st reference to sex arouses in
undisciplined minds, and which makes it seem natural for our lawgivers
to punish silly and negligible indecencies with a ferocity unknown in
dealing with, for example, ruinous financial swindling. Had my play been
titled Mr Warren's Profession, and Mr Warren been a bookmaker, nobody
would have expected me to make him a villain as well. Yet gambling is
a vice, and bookmaking an institution, for which there is absolutely
nothing to be said. The moral and economic evil done by trying to get
other people's money without working for it (and this is the essence of
gambling) is not only enormous but uncompensated. There are no two sides
to the question of gambling, no circumstances which force us to tolerate
it lest its suppression lead to worse things, no consensus of opinion
among responsible classes, such as magistrates and military commanders,
that it is a necessity, no Athenian records of gambling made splendid by
the talents of its professors, no contention that instead of violating
morals it only violates a legal institution which is in many respects
oppressive and unnatural, no possible plea that the instinct on which it
is founded is a vital one. Prostitution can confuse the issue with all
these excuses: gambling has none of them. Consequently, if Mrs Warren
must needs be a demon, a bookmaker must be a cacodemon. Well, does
anybody who knows the sporting world really believe that bookmakers are
worse than their neighbors? On the contrary, they have to be a good deal
better; for in that world nearly everybody whose social rank does not
exclude such an occupation would be a bookmaker if he could; but the
strength of character for handling large sums of money and for strict
settlements and unflinching payment of losses is so rare that successful
bookmakers are rare too. It may seem that at least public spirit
cannot be one of a bookmaker's virtues; but I can testify from personal
experience that excellent public work is done with money subscribed
by bookmakers. It is true that there are abysses in bookmaking: for
example, welshing. Mr Grein hints that there are abysses in Mrs Warren's
profession also. So there are in every profession: the error lies in
supposing that every member of them sounds these depths. I sit on a
public body which prosecutes Mrs Warren zealously; and I can assure Mr
Grein that she is often leniently dealt with because she has conducted
her business "respectably" and hel