Mower County transcript., 1904-07-13
PROTECT THE YOUNG
Warning Against lncipient Gambling
Which Is Encouraged In Our
City. 81

WnlCn Is Encouraged III Jul
City. q
Henry Ward Beecher once said:
"Children make man better citizen.
They make him feel as if he were a
stockholder in the public morality. OF
what use would an engine be to ship
if it were lying loose in the hull? 1t
must be fastened to it with bolts and
screws before it can propel the vessel.
There are no such screws and bolts as
children to rivet mans interest and
make him a force in the social lite OF
his day.
Because of the truth embodied IN
this statement, certain citizens OF Aus
tin find themselves deeply Interested
and grieved over influences in the town
which are working very insidiously 1or
the decentralization OF their children.
l refer to business methods which
provoke incipient gambling, and to
the frequency of their use among US,
methods which secure patronage not
only from the adult population but
particularly and avowedly from our
boys and girls. 1t would seem that the
different concerns, employing these
methods, either do not fully COM
prehend their pernicious influence, OF
worse, are criminally indifferent to it.
Once let boy get the idea that the
great immutable law Of cause and ef-
feet can be somehow adroitly cheated; !;
that something can be had for nothing;
that great returns can be justly realiz-
ed from inadequate investments, that
a reward may be his without the sweat
of earning it; in short, let him sub
stitute "luck" for "pluck" in his
vocabulary and he is ruined boy. NO
other concept which may become root
ed in his young mind can in time work
such disaster. 1t is the cause OF most OF
the dishonesty, the perfidy, the crime
and shame Of the age. To this idea is
due the origin Of all inflated values,
disastrous speculation and ruinous
gambling of every sort. tits this fslse
conception which prepares. the most
insinuating temptations presented to
young men and when these tempta-
tions address themselves ID mind NJ 4
ready lenient to this form of corrup-:
ton, to a conscience already tolerant OF
vice, the young man is sure to find him.
self sooner or later among the number
who have made shipwreck OF fortune
and character.
Then what shall we say Of those
mercantile concerns, those Fair as
sociations, those lodges and churches
of our town which have constituted
themselves organizers and maintainers
of kindergarten school for gambling
whereby our boys and girls are lured
by easy, pleasant methods to the
thorough mastery of the first lessons in
this pernicious vice? What else is the
special provision of "Childrens' Day.
at a show at which the feature OF the
occasion is the selling of chances on a
prize; or the selling of prize packages
Of candy to appeal to the child's hope
of winning more than the value OF the
penny or nickel spent; or the tempta-
tion offered to a boy to buy his outfit
where with every dollar of its cost he
likewise buys chance on all alluring
present? The wheels Of fortune of
various kinds and many of the slot
machines are on the same order, an ap-
peal to the chance of winning. What
else is the sale of the "lucky number
which draws quilt at a lodge social
or Bible at church fair? ..a r..
1t seems to some of us that the max
ing of a Bible the prize in lottery is
hardly less grewsome an anomoly,
hardly:les awful travesty, than the
casting of lots for the garments of the
crucifed Christ. Both acts show a
moral callousness, lack of perception
concerning fundamental principles of
righteousness which is appalling to
contemplate. But the one act was COM;
mitted by Roman soldiers confessedly
heathen in the moral twilight Of nine
teen centuries ago; the other act is
committed by members ofa church
professedly Christian in what we love
to call the full light of Christian
civilization. .
We would fain believe that this
condition of affairs had been brought
about by a thoughlessness which might
be pardoned; but we are compelled
rather to see in it a spirit of com
mercial greed which makes every higher
consideration subordinate to the win
ming of the dollar and which counts