The Anti-Gambling Leagues of British cities have their counterpart
in the various Law and Order Societies of American municipalities,
and their labours are much the same. Just as the societies in
England attempt to protect the poor and middle-class people from the
encroachments of vice by initiating prosecutions against wrong-doers,
so do these Law and Order Societies fight in the interests of the
American public. They go to excesses sometimes, it is true, but their
labours have a positive value for good. In England they keep an eye
upon the book-maker in the street, upon the sporting tipster with his
betting circulars and notices, and upon gambling in general. They
prosecute where prosecution is needed, and carry on in Parliament a
fight for virtue.
Never, however, have they prepared a fire for the benefit of their
supporters such as the Law and Order Society of Philadelphia got up
last May. It is, perhaps, not wholly correct to say that when the
Philadelphia Society seized and burned over thirteen hundred gambling
machines in a public place it did so merely for the benefit of its
followers, but that was practically the case, and among those who
saw this unique conflagration there were none more interested than
the crusaders against vice. It was an actual destruction of valuable
property, but not a wanton one, and when the fire was over the charred
metal and molten tin represented a sum of not less than one hundred and
thirty thousand dollars. We doubt if England has ever had the privilege
of witnessing such a sight, for the vested right of the Briton is too
sacred to permit of his property being done away with in such brilliant
manner.
[Illustration: WAGGONS UNLOADING GAMBLING MACHINES TO FORM THE BONFIRE.
_From a Photo._]
The reason for the fire was the abnormal growth in Philadelphia of
the penny-in-the-slot gambling machine, owing to its fascination
for the young and its asserted protection by careless or corrupt
municipal government. The machines--some of them very elaborate,
costing from three hundred to six hundred dollars each--were nothing
but "money-machines," automatic gamblers of the most hardened sort. If
the player dropped any sum, from five cents to twenty-five cents, into
the slot, he stood a chance to win about ten times as much as he put
in, and the prospect of such a huge percentage upon a small investment
fascinated poor people and boys and girls alike. One boy was known to
have lost as much as three hundred and fifty dollars in a week through
this form of gambling, having resorted to theft in order to obtain the
wherewithal to gamble.
"For four years," writes Mr. D. Clarence Gibboney, the secretary of
the Law and Order Society of Philadelphia, "our city was cursed with
thousands of these conscienceless gambling devices. The authorities
protected them, and our citizens were almost helpless. Fathers and
mothers stood by, unable to do much more than make a feeble protest,
while their sons and daughters were turned into gamblers.
[Illustration: THE FIRE IN FULL BLAZE.
_From a Photo._]
"This society took hold of the situation and, in face of very
determined opposition, arrested many of the owners and keepers of the
machines in 1902, and in December burned a hundred and ninety-six
machines, valued at about twenty thousand dollars. The police, however,
supported the gambling people, and it was not until after January 1st,
1903, that we were able to wipe the entire business out of the city.
"A new mayor was elected, and he immediately forced the police to aid
us. The police seized five hundred machines and we, through our own
constables, seized over eight hundred others between January 1st and
May 10th, 1903. On May 19th the entire lot was burned, the police and
the Law and Order Society joining in the work of destruction. Not a
machine that we know of exists in this city to-day."