The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1908-11-27
rae ms 81 eAMeLINa

. bling were none too severe. Il woul,
be impossible To overdraw the pictur
u misery and poverty and blighte'
: lives and wrecked homes that hav,
|, followed in the wake Of these insitu
lions.
From the earliest history of our rae
he lawmakers and the courts hav'
recognized the evil eaects of gam
bling. Way back in the dawn Of Ten
aessee's civilization our courts were
called upon 70 deal with the evil anC
they did so with the vigor and the
energy that was so characteristic o.
our pioneers. That was before tht
days of the bucket shop, and, if before
the advent of that institution, gam
bling had assumed such proportions
as to call forth the maledictions and
the warnings of those high in civil au
thority, it would now be impossible tc
minimize. the evils that result from
so-called dealing in futures" AS
/ Judge Holding we'll and truly said, il
the roulette wheels and the faro banks
nave had their thousands of victims
the bucket shops have had their tens
Of thousands of victims.
Gambling was never better charac-
! terized and its attendant evils never
more accurately described than in an
opinion delivered by Judge Catron
more than three-quarters of a century
ago. Judge Holding quoted from this
opinion and incorporated 1t in his
charge. The writer was one of the
greatest jurists of Tennessee. He
served with honor upon the Supreme
bench of this State and for more than
twenty years was an ornament to the
court of last resort of the United
States. The following extract from
this opinion is we'll worthy careful
perusal:
The presumption of the law is that
every man has acquired his property
honestly land it is the policy Of every
we'll regulated government, that he
shall not be deprived of it without a
fair equivalent. This is particularly
the case in Republics, where all should
be independent in the means of sub |
sistence. Reduce a man to want by
gaming, or otherwise, and he is no
longer free to exercise the elective !
franchise, but dependent upon the |
hand that furnishes himself and fam
lily with bread. Not only ruin and
beggary, but drunkenness is almost
uniformly the effect of gaming; the
two vices combined are more likely to
sap the foundations of our institutions
than all others put together. Destroy
freedom of thought, and independence
Of action. in voting at primary cleo
ions by the people, and the idea of
by majorities is farce, the
popular will a delusion, bowling to the
lictation of the wealthy minority.
THE patriot, anxious for the pros
,erity of his country and the durabil-
ty of her institutions repines at the
bought of seeing the haggard, hungry
nd naked gambler, or the besotted :
dragged to the polls and
orced to vote according to the beck !.
f his l might almost say, master;
nd he a champion of the loo table :,
fo1a~ MI Tn a NIX
nd political power, knavery rises up !.
n the ruins Of honesty and indepen-
ence. Wheresoever in these Repub
cs, gaming is in any shape tolerated, =.
auperism supported by the govern :,
rent, is, in nine instances in ten, the
OF it and its kindred
Ice, drunkenness. :,
These are a few of the political :,
going to influence leg
lation, wholly to suppress every -
)ecie:- of gambling. Let us look at =,
)me ether reasons, partly moral and :,
ill more conclusive of the correct
ess of the policy. There is implant-
| in the nature of man an inclina-
On to gamble.
Like other passions which agitate
e great mass of the community it -
IS dormant until once aroused, and
en- with the contagion and fury OF :.
it sweeps morals, motives -,
honest pursuits and industry into :.
e vortex Of vice, unhinges the prin-
pies of religion and common hon
ty; the mind becomes ungovernable,
d is destroyed to all useful pur- !.
ses chances of successful gambling 10
one are looked to for prosperity in
e, even for the daily means Of sub
tence; trembling anxiety for sue
IS In lotteries, at the faro bank or
|