COINCIDENCES, LUCK, CHANCE 



Stake their inouey in the same way as the well-to-do club 

 men staked theirs. In horse racing for instance, they had 

 after the passage of this statute to bet on a particular horse 

 or specified group of horses or stop gambling. This made, 

 or eventually seemed to make some call on their knowledge 

 judgment or shrewdness and resulted in making betting 

 sport more interesting to them. You see, the sweepstake 

 they had been used to, was a trust in sheer luck, whereas 

 the backing of some particular horse, or named group of 

 horses, turned out to be an attractive union of their good 

 judgment and their good luck, giving them apparently two 

 forces in their favor instead of one, and the same kind of 

 appeal to a mixed personal vanity and luck, has been the 

 stimulation of stock gambling, ever since the Joint-Stocks 

 I<imited Liabilities Bill became law, and it opened the way 

 for produce gambling. 



Stock and other quotation journals, racing calendars 

 and newspapers came in only when the not rich man 

 wanted information to be used in supplementing his faith 

 in his luck. 



From the ethical side, the bright feature of the case 

 now is that, when the man has lost his money, he feels 

 that all the blame cannot be carried by " his luck ; " some 

 of the fault is in himself, and in that way will ultimately 

 come gambling reformation, I expect. I have probably 

 taxed your good-natured patience to its limit, and will 

 stop, hoping that the effect of this Paper will be a sense of 

 encouragement in that superstition is visibly narrowing, 

 the range of law widening, the province of fear lessening, 

 and that the happy progress of the world in these directions 

 is helped by such institutions as the Hamilton Scientific 

 Association. 



