DEMORALISING THE COMMUNITY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11368, 8 September 1897, Page 5

DEMORALISING THE COMMUNITY.

Manx observant people will be inclined to agree with the opinion expressed by the Stipendiary Magistrate in the Police Court yesterday that the large amount of racing in the country is demoralising the community. They will not find it easy to recognise the rather hazy distinction which the promoters of race meetings draw between the sport and the evils by which it is surrounded. "We fancy, however, that if Mr Beetham could spare time to visit some of our racecourses he would find that the vice of gambling is not encouraged so much by the “half-crown bookmakers” to whom he has promised exemplary punishment as by the officials of the clubs that flourish on the proceeds of the totalisator. It might, indeed, he argued, with some show of reason, that the sharper who makes off with the half-crowns entrusted to his care exercises a rather salutary effect upon the morals of the community. At any rate, he is less insidious than the totalisator. He imparts to his confiding patrons in a few brief moments a lesson which it might take them months to acquire from “the machine.” The ultimate result in either case would be the same. The money passes from the bands that have earned it to the bands that are itching to spend it. The consideration is a little unhealthy excitement, which finally leaves all its victims a good deal poorer for their experience. \\ r e are afraid, however, that it will require something more than the sensible words of the Stipendiary Magistrate to eradicate the widespread desire to become rich by some less prosaic means than honest toil.