The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arena, by Various

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Title: The Arena
Volume 4, No. 24, November, 1891

Author: Various

Editor: B. O. Flower

Release Date: June 27, 2008 [EBook #25909]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE ARENA.

No. XXIV.

NOVEMBER, 1891.

[Illustration: H. C. Lodge (with signature)]

A PARADISE OF GAMBLERS.

BY EDGAR FAWCETT.

Many religious journals throughout the country have poured eulogies
upon the pious head of our Postmaster General because of his raid
against all letters bearing the least uncanny relation to that
abhorred criminal body, the Louisiana Lottery. In one sense this
action is not ill-advised; the national laws against gambling are
distinct, and even if they were unjust their existence would be no
excuse for their infringement. The highly moral action of Mr.
Wanamaker, however, happening as it does at a time when his own
relations with the hazards and plots of Wall Street have grown the
talk of our entire country, teem with a suggestion that should be
patent to thousands. If gnats are strained at and camels are
swallowed, there is certainly a pardonable satire in congratulating
those who devour the latter on their noteworthy powers of digestion.
As an immoral institution the Louisiana Lottery, evil as it is, cannot
be compared with Monte Carlo, which arrays itself in facile splendors
of enticement and smiles in mirrors and gildings on the rash gamesters
whom it ruins. But the Louisiana Lottery, which of late it has become
the fashion to revile, devises its chief gains in a much less faulty
manner. For such disbursements as one dollar, two dollars, five
dollars, a good deal of golden expectancy and anticipation can be
enjoyed, and there is no confirmed proof whatever that the citizens
who are rash enough to expend these massive amounts have ever been
swindled at the monthly New Orleans drawings. Indeed, they have
ample proof, if they care to sift it, that somebody in Mai