Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1884 — A Nation of Gamblers. [ARTICLE]

A Nation of Gamblers.

Gambling lias become* the favorite amusement of Americans. With many it is business as well. The extent of the habit is, of unmarked by statistics or census except in the case of “business gambling” or speculation, but it is almost incredibly great. The constant or occasional dealers in grain on margin at thd Chicago board number thousands in the city and thousands more in other cities and in country towns. Chicago is the center of all grain speculation in America, and there is scarcely a town in the North of 10,000 population that has not one or more brokers, each with his correspondents in this city and telegraphic communication a dozen times a day. An estimate of the number of their customers is well nigh impossible, but they must be an army. Stock gambling through Wall street is, of course, the most extensive. Every, fluctuation on the exchange is immediately telegraphed in all directions, to be scanned by the many thousands of investors. Daily newspapers the country over find their readers so eager for information as to the gossip and features of the stock and grain “markets” that they are led to employ special correspondents and Writers to cover these subjects with great thoroughness. More than one newspaper printed either in Chicago or New York incurs an annual expense exceeding SIO,OOO in procuring intelligence valuable only to speculators. So general is business gambling even in provincial eities that newspaper proprietors are compelled often against their will to supply the demand for “market news.” But it is not in grain and railroad stocks that “business gamblers” find attractions. Mining stocks are extensively dealt in, especially on the Pacific coast, while oil numbers its votaries by the tens of thousands throughout thfe North. The New York, Oil City, Bradford and Pittsburg exchanges enjoy transactions each year involving two hundred times as much oil as is annually produced, and producers and consumers complain that they are completely at the mercy of the speculative interests. Extensive as margin speculation in grain, stocks and oil is, it is probable that its patrons are outnumbered by those Avho gamble in a form to which the word speculation is not applied. Thousands of pool rooms at which ventures are taken on horse races and baseball games are crowded daily by men and boys in almost incredible numbers. Telegraphic reports of the races at Saratoga, Brighton, Coney Island or Louisville are received in great profusion. Ventures can be made with sums as small as ten cents and as large as a gambler cares to risk. This form of gambling is singularly attractive to the young and non-professional, who crowd the rooms in every city in which they are tolerated. In addition to these stationary pool rooms are the hundreds of pool sellers who follow horse races of high or low degree, numbering their customers by thousands daily. In all largo cities and in most small ones there are gambling houses at which faro, roulette and poker are served to all comers. In some cities these places are run openly, in other semi-seeretly. There are hundreds of them of various kinds in Chicago, and they are patronized daily and nightly by thousands of men. Chicago is no more given to this form of gambling than most other American cities. In addition to all these are the lotteries and policy shops, which are in some respects identical. One lottery concern enjoys receipts of six millions of dollars a year, and pays out in prizes $3,180,000. There are several of lesser magnitude in operation. Throughout the South, and in most large cities of the North, are policy shops at which customers speculate upon the outcome of 'the numbers of the lottery’s daily “drawings.” These shops are also numbered by thousands, and their customers are chiefly working people. It could almost be said that everybody gambles. Besides the boards of trade, exchanges, lotteries, brokers’ offices, and other regular gambling establishments, card playing for money is carried on in innumerable saloons, club rooms, and private residences. Those who do not gamble in stocks or oil or buy lottery tickets or play at faro may sit down at home to play poker with acquaintances or match pennies on the parlor .tables Bare is the man who does not occasionally venture a dollar or a dime in some one of these ways. If nothing else remains he will, if a quiet man, make a wager on the election, or if a country lad, wait for the country fair and experiment with the wheel of fortune. We are a nation of gamblers.— Chicago Herald.