The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1908-07-16
ABOUT CARD-PLAYING.
Few Persons Investigate the Ro0t.Prln.
CipleS Involved.
The ASSOCIATION ALWAYS DANGEROUS.

THE ASSOCIATION ALWAYS DANGEROUS
The Messenger of Hope, organ OF
the Thompson Orphanage at Char,
lotte, N. c., and edited by Rev. w.
J. Smith, formerly rector of Trinity
Church in Scotland Neck, prints the
following from the South Carolina
Times:
Comparatively few persons inves-
tigate the root-principles involved in
the so-called border line" practices
and amusements. Yet the only sat
isfactory way of determining ones
attitude toward such a practice is to
do so on the basis of the underlying
principle which is there: any other
basis of settlement is likely to be
temporary, therefore unsatisfactory
and unsafe. A New York reader,
noting with approval a recent edi-
torial statement of the root trouble
with the theater, seeks similar infor-
nation on card-playing. She writes:
Il should like to get an opinion
fully as positive concerning the
fundamental objections to, or the
underlying benefits Of, card-playing
as practiced at the present time"
There are two fundamental objec-
tons to card playing, which would
seem to outweigh heavily any bene-
fits that it may offer. The two are:
Its recognition of chance as an i'm
portant factor; it's association with
gambling. dissolute element of So
ciety.
Most games of cards are based
upon chance as the leading factor.
rather than skill. There is, of course,
plenty of opportunity to use skill in
playing the cards which chance has
given one; but there is well-recog-
nized, sharply defined line of dis
t;nction between cards and checkers,
chess. tennis, bowling and the like.
The latter are games of skill; the
former is a game of chance. And
the practical question for young
people and adults alike to consider
is this:
Do l want to cultivate, in my
amusement an element-chance, or
luck-which has no recognition by
sensible, successful people in any
other branch of life; or shall make
my amusements contribute to my
general efficiency by their cultivation
of skill? And when parents are con-
sidering the question of their child
ren's amusements at the most i'm
pressionable time of life, the choice
of these two opposing tendencies.
choice and luck, as tendencies of life
to be encouraged and developed by
the children's games, offers food for
pretty serious thought.
Cards and card playing are pecu-
liarly associated with gambling,
drinking. dissolute elements of So
ciety. Probably no other form of
game has this association to any such
degree. The chance of luck ele-
ment makes strong appeal to those
human beings who have little to do
with honest effort and clean, high
class skill as their chief asset in life.
Inasmuch as cards have been appro-
priated, therefore, by the worst and
lowest elements Of society, do we
want to open our own home to de-
bauched amusement? Do we want
our boys to become adopts, in the
home, at game which, in college
or out in the world, will make it
easy and tempting for them to get
in close association with men whose
life and practices are wholly un-
worthy?
Even if the amusement were inno-
cent and harmless in itself, its asso-
Citations are the logical outcome of
its inherent unworthiness; and the
combination of these two facts is
sufficient, in the minds of many, to
put the game clean over the border
line and into the realm of practices
that are beyond debate.
L. IL L. <<..lLlox,