The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1880-09-11
TGontinucd From First Page.1

.My proposal will certainly bring
you luck. According to the laws Of
England, your wife is as much Your
property as your watch. Let us play
for wife.
sprang to my feet, ready to strike
but was prevented by some one catch
ing and restraining me. I heard a
whisper, 'Snch things have been known
to change a mans luck" and the devil
babe me try for her sake. Gambling
kills all honor. I resumed my seat.
and we played for a wlte, and lost.
Nothing but death can close my eyes
to my disgrace. j drank poison that
will bring certain death, and then COM
menced this farewell letter to YOU.
from your dishonored husband,
DANIEL MooRE..
p. S.-If You can, forgive me. The
name of the man that won wife is
.Death, my children, prevented the
disclosure. Your grandmother lost
consciousness before she had finished
reading the third line, aud months
elapsed before she was strong enough
to read the whole letter. She returned
to the parsonage, and during the next
three years she attended the funerals
of both parents. A few months later
she accompanied her uncle, Daniel Lee,
to America. While making the voyage
II, n ,,,t Il our baoa,,ao aonua.pA. "a ,,s;+i, NJ
James L. Grey. He paid such kind
and iinsinnating attention to herself and
child that he won her warmest admira-
ton. She was only twenty-five years
of age, and greatly inneed of a friend,
so when they arrived in New York,
these two were married. Mr.. Grey was
an indulgent husband and father, and
not until his death, twenty years later,
did his wife discover his secret. When
he was assured that his hours were
numbered, he had a package brought
to him, which, Oh being opened, proved
to be an old pack of cards. lie then
informed his wife that they were the
last cards with which he had played,
and that was twenty-three years ago,
when he had gambled for, and won,
wife. When he was buried, Your
grandmother says that time was swept
away, and she felt as if she was stand
ing by two graves. She placed her
first husbands letters and the pack of
cards as John found them. Your uncle
Grey, like his brother-your father
and their mother, are one in their opin-
ions of card-playing.
fWas i not correct, Agatha, when /
informed you that grandmother was
right in owning such prejudioese"
''Yes, dear mother. We thank you
for the explanation. We would not
be so ready to condemn, if we knew
the motives of peoples actions. lnow
understand why Christ said: Judge
not"
'.My children, am pleased TO learn
you have derived a two7fold lesson
from this liistory:the first is, as Agatha
observed, incorporated in the words of
Christ; and Flint has written on the
effects Of gambling in a mastery man
ner: he says:
Its first preteSt is inconsiderable,
and falsely termed innocent play, with
no more than the gentle excitement
necessary to amusement The card
parties, of which you spoke as being
SO fashionable, must have nuts, orsome-
thing else, to make Them interesting.
The pernicious effect may be only ex-
emplifed by one, that one becoming a
gambler; the interest having had its
birth in games for amusement The
responsibility of that lost soul rests
with its abettors as much as with its
owner. Paul, in his Epistle to the
Corinthians, proves this truth when he
says:
"Take heed, lest by any means this liberty
Of yours become a stumbling block to them
that are weak"
"And through thy knowledge shall the
weak brother perish, for whom Christ died"
''.But when We sin SO against the brethren
and wound their weak conscience, ye sin
against Christi
,"My dear children, as long as You
live, let no act of yours be construed
into stumbling block"
gu4N. -