BRIDGE FIENDS

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1932, Page 5

BRIDGE FIENDS

DRAMATIC DENUNCIATION.

TWO POINTS OF UOW.

Sydney, May 12.

Sydney has received another shock, and 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 Paton 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 mother’s grave and prayed to God in gratitude for 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 bridge playing fiend and a cocktail shaker.”

Explaining his viewpoint on the following day, after there had been a general protest against the nature of his sermon, Mr. Paton said he saw no harm in cards except where the indulgence was carried to excess or where the game was accompanied by 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 over-indul-gence 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 Mr. Paton’s comments were greatly exaggerated, and it was suggested in various quarters that he had not given the matter sufficient thought. Bridge players, it was contended, were not damned by narrow-mindedness. Bridge was generally regarded as a fascinating pastime giving a splendid mental reaction, and there were few instances where homes and children and husbands had suffered. Pointed references were made by various society people to the enormous sum raised annually for charity by bridge parties. The secretary of one city said that in the last five years his club alone had raised £l2*ooo for charity from bridge parties alone. The game should be viewed from a tolerant angle.