The Fall of the Staincliffes

238 pp. PUBLISHERS' NOTE: The alarming increase of gambling in its various forms, and its destructive influence on the young in particular, led the London Sunday School Union to offer a prize of 100 pounds (about $500) for the best Tale illustrating the dishonesty of betting, and forcibly setting forth its disastrous consequences. The Rev. Canon Barker, M. A., Rector of Marylebone and Chaplain-in-Ordinary to Her Majesty, accepted the position of examiner to decide upon the merit of the various MSS. sent in for competition. The prize was awarded to the story in the following pages, "The Fall of the Staincliffes," as the best and strongest work against this pernicious evil of gambling. The vice is so insidious and dangerous, and has become so alarming in America, not merely through lotteries, horseracing, stock and grain boards, pools, ball games, and college contests, but even in a multitude of petty ways among very young children, that every right influence should be used to repress and crush out the evil. The American Sunday-School Union therefore issues this prize story, in the hope that wherever it is read, it will aid in removing this deadly and degrading evil now preying upon society and ensnaring the young.