heard any more properly sub
| Stimulated gambling tales.
Stock Gambling Contributory Agency.
| A Jewish rabbi of fashionable Hebrew
| congregation scored the wome1 before him.
at specially called women's meeting. for
| their indulgence In the ''ruinou5 and all
de structive vice of gambling" as he plainly
| called 1t. and in addition TO ;ne progressive
euchre party which he termed the 'incu-
| bator of the gambling passion. warming
| into life the worm that develops Into the
gambling moth he named stock dabbling
on the part of women a contributory
agency to the spread Of gambling among
women.
| Beginning to frivol with the market, he
said on the tips" of asinine half-men
| who ought to know better. the women who
| yield to this sort of thing presently find
| themselves consumed. as by living fialne,
| with the desire to risk their own and their
husbands money on any soft of a gam
! bling proposition that comes their way, the
| end always spelling ruin.
The ministers and priests AMI rabbits, in
their denunciations do not naglAct the in
| sidious game of bridge" which they hold
| up as one of the greatest curses of the era
They declaim. too. against the "pieas ant
| little penny-ante poker game in the fiat, In
which the women folk take part.
"a man who teaches his wife how to play
poker Is a knave or a fool. or both. or
worse" one Episcopal clergyman said In
sermon on this subject a couple of Sundays
| ago.
THE men who do this he wen- on.
| meet you with that id'otic and wholly
| erroneous saw that anything that their
| wives do while they. the husbands, are
present Is all right-that anything. in TACT
| done by the women under their own vine
and fig tree is correct and proper. That
my friends, is a punctured lie nave only
| to refer you to the records OF New YORK
| divorces to prove to you that 1t is lie.
| The woman who Is taught now TO samDie
| by her husband will. sooner or later, begin
| to gamble elsewhere than In her own nome,
and In other company than trat got to-
gether by and with the appi oval of her
| husband And any New York man 10
whom this fact is not Instantly patent is
| simple. straightout ass
Ali Well Informed on the Subject.
These ministerial crusaders all seem to be
| singularly well informed on their subject,
| and the majority of them maintain that.
once a woman becomes confirmed in her
gambling habits. she never leaves off.
There is some hope for the gambling
| man." said The Catholic priest above
| quoted They can and do quit gambling.
know men-Some of them are in this con-
| preeation-who quit playing cards or gam
bling on horse ceS twenty years and even
| a quarter of a century ago, and who have
never wagered penny since. They made
I'D their minds to quit and they quit. But
| that sort of self-control. 1 grieve to say,
scarcely exists among women
There Is no hope whatever for the wo-
| man gambler. Any veteran professional
gambler will tell you that, not with any
| spirit of malice or partiality, but a simple
expression of fact. So that am not preach
| ing with any hope of reclaiming women
| who have already become addicted to gam
| bling.
ST haIta,-e in nv bea ri that there isn't a
chance in life that one of them will ever,
under any sort of suasion. moral. religious.
or other leave off the vicious practice. l
am striving only to beseech the women who
| have not fallen into the habit never to allow
themselves to yield to the gambling desire,
| even when it IS placed before them in its
| simplest and, apparently. most inocuous
forms.
| Another clergyman stated that his nves-
tigation of the subject had shown him most
conclusively that a gambling propensity on
| the part of woman is only a forerunner TO
| her taking to drink.
'.When a woman becomes gambler" to
| employ his words. 1T not long before she
becomes an alcoholic, if not the victim of a
drug addiction.
The Next Step is Drinking.
1.-The wear and tear on their nerves caused
by gambling must be temporarily repaired
and women who get into the gambling habit
take to drink literally IN shoals. l not
speaking at random. hut know precisely
what am talking about And when a wo-
man becomes an alcoholic, what show is
there in the world for her reclamation?
do you know of any woman who permit
ted herself to become thoroughly habituated
to whisky who ever really slipped. and
permanently stopped, drinking? philan-
thropic physician of New York who devotes
himself as a side issue to his practice. to
retaining drunkards by means of remedy
which he has discovered, told me recently
that he is successful, on the average, with
three out of five confirmed drunkards among
men.
"Out of more than two hundred women
drunkards whom he had treated-some of
them of the highest social station, but all
of them married women with good homes
and under the protection of good husbands
he had only been able to effect three perma-
nent cures He is almost ready to give up
treating women for drunkenness as hope
less task
And when all experience leads to the
absolute and incontestable conclusion that
gambling leads to drunkenness. Is not the
woman simply insane who permits herself
to take such chance? Should she not be