The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-12-22

| cities bring in dignified committees
who come to see that the great abomi-
nation is conducted in a decent and
| Christian manner. The thrOng passes
in. Hold fast your tickets, all you re-
spectacle New Workers, Philadelphians
and BOstOnians, for the wheel begins to
move. The long agony is over. Hun
| dreds of thousands of PEOPLE have made
narrow escape from being ruined by
sudden affiuence. Swift horses are dis
patched that, fOam-lathered, dash up to
the house of him who owns the success
full ticket. The lightnings tell 1T to the
| fOur-winds of heaven, and our weekly
pictOrials hasten forward the pho
| tOgraphers to take the picture OF the
famous man who owned the ticket num-
! bered $500. Multitudes think tnat
there has been foul play, and that after
all they themselves, if the truth were
known, did draw the opera house. Ten
| years from now there Will stand on the
scaffOld or behind the prison door, or in
the lonely room in which the suicide
writes his farewell to wife or parents,
men who will say that the first misstep
of their life that put them on this wrong
road was the ticket they bought in the
| CROSBY Opera House. The man who
won the prize is already dead OF his
| dissipatiOns and, strange to say, the
| beautiful building thus rallied away
was found to be owned by Its original
pOssessOr when all the excitement in re-
| gard to the matter had died away. l
care not on what street the office was,
nor who were the abettors of the under
taking, nor who bought the tickets. |
pronounce the whole scheme to have
| been a swindle and an insult to God and
the nation. In this class of gambler
makers | also put the gift stores which
| are becoming abundant throughout the
| country. With book or knife or sew
| ing machine or coat or carriage, there
| goes prize. At those stores people get
| something thrown in with their pur-
chase. 1t may be gold watch or Il set
| of silver, ring or farm. Sharp way
to get off unstable goods! 1t has filled
| the land with fictitious articles, and
covered up our population with brass
finger rings, and despOiled the moral
sense of the community, and Is fast max
us nation of gamblers,
But there are only two or three forms
of gambling. This plague of the nation
takes multifOrm shape, and l fling my
| soul into an impassiOned warning to all
| classes. Some years ago, when an AssO-
citation for the suppression of Gambling
was organized, an agent of the AssOcia-
tiOn came to a prominent citizen and
asked him to patrOnize the Society. He
said: NO, can have no interest in
such an organization. | am in no wise
affected by that evil" At that very
| time his son, who was his partner in
| business, was one of the heaviest play
ers in Herne's famous gambling estab-
| lishment. Another refused his patron
| age on the same ground, not knowing
| that his first book keeper, though receiy-
ing salary of only $1,000, was losing
! from $50 to 800 per night. Directly or
indirectly, this evil strikes at the whole
world. Gambling is the risking of
something more or less valuable in the
hope of winning more than you hazard.
The instruments of gaming may differ,
but the principle is the same. The
shutting and dealing of cards, however
full of temptation, is not gambling, un-
less stakes are put up, while on the
other hand, gambling may be carried
on without cards, or dice, or billiards,
OF ten-pin alley. The man who bets
on horses, or elections, on battles-the
man who deals in fancy stocks or con-
ducts business which hazards extra
capital, or goes into transactions
without foundation, but dependent
upon what men call luck, is a gambler.
1t is estimated that One-fOurth OF the
business in London is done dishonesty.
Whatever you expect to get from your
neighbOr without offering an equivalent
in money or time or skill, is either the
product of theft or gaming. Lottery
tickets and lottery policies come into
the same category. Fairs for the found
ing of hospitals, schools and churches,
conducted on the railing system, come
under the same denomination. Do not,
therefore, associate gambling necessar-
lily with any instrument or game, or
time or place, or think the principle de-
pends upon whether you play for a glass |
of wine or one hundred shares of rail |
road stock; whether you employ faro or |
billiards, rOndO or keno, cards or baga- |
telle, the very idea of the thing is dis |
honest; for it processes to bCstOW upon |
you goo for which you give no equiv |
alent. I'll scrime is no ne born sprite |
but has ard transgres. cen, under a |
man, of curses through mary cuntu- |
ries. All nations, baTbarCTs a I'd civil |
lied, lave been addicted to it. Before |
1888 the French Government received |
revenue from gaming houses. In 1867, |
England, or the improvement of her |
harbOrs, instituted lottery to be held |
at the front door of st. PauPSCathedraI |
Four hundred thousand tickets were |
sold at ten shillings each. The Brit |
ish Museum and Westminster Bridge |
were partially built by similar prOce- |
duTes. The ancient Germans would |
sometimes put up themselves and fami- |
lies as prizes, and suffer themselves to |
be bound, though stronger than the per-
sons who won them. Bat now the laws |
of the whole civilized world denOunce |
the system. Enactments have been |
passed, but only partially enforced. The |
men interested in gaming houses WELD |
such influence, by their numbers and af-
huence, that the Judge, the Jury and |
the police officer must be bold indeed |
who would array themselves against |
these infamous establishments. The |
House of Commons in England actually |
adjouTns on Derby Day to go out and (
bet on the races; and in the best circles |
of society in this country today, are very |
many hundreds of professedly respecta-
BILE men who are acknowledged gamb-
lerS.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in
this land are every day being won and
lost through sheer gambling. Says a
traveller through the west: 81 have trav-
eled a thousand miles at a time upon
Western waters, and have seen gamb-
ling at every waking moment" The
southwest of this country reeks with
this abOminatiOn. In New Orleans ev-
cry third or fourth house in many of
the streets is a gambling place, and it
may be truthfully averred that each and
all our cities are cursed with this evil