BRIDGE FIENDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21647, 18 May 1932, Page 12

BRIDGE FIENDS

ATTACK FROM PULPIT SYDNEY AROUSED. • (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, May 12. Sydney has received another shock, and once again it has come from the pulpit. It has taken the form of a vigorous attack on women bridge-playing fiends, who were described by the Rev. Hugh Eaton in his Mothers’ Day sermon at St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church as a menace. No mother, he said, could gamble and retain true character, and where there was deterioration it must pass on to the children. In a dramatic denunciation of women who played cards for money, Mr Paton, letting his voice die almost to a whisper, said, "I went to my mothers grave and prayed to God in gratitude tor the wonderful mother He gave me.' Then he shouted to his crowded church, *' Yes, I prayed to God that He did not give me for a mother a damned bridgeplaying fiend and a cocktail shaker.” Explaining his viewpoint on the following day, after there had been a general protest against the nature of the sermon, Mr Paton said he saw no harm in cards except where the indulgence was carried to excess or where the game was accompanied bv gambling. Any woman who gambled at bridge .must suffer moral deterioration, whether she was conscious of it or not. The game had become a craze, and many women were seriously addicted to it. Naturally, their homes and their children, and perhaps their husbands, too, suffered in consequence. It was a form of excess just as was oyerindulgence in drink or in horse racing, and gambling was a moral evil whether at the racecourse or at the card table. When asked about the husband who became a bridge fiend, Mr Paton said, “If we had the right kind of women we would have the right kind of men. The general opinion in the city is that »r Paton’s comments were greatly exagrated, and it was suggested in arious quarters that he had not given the matter sofficient thought. Bridge players, it was contended, were not damned by narrowmindedness. Bridge . was generally regarded as a fascinating pastime, giving a splendid mental reaction, and there were fetw instances where homes and children and husbands had suffered. Pointed refer dices were made by various society people to the enormous sums raised annually for charity bv bridge parties. The secretary of one city club said that in .the last five years his club alone had raised £12.0»u for charity from bridge parties alone. The game should be viewed from a tolerant angle. ___