St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-11-20
they have destroyed q thousand noblemen q

they have destroyed q Thousand noblemen 6
year.
Notice also the effects of this crime upo1
domestic happiness. 1t has sent its ruth
less ploWshare through hundreds of fam
lilies, until the wife sat in rags, and the
daughters were disgraced, and the sons
grew up to the same infamous practices, OF
took short cut to destruction across the
| murderers scaffold.
Home has lost all charms for the gambler
How tame are the children's caresses and
a wife's devotion to the gambler. How
drearily the fire burns On the domestic
hearth. There must be louder laughter,
and something to win, and something to
lose; and excitement to drive the heart
faster, flip the blood and fire the magma
ton. No home, however bright, can keep
back the gamester. The sweet call of love
bounds back from his iron soul, and all en-
dearments are consumed in the fire of his
passion. The family Bible will go after all
other treasures are lost, and if his crown
in Heaven were put into his hand he would
cry: "Here goes; one more game, my boys.
On this one throw stake my crown Of
| Heaven"
| An only son went to New Orleans. He
was rich, intellectual and elegant in man
ners. His parents gave him on his depart
ure from home their last blessing The
sharpers got hold of him. They fiattered
| him. They lured him to the gaming table
and let him win almost every time for a
| good while, and patted him on the back and
said: "First-rate player" But fully in
their grasp they tieeced him, and his $4,000
were lost. Last of all, he put up his watch
and lost that. Then he began to think of
! his home. and of his old father and mother
and wrote thus:
| "My Beloved Parents: You will doubt
less feel momentary joy at the reception
of this letter from the child of your bosom,
on whom you have lavished all the favors
of your declining years. But should feel
ing Of JOY for moment spring up in your
hearts when you shall have received this
from me, cherish it not l have fallen
deep, never to rise. Those gray hairs
that 1 should have honored ana pro-
tected l shall bring down in sorrow
to the grave. I will not curse my
destroyer, but, oh, may God avenge the
wrongs and impositions practiced upon the
unwary in a way that shall best please
Him. This, my dear parents, is the last let
ter you will ever receive from me. I hum
bly, pray your forgiveness. 1t is my dying
prayer. Long before you will have received
this from me the cold grave will have
closed upon me forever. Life to me is in
supportable. I can not nay, I will not, suf-
fer the shame of having ruined you. For
get and forgive is the dying prayer of your
unfortunate SOM
The old father came to the post-officc. got
the letter and fell to the floor They
thought he was dead at first, but they
brushed back the white hair from his brow
and famed him q had pnlv fajDfn1 7
wish he had been dead, for what is life
worth to father after his son is destroyed
'Aceldama, the field of blood"
When things go wrong at a gaming table
they shout: Foul, foul" Over all the
gaming tables Of the world I cry out:
"Foul. foul, infinitely foul"
''Gift stores" are abundant throughout
the country. With book or knife, or sew
ing machine, or coat, or carriage there goes
prize. At these stores people get some
thing thrown in with their purchase. 1t
may be a gold watch, OF a set of silver,
ring, or farm. Sharp way to get off I'M
salable goods. It has filed the land with
fictitious articles, and covered up our popu-
latien with brass finger rings and despoiled
the moral sense of the community, and is
fast making us nation of gamblers
The church of God has not seemed will
ing to allow the world to have all the ad- |
vantage of these games of chance. A
church fair opens, and towards the close it
is found that some of the articles are I'M
salable. Forthwith the conductors of the |
enterprise conclude that they will rattle |
for some of the valuable articles, and, |
under pretense of anxiety to make their |
minister present or please some popular |
member of the church, fascinating persons
had ,rrl 4I< oil ~,
hand, to ''solicit shares" Or perhaps each |
draws for his own advan+ag and scores of |
people go home with their trophies, think
ing that it is all right, for Christian ladies
did the embroidery and Christian men did
the rafting and the proceeds went toward
a new communion set. But you
may depend on it that, as far as
morality is concerned, you might |
as well have won by the crack of the bill
lard ball or the turn of the dice box. Do
you wonder that churches built, lighted or
upholstered by such processes as that come
to great financial and spiritual decrepti-
tude2 The devil says: IL helped to build
that house of worship, and 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, on for getting up an
surplice for ST. Paul
All this I 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 aecosted with the interrogation: How
much will you bet on that, sirs"
This custom may make nc appeal to slow,
ethargic temperaments, bat there are in
the country tens of thousands of quick,
nervous, sanguine, excitahle temperaments