On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (4)
-
THE TOMAHAWK. A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATI...
-
No. 113.] LONDON, JULY 3, 1869. [Price T...
-
GAMBLERS AJSTJD TUB LA W.
-
The subject of our Cartoon this week is ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
The Tomahawk. A Saturday Journal Of Sati...
THE TOMAHAWK . A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . ( Eiiiteli ti t ? ^ rtt ) UT h' & eckett . — o __ " INVITAT CULPAM OUI PECCATUM PRETERIT . "
No. 113.] London, July 3, 1869. [Price T...
No . 113 . ] LONDON , JULY 3 , 1869 . [ Price Twopence
Gamblers Ajstjd Tub La W.
GAMBLERS AJSTJD TUB LA W .
The Subject Of Our Cartoon This Week Is ...
The subject of our Cartoon this week is one that will suggest very serious thoughts to those who are capable of such a mental exercise . The glaring inequality of the laws against gambling , if not in intention , at least in the practical working of them , must have caused those , who know of what importance it is to maintain respect for the law , very grave anxiety . Our picture is no exaggeration ; the publican who allows card-playing for money in his house is easily indicted and punished ; the man who attempts to win money by his skill at cards in the public ways can be summarily arrested as a rogue and vagabond ; but the so-called Club , where night after night hundreds and thousands change hands over the whist table , where the foolish inexperienced youth buys wisdom and experience , too often at the price of his whole fortune , if he buys it at all , where the ruin of a whole family is an easy night ' s work , —this private gambling house is , if not countenanced by the law , entirely out of its jurisdiction . It is the same with betting ; while small commission agents and shopkeepers with sporting propensities are vigorously seized by the police , and the " hossy " clerk , who has risked his five pounds , is in person impounded without mercy , the grand Betting Rooms of the Club , where tens of thousands are risked by men with not so many hundreds , where the flower
of the highborn youth of England is engaged in hopelessly impoverishing , not its own fortunes only , but those of all dear to them ; where Dukes , and Marquises , and young owners of half a county , are recklessly squandering the wealth which should diffuse comfort and happiness around them , —there no officer of the law dare intrude ; there , unchecked , the fearful mania of gambling works ruin and misery to thousands , and while the poorer and humbler imitators of these privileged persons are fined and imprisoned , the titled fools and the rogues that prey on them laugh all authority to scorn . We do not shut our eyes to the great difficulties which beset this question . Supposing that a law were passed which limited the stakes and bets at cards or on racing , there are a thousand ways of evading the law . To give the police the right of entry into the Clubs would be a monstrous violation of personal liberty to which the upper classes would never submit . All that the law can do seems to have been done ; but the very act of rendering gambling debts irrecoverable at law has only had this effect , that a man will make any sacrifice to pay a gambling debt ; and , not only that , but the necessity of paying immediately dr ives the loser into the
hands of those who avail themselves of the pressing nature of the debt to extort the most exorbitant interest . Hence arises the terrible mischief of gambling ; in the first case , the transaction being an illegal one , a false feeling of honour binds all gamblers to pay their losings at cards , or on the turf , before they pay any of their legal debts ; a man who thinks nothing of keeping a tradesman waiting years for his money , and of putting him . off with false promises from day to day , would sooner commit suicide , almost , than be a defaulter in the Club , or at Tattersail ' s . All losses at cards have to be paid the next day , all bets on the next Monday after the day of the race . Say a man worth , £ 10 , 000 a-year , which is invested in good securities , loses to £ 200 the 000 extent so of that . £ 15 it , 000 ; be his sai cap d ital that , at he five can per well cent afford , would to lose be , ; £ i 5 , 000 , if ; he is foolish may enough to do so . But persons with , ; £ £ 8 10 , 000 , 000 a a - - year year , have so that generall they are a yearl not y likel expenditure y to have more of at avail least - able capital than , £ 5 , 000 , if they have that . . £ 10 , 000 has to be raised between Friday night and Monday morning , in the case of racing debts , or , if lost at the card table , in twenty-four hours . Can this be done without considerable sacrifice , or having resort to usurers ? And is not the withdrawal of such a sum an injury to the money market , which , if repeated , must become serious ? The money lost in gambling is no gain to the community at large . It changes hands too quickly , and no gambler
who risks the enormous sums now-a-days risked at race meetings , is able to invest his winnings for any time , however great they be . For it is the very nature of his business , that being entirely illegitimate and not recognized by the law , he can have no assets but the money absolutely in his bank ; no " good debts " exist in such a profession , for were he to die to-morrow , his heirs and executors cannot recover a farthing of the money owing to him at law . They have nothing but the honour of the debtors to rely upo valuable n ; and commodity , however that far it that can be may changed be strai into ned gold , it is or bank ot su notes ch a at a moment ' s notice . The mere spendthrift is a fool , and very often a rogue ; but the money he squanders in extravagance at least goes into the pockets of legitimate traders , for the most part ; the mere gambler ' s goes into the pockets of others who may it los e it ne all the ; so next that week a large to others amoun who t of , in their ital turn is p , ractically may lose withdrawn from the resources of the country . th Tr ey It ue may are ; but obliged be they said live that to keep betting nerall all -men their on cr and e ready dit other , and money , gamblers for the to most meet must part their live . , gaming liabilities j and if they " go smash , " the tradesman is
-
-
Citation
-
Tomahawk (1867-1870), July 3, 1869, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_03071869/page/3/
-