The Punta Gorda herald. [volume] (Punta Gorda, Fla.) 1893-1958, 1915-01-07
Let the Darkeys Play

Darkeys, as well as white folks
need mental recreation. Those
working at the big mills, in the
phosphate mines and on the tur-
pentine farms have to rely on
their own devices or resources for
amusement, for that mental relax
alton that contributes to their .ef-
ficiency. On rainy days and at
other times, Sundays often, their
means of recreation are quite lin
tied. Petty gambling, shooting
"craps" or playing "skin, is the
only thing that occurs to them to
"while away the time. "
In these games, the stakes are
very small. We venture to say
that the total rarely ever amounts
to as much as five dollars and we
don't believe that one player in
ten ever quits the game that much
ahead.
Further, the darkeys above re-
ferred to are not professional gam
blers who depend upon the games
for their support. They are
hard-working laborers earning an
honest living by daily toll.
If they are not permitted to "a
muse themselves in their own COM
paratively innocent way, they are
likely to stray off from the camps
and do something worse. They
might, for example, go out and
steal a chicken or a pig. We have
known young white men to steaI
chickens for amusement, and II
some instances the chickens were
worth more than all the money
changing hands in a game Of
"craps".
We think it better and more
honest to gamble for two or three
dollars by way of metnal recrea
ton than to rob a chicken house
or a cane patch.
We can't expect the darkeys t.
spend the rainy days praying ant
singing and preaching, or even il
reading Browning or Shakespeare
nor can they sleep all the time
and, therefore, in view of the fac
that an idle mind is the devil Z
workshop we think that i
should be guarded against in the
case of the darkeys by permitting
them to play "skin' and shoot
"craps" during those hours wher
circumstance prevent them from
working. In such cases thu
officers of the law, we think, would
be justified in seeing no evil
hearing no evil.
We are moved to these remarks
by reading in the Ocala Star al
article in which the officers ar,
criticised for their diligence il
searching for darkcy "crap'
shooters, arresting them ant
bringing them INTO court Wher
they are fined heavily or sentenc
ed to do hard labor for a mont
or two. The Star charges the of
fcers with discriminating agains
the darkeys and in favor of whit
men who regularly gamble TO
much larger stakes. We neve
hear of white men being arreste
for gambling, though there is res
son to believe that in every tow
of the state there are at least
few who are guilty.
The Star rightly argues ths
what is "sauce for the COOS
should be sauce for the gander,
to which we will add that "
think gambling by white men
morally worse than "crap
shooting by negroes.
Further the Star intimateS thu
official persistence and diligen'
in arresting and prosecuting n
gro "crap" shooters is prOmptC
chiefly by a desire for the fe'
which the officers get, more
than by sincere and honest wis
to uphold the laws. That is, Il
arrests would not be made, if Il
officers did not get pay for them.
We do not incline to this vie7
though it is entertained by MAI
people. We rather think tn
the officers are over-zealous, al