GIRLS WHO GAMBLE.

NZ Truth, Issue 509, 20 March 1915, Page 11

GIRLS WHO GAMBLE.

iji a' recent issue, 'the Australian [ "dathoiic' Press" fires a column of/type at' ;'Wpmen .^pn^Raoddourse's'."' *!Frora' ; the .article m guestipi 'we extract' the 'following:^ ' ..','• ' . A feature of our social life whioh is developing •- into, an actual scandal is the presence of women who bet on the raoecburse. Not only at Randwick and other big courses of racing proper, but at all' the pony meetings ■ semlmascullno femlnines may be seen with all the hardihood of habitual punters, rushing around from bookmaker to bookmaker seeking- the longest odds. Generally the younger of this peculiar species ,who.have not .yet become fix-, edly "rticyV, .'display some amount of womanly modesty, and .while excitable and nervous exhibit hesitation m the transactions with the ringmen. But onoe thoroughly seized with the gambling fever, they appear to,,throw all considerations.of. ccx aside. They are there as.bettors,, and .the queHtiori of Bex: does not, count, Thqy can be seen, these hardened gamesters, struggling around the orowdß which Burround the bookmakers, * pushing and elbowing shamelessly amid mobs of men to "back their -fanoy." Look at the faces of ; them! • Hard, avaricious, sexless! What good man gazing on their features would care .to ha,ye atiy such Hpcaimens of perverted womanhood presiding 'over his homo? As a keen observer of human nature recently re-, marked on seeing the set expressions of these womon at Randwick, "They have faces Hko circus horses." The artiole goes.on to say that "girls of 16 or, 16" bet oh racocourses, and; further, , Young, women lose their , sense of shame m the excitement of this bad environment and do not hesitate to borrow from male- acquaintances, many of whom are often most willing to proffer a loan. This aspect alone should be sufficient to warn parents ot the.risks their daughters run by frequontlng' racecourses, and Impel them to,insist that^.they should put, m the.ir spare time at homo or at less dangerous recreations than "punting." The "Catholic Press" article must have been wijittcn by its Sunday. School reporter. ' Nether "girls," nor boys, "of 15 or jlsZ-tyej; !on Australian racecourses," both Statute and race club laws prohibit betting with minors, and no bookmaker would daro to risk legal punishment and the loss of his license for the sako of tho custom of a boy or a girl. As regards tho "Catholic Press's'.' statement {hat a woman loses her sex and womanly, looks because she makes a-bet, it is too funny, to be taken seriously. „It would be just as silly, to state that any ono of the ladies who cluster around a Spinning Jenny to have a bet at a church bazaar were cultivating "faces like a circus horse," n» to apply it to thoso who bet on a horse race.