Gambling in the Bush June 29, 1895.

*THE WORKER*

BRISBANE, JUNE 29, 1895.

Gambling in the Bush.

ED. WORKER – In your issue of May 25^th our friend, John Moore, is under the impression that I wrote in a hurry, but having my time at my own disposal there was no occasion for for undue haste. I might possibly have been hungry. Hunger is a thing I very often have to contest with, and is apt to make me express myself rather plainly. But as to wiping out gambling as a degrading habit, I'm under the impression Mr. Moore will have to wine out humanity, as life itself is but a game of chance, and a very poor chance, too, for some of us. Our friend gives anyone, who is not accustomed to the sheds, the idea that the bush is a second edition of Monte Carlo. I've been several years in the west and all the gambling I ever saw carried on was very tame. If Mr. Moore expects Socialism through the abolition of gambling, I reckon he won't even get the tail of that hog he speaks of. As to the undesirable class having to work or “get,” I should advise him to find that work. And as to “getting,” say, friend, where are they going to get to? Let us bring about a means of providing work first. Hundreds of homeless, penniless, starving wretches of humanity tramp the country from one end to the other, kept out of employment, not by the evils of gambling, but by the tyrannical monopolists of Queensland, or the country they like to dub the working man's paradise.

As to Socialism among the Western men, there's no doubt it's all the talk, but not twenty per cent know the true significance of the word, as any number class it with Anarchy, Nilhilism, and the devil knows what. Now, with regard to freedom: Anyone but a fanatical freedom-of-contact sodden individual can see with half an eye that freedom of contract is a capitalists' phrase, a mere by-word concocted specially to rob us of all freedom.

Talk about freedom being out of place. Don't we want freedom of speech, freedom of action, freedom of the law courts, and what is more than all, freedom of the franchise, which will do us more good at one election than all the anti-gambling leagues would for ever and a wet day. Until we have free use of the polling booth we are to a certain extent dead and buried, but with freedom of the franchise, which will put our honest sons of toil in politics, will come work and a living wage for all, and then we will have a show to oust some of the evils among ourselves, as well as oust the boodlers and the monopolisers of land, justice, and freedom. - GREASER.

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THE French cyclist, Fontaine, has ridden 456 miles in 20 hours, beating the English record.

RECENTLY, when delivering a lecture on physical development, a professor in a New York university said: “Cycling is the prince of sports. It clears the brain, trains the judgement, makes the eye quick and accurate, and steadies and strengthens both nerve and muscle, making them quick to respond to the decisions of the will.”