230 / 248
.Vt
'♦o-wiyifl
230
THE FLOWING BOWL
The evil took refuge in the open streets, and,
more recently, in so-called social clubs, in which
illicit liquors were, and are, sold, and the pander,
and the pimp, and the bully met, and meet the
drunkard, the dupe, and the greenhorn. What
has been the effect of the Anti-gambling Cru
sade ? To create working-men bookmakers.
This is a fact. In most large warehouses and
factories there are employes who will lay "starting
prices," in shillings and sixpences, to their mates.
There is not a tithe of the amount wagered
amongst the upper classes that there was in the
fifties and sixties 3 but amongst the horny-handed
sons of toil the vice has increased to an enormous
extent, mainly owing to repressive legislation.
If a man wants to gamble there is only one
factor to prevent him—impecuniosity ; and even
that factor need not prevent a man from having
a drink if he waits in the tap-room long enough
on pay-day. Since Sunday closing in Wales,
shebeens have arisen by the hundred j and
paraffin, for want of a better drink, is still drunk
on the Sabbath day, by the miners in the
Rhondda Valley.
All honour to him who abstains from strong
drink for conscience' sake, or in the hope that
others may profit by his example. But the lash
of scorn for him who because he does not
swallow fermented refreshment himself, says to
his brother " Thou shalt not drink ! " The
Puritans abolished bear-baiting, not on account of
the cruelty to the bears, but because the alleged
sport gave pleasure to the people j and the
Puritans of the day, who forbid cakes and ale,