Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/775

 THE GAMING INSTINCT 761

the business-man derives from recreation, or it may be in the creation of wealth by this same man in a competitive business but the gamester pure and simple is not regarded with favor by society, because he creates no values and is therefore parasitical and is besides a disorganizer of the habits of others.

The sporting class, like the criminal class, is not homoge- neous, and a psychological description of one of its members would not necessarily apply to another. Any attempt to under- stand this class must also, as in the case of the criminal cla^s, reckon with both the biological and the social factors. There are certainly men and races who adjust themselves with extreme difficulty to the conditions of industrial life, or not at all ; but, admitting this, yet the particular life-experiences of many men are sufficient to determine whether they shall be members of the business world or of the sporting class. Psychologically the individual is inseparable from his surroundings, and his attitude toward the world is determined by the nature of suggestions from the outside. The general culture and social position of his parents, the ideals of the social set in which he moves, the schools he attends, the literature he sees, the girl he wants to marry, are among the factors which determine the life-direction of the youth. From the complex of suggestions coming to him in the social relations into which he is born or thrown he selects and follows those recurring persistently, emanating from attract- ive personalities, or arising in critical circumstances. The gam- bler is distinguished by no particular psychic marks from other members of society. There are among the bookmakers, card and confidence men, professional billiardists, and adventurers of Chicago men who by every psychological test have a very high grade of intelligence. They have excellent associative memo- ries, capacity to see general relations amid details, to reach judg- ments quickly and surely, and to readjust themselves skillfully to changing situations. While there are in this class men of very ordinary intelligence, there are others who, under the proper conditions, would have taken high rank in the army, in education, in the ministry, in business and politics, and in litera- ture and art; just as there are men in these professions who, in