Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-11-17
sAcRAMENTo,s MAN.TRAps.
Discourse of Rev. L. r. Ollie on Gam
bling in Sacramento.

English travellers were robbed and muir |
1ered 1t may he presumed but the pre-
is false, that the levying of a |
tribute on this crime of robbery is some |
thing original with our City Fathers. 1t is
not, however, for the tribute collected by
THE CITY TRUSTEES OF SACRAMENTO,
A part of the swag, was practiced by those |
in power in the days of the apostle. They |
said then, as do our Trustees now, divide the |
with us and no officer shall |
interfere with you in your unholy calling. |
They said then, as our Trustees say now,
and as one of the daily papers, to its shame
be ii said, asserts, You can't stop robbery
and gambling, it is something that has al
ways been practiced and always will be,
and we will legalize ii SO as TO profit by it.
If they steal we will make the robber
divide. Those who are instrumental in
licensing this greatest of evils for gold will
have to answer for their crime Events
that have transpired within the past few
days, and which have been shown up in
their true light by certain daily paper of
this city, all honor for its fearless stand on
the side of right. justice and honor, has in
duccd me to choose the subject of gambling
for this evenings discourse The press
which has taken stand along side of the
pulpit on this question is deserving of all
honor. Gambling is something that has
existed from the earliest ages 1t was a
ruling passion with the Romans. You
will remember that at the crucifxion they
shook dice for the Saviour's clothing
From the earliest Grccian history it is
learned that they were nation Of gamb
iers, as is also the case with China Japan,
India and Persia. The Mohammedan
Is Welded TO THE VICE,
And CANDLES as often as he prays, which is
three times day. Paris, the wickedest
municipality in the world, licenses gam
bling. To-day, throughout the length and
breadth Of the English possessions, lotteries
are prohibited The same can be said of
the United States, with the exception of
Kentucky and Louisiana, and even those
lotteries, sanctioned by State law, are re-
fused the use OF the United States mails to
convey or distribute any matter relative TO
their business. The Mercantile Library
building OF San Francisco was built with
money the result of a lottery, yet to-day
our statute prohibits them. Sacramento
City, the capital of this glorious State, and
the Territory of Montana are the only
places on the western continent where this
crime is licensed, legalized by ordinance
and an effort ON the part of Off
GERS of the law made to render it so
far us possible respectable. All nations
have. their games. When ii is simply
rivalry for victory they can exist without
evil. If all games We're those Of COMPETE
ton of skill there would be no harm, or if
the reward was simply laurel wreath no
harm could come, but when the stake is of
pecuniary nature, for drinks, cigars or
coin, then it is all wrong and fraught with
evil results. The tendency of all gambling
is to play at hazard. Money won in this
way is as much stolen as though it were
picked from another's pocket; it is not
yours; it
DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU.
The law of the commercial world is equiva-
lent TO something for something In
gambling it is something for nothing it is
robbing.
In referring to the sad case of January
the speaker said he knew him and his peo-
pie well. He said this young man was
more to be pitied than the one referred to
by st. Paul. He had been stripped, robbed
beaten and left for dead, but they did not
take from him his manhood and his good
name. He who steals my purse steals
trash, but he who filches from me my good
name takes that which cnriches him not
but makes me poor indeed" He that
gathers riches, and not by right, uses them
invariably in 4 manner that hastens his
own ruin. Ii has a fatal fascination from
which there seems to be no redemption
Gambling is the enemy of industry. 1t
kills all desire for honest toll. The gambler
lives without work and is a parasite on
society. They tatten upon the weakness
and vices Of their fellow men Once this
virus gets into a mans veins he is good for
nothing. He becomes dissipated unprin-
cipled, and would hazard his very soul on
the turn OF a card lie said he thought
that Arthur January was the victim OF
plot to rob the State Treasury through him
The speaker from the bottom of his heart
pitied the poor men whose money was thus
taken from them, who lost their all and
were reduced to ahject poverty he pitied
the young mans aged parents whose heads
were bowed low with grief at the disgrace
brought upon them by their SON; he
PITIED THE YOUNG WIFE,
Who goes back to her gray-haired parents
broken-hearted. Parents, you must look
this evil square in the face you must re-
solve to put it down, or else in the future
your little daughter, that now so affection
ately puts her arms around your neck in
loving embrace, may some time return to
you brokcn-hcarted the man who has
sworn to love, honor and protect may cause
her the same remOrse that now falls to the
unhappy lot of the wife of young January.
Look upon this picture and resolve to en-
deavor to check the evil so rife at this time
III your midst.
lie said q clerk who was working for
small weekly salary would slip into one of
those gambling bells licensed by the city
fathers, and would see professional gam
bier make 81 900 on the turn OF a card
Re becomes disguised with his slow but
honest way of acquiring means, is tempted
to try his luck, will take 800.
of his employers money, 20 to
a faro bank, wage and lose
His next step is to the penitentiary. He
has taken the fatal step; he is outside the
pale of good society; his honor and man.
hood are gone The merchants in this
city, he said, had taken the right step when
they notified their employees that if they
were found freGuenting any of the haunts
of the tiger, or the licensed or unlicensed
gambling dens, they would be discharged.
1t has had a good effect. He referred to
the murder of young Marchant. who was
shot down few weeks since; said he was
of a good family, and had been ruined by
this
GREATEST OF ALL VICES.
You can shoot q man who robs your hen
roost, and the law will justify the act. Your
young men are robbed in your midst every
day, and the robbery is legalized by IL
cense. One Of the evils of the present day
is that young men, and women, too, want
10 live too fast. They want to live up TO
81, 800 on d $3.50 salary. Gambling is q |
skill; not that of pilot, lawyer, an ar
list, q merchant, q statesman, nor doctor,
but that of a burglar, who prizes open with
a jimmy the door of your residence at the |
midbour of night, or the assassin, who |
shoots you down in an unguarded mo-
ment. 1t is loaded dice-the chances are
thirty to one against you, and often one |
hundred to one. Luck is deceitful word. !
There is no such thing as luck-it is |
matter of men and character. Gambling |
begins like drinking begins. The first |
glass has concealed in its bottom an adder |
which afterwards destroys you. The first |
wager kindles a fire that will not be |
luenched, and will send the young man |
)oner or later TO perdition. The little sin
opens the doors throws back the bolts, and |
ihc Others come trooping in. Cards are
Implements of knavery, every spot upon |
them plague spot, and fortunate is the |
person who can truthfully say, cannot tell |
IN ace from knave The speaker men
toned the case of a young man who learned |
10 play cards at home in his mothers par
or, and who afterwards became infatuated |
with gambling, and the only reason that he |