INCREASE OF THE GAMBLING EVIL.
"In my opinion," said the late Mr. Gladstone, "there can be no words too strong for denouncing suitably the abominable practise of gambling." A sweeping assertion, truly, yet no one who has studied the subject can regard it as a degree too sweeping. To-day the gaming problem threatens us with a graver menace than perhaps ever before. Never before has it so permeated the whole of our national life; never has it stood so safely under the protection of the law as it does to-day. Recent judicial decisions have given professional gamesters freedom which even ten years ago would have seemed incredible. In the early part of this century the betting mania was confined within comparatively limited circles; to-day it burns like a fever in every vein of the body politic. There is hardly a class or a section of the community that does not, week by week, almost day by day, yield its tribute of ruined lives, of blasted honor, of broken reputations, of shattered homes, to the craze. The foremost gentleman of the land is the leading patron of the turf; members of the Privy Council take chief part in the committee of the Jockey Club; more than one of our great judges are noted for their regular attendance at all the important race meetings. From the highest to the lowest it is much the same in every class. There is hardly a workroom or office in which betting is not one of the two principal subjects of conversation. In East End Street you see the ragged babies seated on the curbstones, with their shoeless feet in the muddy gutters, playing with toy cards for farthing stakes. The older boys amuse themselves with pitch and toss, carefully delegating one of their number as watchman, to proclaim the approach of a policeman. In the factories of the North and of the Midlands, girls and women are the most earnest and enthusiastic gamblers. The growth of the working-woman gambler is one of the saddest features of all. A few weeks ago a woman was arrested as a book-maker. Every now and then a case comes into the police courts of a domestic servant who stole her master's money to "have a bit on her fancy." Recently it was shown in court that a woman had sold her very clothes to gamble. The gambling business is organized as perhaps no other business in this country is. There are at least ten thousand book-makers who live off it—parasites on our national life. They have their touts inside or outside of every workroom, who literally force themselves on the young mechanic or factory hand. In government departments, such as Woolwich Arsenal, it has been found necessary to take the most elaborate precautions to stop the work of these touts, so patent is the ruin they effect.—The Puritan, London, England. The constant increase which the writer of the above article notices in England is also plainly discernible in this country. It has invaded the homes, like the plagues of ancient Egypt; it has found its way into the exclusive circles of the fashionable churchgoers; it has invaded every department of public life. The spirit which is underneath the gambling mania is the same spirit that is actuating the bribing of senators and members of the legislatures of the various states. That is the spirit of covetousness unbridled, which urges men and women on to the grasping of riches without regard for the methods by which they are obtained. The increase of that spirit is but one of the many evidences of a moral breakdown beyond the powers of man, to withstand. There is an increased weakening in moral fiber and moral stamina, with an increased strengthening in all the forces bent on accomplishing the ruin of the race—another evidence of the culmination of the age. The only hope of the race is in accepting the salvation which Christ is now offering to the world, and being strengthened by His strength to withstand the assaults of the forces of evil until the opening heavens shall reveal the coming Saviour. That day is hastening on apace.