TO THE DUST.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXII, Issue 3872, 11 May 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

TO THE DUST.

A WORD FROM JOSH WISE. Jcet uz many folks git poor takin’ a chance uz git rich.

* “Ha, ha!'’ sneered the villain. "Did I not vow that, proud as you are, I would bring you to the dust, that you should grovel before me!” “You did,” muttered the victim. “And it has coino true. Ho., it is good to seo j'ou so ! My vengeance lias not been long delayed, and ” “Look here,” said the victim, “when you have finished letting off gas, perhaps you'll give a hand. If you owned a motor-car, you’d have to grovel in tho dust, too. This is the third time I’ve ‘had to orawl underneath the blessed thing in tho last ten miles.” But the villain, with a smile, passed on.

The gambling craze is not peculiar to any country, and so it is quite, unnecessary to pick out this one for any special condemnation. Gambling of one kind and another goes on everywhere, but what Is certain it is lass apparent in intellectual communities than tin unintellectual. For gambling in addition to being a vice doesn’t pay—it is unbusinesslike and disorganising, both in regard to the individual and his fellows. For one thing the fruits of gambling are taxed a good deal more heavily than are the fruits of honest toil, and for another they are so 'fugitive that for one success there are a thousand failures; and the tax falls on the laser’and winner alike. By tax i.s meant the promoter's profits, the cast of commission, the deductions for this and that purpose, and sometimes, when it comes to racing, for bribes to the contestants. And then money “earned'’ in this way is seldom if ever appreciated, perhaps never fully appreciated, so that the gainer in the long run gains little, while the loser loses as a matter of course. Finally gambling'like drunkenness weakens the community as it diverts application, inspires contempt of labour, broods idleness and is associated with selfishness, spoliation and dishonour. The man who can get credit, and doe.s’nt, appreciates the value of money, since credit must always be paid for, but the man who gambles cannot appreciate the value of money, so credit to him, if ho loses long enough, comes as a convenient expedient. We can see this better by noting some of the embezzlements in order to provide money for gambling purposes. Presumably if the victims could borrow' they wouldn’t .steal, and so it is fair to assume that before they steal, they have borrowed all they can. It has been said that no .poor man can afford to gamble, and the opinon is manifestly sound. It has also been said that any rich man can, which i.s just as manifestly unsound,- since in-

come and expenditure are purely relative. Tims wo find rich men are pauperised 'by gambling as well as poor ones, and even Princes have been known to pawn their credit through gambling, as the history of ‘England amply shows. Gambling is good neither for the rich nor the poor; it isn’t even good for the winner, and it is abundantly bad for the loser. When a miau makes and saves £1,01)0 by toil .lie has the money and tlie community 'have the benefit of his labour; when a man wins £I,OOO from the community they are the poorer by the creation of a drone in the communal hive at their direct expense since no return is enjoyed for the paying over of the money. In fact the evils of gambling will bo best appreciated by refusing to recognise money at all which is net wealth but only the token of wealth. When a man therefor©, wins a £I,OOO from his brethren by means of chance the latter have to surrender that much of their labour and “goods” resulting from it, for no equivalent barter or exchange. The economics of gambling are against it everywhere, hut they are not completed in what has been said. As a last thing there ts the incentive to th© 3’onng who get their lesson in evil every time that gambling is .presented in any better light than the present. A man is careful how ho “shews off” in front of his growing boys, as ho recognises the way they pick up evil (easily) and the way they assimilate good (not nearly so readily). 'What we should realise is that all men should he careful in front of all growing boys, that in fact the adults masculine of a nation are charged with paternal responsibilities towards the juveniles masculine of the same community. Hence the wisdom of the warning in action and precept—the man who is under the thumb of gambling is prostrate for all good purposes, and the vampire of debt i.s always near at hand to help to squeeze out the last of hi.s usei illness.