The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-11-12

20 great financial and spiritual decrepti-
tudel The devil says: a helped to build
that house Of worship, and I have as much
right there as you have,' and for once the
devil is right. We do not read that they
had lottery for building the church at
Corinth or at Antioch, or for getting up an
embroidered surplice for St. Paul
All this / style ecclesiastical gambling.
More than one man who is destroyed can
say that his first step on the wrong road was
when he won something at a church fair.
Betting, that once was chiefly the accom-
paniment Of the race-course, is fast becom-
ing a National habit, and in some circles
any opinion advanced on finance or politics
is accosted with the interrogation: " How
much will you bet on that, sir2''
This custom may make no appeal to slow,
lethargic temperaments, but there are in
the country tens of thousands of quick,
nervous, sanguine, excitable temperaments
ready to be acted upon, and their feet will
soon take hold on death For some months,
and perhaps for years, they will linger in
the more polite aud elegant circle of game
sters, but, after awhile, their pathway will
come to the fatal plunge. Finding them
selves in the rapids they will try to back
out, and, hurled over the brink, they will
clutch the side Of the boat, until their fin
ger nails, blood-tipped, will pierce the
wood, and then, with white cheek and
lost soul lifting the very hair from the
scalp, they viii plunge down where no
graphing hooks can drag them out
Shall sketch the history of the gamblera
Lured by bad company, he finds his way
into place where honest men ought never
to 60. He sits down to his first game, but
only for pastime and the desire of being
thought sociable. The players deal out the
cards. They unconsciously play into
Satan's hands, who takes all the tricks and
both players souls for trumps-he being
sharper at any'game. A slight stake is put
up, Just to add interest to the play. Game
after game is played. Larger stakes and
still larger. They begin to move nervousIy
on their chairs. Their brows lower and
eyes flash, until now they who win and
they who lose, fred alike with passion, sit
with set jaws, and compressed lips, and
clenched fists, and eyes like hreballs, that
seem starting from their sockets, to see the
final turn before it comes-n los
ing, pale with envy and tremulous
with unuttered oaths cast back red
hot upon the heart; or winning, with
hysteric laugh, cha, ha, have it," A few
years have passed and he is only the
wreck Of a man. Seating himself at the
game, ere he throws the first card, he
stakes the last relic of his wife-the mar
rage ring which sealed the solemn vows
between them. The game is lost, and
staggering DaCk IN 63QauSJ1Ou ne uI6duISs
The bright hours Of the past mock his
agony, and in his dreams fends with
eyes Of fire and tongues Of fame circle
about him with Joined hands, to dance and
sing their orgies with hellish chorus,
chanting "hail brother" Kissing his
clammy forehead until their loathsome
! locks, flowing with serpents, crawl into
his bosom and sink their sharp fangs and
suck up his life's blood, and coiling around
his heart, pinch 1t with chills and shud-
ders unutterable.
Take -Varningl You are no stronger than
tens Of thousands who haI e by this practice
been overthrown. No young man in our
cities can escape being tempted. Beware
of the first beginnings. This road is a
down grade, and every instant increases
the momentum. Launch not upon this
treacherous sea. Splint hulks strew the
beach. Everlasting storms howl up and
down, tossing Unwary crafts into the hell
gate. / speak of what have seen with my
own eyes. l have looked of into the abyss,
and have seen the foaming and the kissing
and the whirling of the hOrrid deep in which
the mangled victims writhed one upon an
other, and struggled, strangled, blasphemed
and died-the deathstare of eternal despair
upon their countenances as the waters
! gurgled over them.
To gamblers death-bed there comes no
| hope. He will probably die alone. His
| former associates come not nigh his dwell
| ing. When the hour comes his miserable
soul viii go out of miserable life into q
miserable eternity. AS the poor remains
| pass the house where he was ruined, old
| companions may look out a moment and
! say: 'There goes the old carcass-dead at
/ last" but they will not get up from tho
/ table. Let him down now into the grave.
| Plant no tree to cast its shade there, for
| the long, deep, eternal gloom that settles
| there is shadow enough. Plant no forget
! mC-nots or eglantines around the spot, for
| flowers were not made to grow on such a
| blasted heath. Visit it not in the sunshine,
| for that would be mockery, but in the dis
| NAL night, when no stars are out, and the
/ spirits of darkness come down horsed on
the winds, then visit the grave of the
|