The Morning herald., 1875-10-11
LIFE AND DEATH.

THE NEST OF GAMBLEho-A LArE AMI
DEATH DRAMATIC CHARACTERS THAT
APPEAR IN TIN THE VORTEX OF RUIN
POLICY SHOPS AND GAMBLING HOUSES OF
WILMINGTON.
THE HERALD has several times alluded to
the alarming extent that policy shops and
gambling houses have increased in numbers
until the city Of Wilmington is now literal
ly infested with them. It had been suppo-
scd, ,and in fact believed, that before this they
would have been made subjects for tie
laws revenge, but for some reason that is
beyond our conception they have not Jcen
molcstcd. Gambling III various forms is
carried on nightly in The very heart of the
city, and upon thorougllfarcs where thou
sands tramp III comparative ignorance that
any such pracsicc transpires. Tie cover 0!
darkness hides q multitude of this yIcc shat
leaves lis traces III the broken down being
who goes to his grave under false reasons
for his sudden death. There arc, we sup
pcs,, but few who know that this cpecics of
crime exists here to the extent that it does,
and few there are who would know where
to locate them, and if the curtain could be
rolled up on this drama OF crime with all its
p2raphernalia of wrctchedncss, sight
would be revealed that not even the 81 ernest
could contemplate without shuddcr for
the morality of place wherein his dcarcs.
people lived. A look at this drama Of crime,
even just casual study of the characters
that take their respective parts, gradually
but surely advancing towards the brink over
which they must fall into the vortex Of in
cxtricablc despair is sufficient to staltle So
ciety
Take the first character We will picture
it as we saw it but a few nights since. 1t is "a
young man. Intelligent and few
traces of gentility left and seen through the
tatters Of poverty. In tia open face the
marks of despair and slccplcss nights are
plainly seen. His is al important part. lie
is to play game of life with Death, who
watches his victim with tiendish glee as he
secs the life fast oozing away from his body.
He chuckles and triumphs as he sweeps the
life drops into his pocket and another sonl
wings its way to the Grea5 Being, to write
down in blood the scalding charge against
Death, who has ruined him in the Cuisc OF
the gambler.
Here we have another character III the
black drama. lie is old. He has become
hardened in the part lie is to play. His
sands of life arc well nigh run; he would
turn away from the terrible character he is
to perform, but the infatuation has seized a
hold upon him. Death lures him Oh with
promised wealth. IL he could but gain the
advantage, he would quit the horrible scene
and never visit it again. But the struggle
is against the old man, each gray hair in his
head is a mark Of deaths dealing, he has
left it there in the torture and misery he has
wrought upon the victims mind. The to-
tering step, the trembling hand, the CLASSY
eye, the Lot and parchcd breath, are all the
work of the plotting adversary that is day
by day bringing him nearer to his final dis
solution. lie was once strong, honest, up
right and useful in his sphere of life. lie
had home. 1t was bcautified by his pres
encc. He was the architect of its happiness,
but the death-dealing gambler, with whom
he night after night plays in this drama, has
made him the architect of its woes and its
miselics. On it's altars he has offered up
his own people and himself as sacrifices.
Death has enticed him from the
man to the dwelling idiot, the victim
of folly and vices and down to the depths
of misery and abjcct poverty. He keeps on
in this terrible tragedy until the curtain
rolls down upon another deed that is to be
charged in the great day ocreckoniny against
the gamblers.
The drama of death continues night after
night sowing its seeds Of disaster and ruin.
Adding new victims to the long list that
has already been piled up against it,
adding new infamics to society, new out
RACES to law and morality and bringing out
the darkest shades to life in the struggle for
ill-gottcn gains: Then let us see who this
character of death is. 1t is the gambler who
has fortified himsclfhercin Wilmington, un-
TIL he practices his business, which is gen.
tly called profession, in open violation to
the law, and without the least fear of mo-
lestation. There is a nest of his haunts in
our midst that should be made known and
the keepers prosecuted until they are even
tually driven out
1t has been the purpose of TIE HERALD
to point these places out to the people that
they might know exactly where they are To-
Gated, and also that it might give informa-
ton to the police that would aid them in
breaking these places up.
This morning we give q list of those places
which are located ia the most populous por-
ton of the city. The first of these that we
will name is on Shiplcy street, between
Third and Fourth streets in brick building
which was at once known as Gibson's Office.
This is one of the most notorious places in
the city where both faro playing and policy
dealing is carried on. 1t is here where those
who have the most money con@rcgatc, and
it is here that hundreds of dollars are
lost nightly around the gam
ing table. On French stree q few
doors from Fourth is what is known as the
Temperance House, which we have before
pictured in this paper, anl which is largely
patronized. Faro is played there altogether
and considerable money las been lost in
one night. On Market street within
stones throw Of the CiSy Hall is & place
known as Fountains, where policy dc.iin@
is carried on nightly. Down below the
Eleventh street bridge where the railroad