WOMAN THE GAMBLER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3137, 2 October 1922, Page 2

WOMAN THE GAMBLER.

(By Cicely Hamilton)

More that) once of late attention has been called to the increase of gambling amongst women; the practice of having a bit on a race is no longer confined to women of the well-to-do classes; it has spread to the hardworking, wage- earning class, and the factory girl, like the miner's wife, studies "form" in the columns of the sporting papers and entrusts her shillings to the bookie. The practice may be regrettable, but can" hardly be accounted surprising; it is not indicative of a new development in the feminine half of humanity.

Great ladies of the past were reckless at the card-table, great ladies of the present have been known to burn their lingers on the Stock Exchange; and if the working woman of days gone by did not bet, it was only, I imagine, because she very seldom had the chance.

The gambling instinct is by no means confined to the stronger sex, and luck — sheer chance —plays a greater part in the life of the average woman than in that of the average man.

The fact is so plain that it hardly needs statement; it is evident enough that the boy who is destined for a certain calling—who trains as a navvy, an auctioneer, a sailor —it is evident enough that he can tell within limits what existence will mean for him and what measure of success he may hope for. His sister's future, on the other hand —whether her training, her talents or wishes is wrapt in uncertainty and mystery.

With luck she may mate with a thoroughly desirable husband —a saving and steady-going fellow or a man already well-to-do; if tbjp fates arc against her, she may marry into penury or dragged to the gutter by a wastrel. If she is destined to be wife and mother, her wealth or poverty, her very dwelling-place, depend on possibilities that may not be gauged or foreseen; she may fall in love with the next-door grocer and settle down to matrimony in the street she has known all her life; she may plight her troth in a settler in Queensland, an engineer with a contract in Eiga, or a trader who resides at Singapore. Unless she abandons the thought of home and children, she cannot, as a rule, plan her future with any exactness; she must trust to chance and wait for what the gods provide. Matrimonial prizes in' the shape of happy homes, kindly husbands, and large dress allowances are not won as the reward of careful endeavor and a strict application to business —are not even won as the reward of domestic virtue; fate deals them out on a system of her own—a system odd and unaccountable which, to mortals, looks suspiciously like luck. Hence feminine tradition encourages the gambling spirit; which is expectation of manna from the skies, good fortune that has not been earned..