Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-11-08
ACELDAMA.
DR. TALMAGE ON THE GIGANTIC EVIL OF
THE DAY.
Gambling Worse Now Than Eyer-k Psrmsates So
eisty From the Highest 10 the LOwsst-Ths
Laws Almost POwsrleSs-Vivid
Pictures Of the Gambler.

TCturtS OI me udInolers
BROOKLYN, n. Y, Nov. THE Rev.
Dewitt Talmage, D. D., preached in the
Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning on the
subject, "Aceldama. The opening hymn
was:
my soul, be on thy guard!
Ten thoutand foes arise"
After expounding the epistle of James
concerning the nature of temptation, DIR.
Talmage announced the text, Acts 1, 10:
'Aceldama, that is to say, The field of
blood" Following is the sermon in full:
TUE MONEY THAT JUDAS GAVE
was used to purchase q graveyard.
As the money was blood-money the
ground bought by it, in the Syriac tongue,
Aceldama, meaning 'the field Of blood"
Well, there is one word / want to write
to-day over every race course where wag-
ers are staked, and every pool room, and
every gambling saloon, and every table,
public or private, where men and women
bet for sums of money, large or small,
and that is a word incarnadined with the
life of innumerable victims-aceldama
The gambling spirit, which is at all times
stupendous evil ever and anon sweeps
over the county like an epidemic, pros
trating uncOunted thousands. There has
never been a worse attack than that from
which all the villages, town and cities are
now suffering The farces recently enact
ed in our Brooklyn court room by which
it was proved that in our City of Churches
there is not enough moral force to put into
the penitentiary the gambling jockeys
who belong there, is only specimen Of
the power gained by this abomination,
| which is brazen, sanguinary, transconti-
mental and hemisphere.
While among my hearers are those who
have passed on into the afternoon of life,
and the shadows are lengthening, and
| the sky crimsons with the glow of the
setting sun, large number of them are in
early life, and the morning is coming down
out of the clear sky upon them, and the
air is redolent with spring blossoms, and
the stream of life, cleaning and CLAN
cling, rushes on between fowery banks,
making music as it goes. Some of you are
engaged in mercantile concerns, as clerks
and bookkeepers, and your whole life is to
be passed in the exciting world Of traffic.
The sound of busy life stirs you as the
drum stirs the fiery war-hOrse. Others
are in the mechanical arts, to hammer
and chisel your way through life, and sue
cess awaits you. Some are preparing for
professional life, and grand opportunities
are before you; nay, some of you already
have buckled on the armOr.
| But,
| WHATEVER YOUR AGE OR CALLING,
the subject of gambling about which |
speak to-day, is pertinent. Some years
ago, when an association for the suppress
sion of gambling was organized, an agent
of the association came to prominent cit
izen and asked him to patronize the
society. He said: mo, l can have no
interest in such an organization. l 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 players
in "Herne's'' famous gambling establish
ment. Another refused his patronage on
the same ground, not knowing that his
first bookkeeper, though receiving salary
of only a thousand dollars, was losing
from fifty to one hundred dollars per
night. The President of q railroad COM
pany refused to patronize the institution,
saving: "That society is good for the
defense of merchants, but we railroad peo-
pie are not injured by this evil" not
| 4l,N fyyn Of
his conductors were spending three nights
of each week at the faro tables IN New
York. Directly or indirectly this evil
strikes at the whole world.
Gambling is the risking of something
more or less valuable in the hope OF win
ming more than you hazard. The instru-
ments of gaming may differ, but
THE PRINCIPLE
is the same. The shuffiing and dealing
cards, however full of temptation, is not
gambling unless stakes are put up; while
on the other hand, gambling may be car
ried on without cards, or dice, or billiards,
or ten-pin alley. The man who bets on
horses, on elections, on battles-the man
who deals in "iancy" stocks or conducts
a business which hazards extra capital, or
goes into transactions without foundation
but dependent upon what men call luck, !"
is q 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 pro-
duct of theft or gaming. Lottery tickets
and lottery policies come into the same
category. Fairs for the founding of hos
pitals, schools and churches, conducted
on the rafting system, come under the
same denomination. Do not, therefore,
associate gambling necessarily with any
instrument, or game, or time, or place, or
think the principle depends upon whether
YOU play for glass Of wine or one hun
dred shares of railroad stock. Whether
YOU patronize auction POOLS" 'French
mutuals" or book-making," whether you
employ faro or billiards, rondo and keno,
cards or bagatelle, the very idea of the
thing is dishonest; for it processes to be-
stow upon you good for which you give
no equivalent.
This crime is no newborn sprite, but a
haggard transgressiOn that comes stag
gering down under a mantle OF curses
through many centuries. All nations,
barbarous and civilized, have been ad-
dicted to it. Before 1889 the French
Government received revenue from gam
ing houses. In 1861 England, for the
improvement of her harbors, instituted a
Lottery to be held at the front door of st.
Paul's Cathedral. Four hundred thous-
and tickets were sold at ten shillings each.
The British Museum and Westminster
Bridge were partially built by similar
procedures. The ancient Germans would
sometimes put up themselves and families
as prizes. and suffer themselves to be
bound, though stronger than the persons
who won them.
Aut now
| THE LAWS
of the whole civilized world denounce the
system. Enactments have been passed,
but only partially enforced, and at times
| not enforced at ALL The men interested in
gaming houses, and in jocky clubs, WELD
such influence by their numbers and afflu-
ence, that the Judge, the jury, and the