Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-05-07
AGAINST THE FAIR,
|Sagadahoc Agricultural
SocietyGets no Stipend.
Decision Of Commissioner Gil
man in Gambling Charges.
Find Things at Topsham Fair a
TrifIe Sporty.

Following is the Finding of Hon. A.
| w. Gilman, commissioner of agrcul-
ture Of the State of Maine, in the in
vestication of the charge that the
provisions of law in regard to gambling
and games of chance on the grounds of
legally Incorporated agricultural so
cieties We're not complied with, in the
case Of the Sagadahoc Agricultural So
Oct. 1915, 1908.
Mr. john f. Euker, Sec,
Sagadahoc Agricultural Society
Bowdoinham, Me.
Ny Dear Sir:
A public hearing to ascertain the
facts relative to gambling on the
grounds of the Sagadahoc Agricultural
Society, at the "Topsham Fair So
called, on Oct 1916, 1908, as publicly
charged in the press of the State. was
held in the office of the seectmen, at
3owdoinham, Maine, on Tuesday, April
10Th. 1909, before me, the compliments
and officers of the society having had
timely notice and being present with
numerous witnesses, and | find as fol-
lows:
The Revised Statutes of Maine,
Chapter 60. Section IA, as amended by
Chapter 45 of the public Laws of 1907
so far as they relate to the matter in
hand, read as follows:
There shall be appropriated annu-
ally from the State treasury, a sum of
money not exceeding two cents to each
inhabitant of the State, which shall be
divided among the legally incorporated
agricultural societies of the State not
provided for the Special enactment. ac-
cording to the amount of premiums
and gratuities actually paid in full, on
exhibition stocks and products, and
provided, that each of said societies
shall not allow gambling in any form
or games of chance on said grounds"
MY inquiry resolves itself into two
questions--was there, upon the grounds
of the Sagadahoc Agricultural Society
| upon the days in question. gambling
| in the sense that the word is used in
the section of the statutes just quoted,
and, did the officers of that society
| allow this gambling, or suffer it to
continue wher, if intelligent men, and
duly ohservant they must have known
that it was being INDUCED in.
| So the first of all a definition of
gambling" as used in the laws of
Maine must be sought. And it relieves
| the department of agriculture of labor
and uncertainty to find an unequivo-
cal definition of inst this word, in just
the sense used above, in an opinion of
the learned Chief Justice of the State,
published in the 99th Maine Report,
Page 4s6 This case was tried to de-
| termine whether a machine which a
| man operates by depositing five cents.
and which furnishes the operator a
| fve-cent cigar in any event, and by
chance from two to fifty five-cent ci-
gars additional is a gambling device,
and whether playing it is gambling"
| in the statutory sense of the word; and
Chief Justice Emery says:
aid in determining the sense in
which the Legislature used a given
| term in one chapter or section of the
statutes may often be obtained by con-
sideri1g the language of other chapters
and sections upon the same or kindred
subjects Referring to the chapter en-
| titled "Gambling,' (R. S., 126, Sec. ~.
| we find that every person is forbidden