The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-11-24

| the s:alp, you will plunge where no crap
pling hook will ever drag you out.
Young msn, avoid this evil. II you
have any tickets in your pocket that
are suggestive Of this evil, destroy them
when YOU 60 home. There is not young
man in New York or Brooklyn but will be
tempted by this evil. There is hardly a
young man in this house, or an old one who
has not been tempted. 1t is 50 much so that
innocent and kindly and healthful amuse.
ments are becoming affected. Now, do not
know more healthful recreation than ten
pins. have passed many hours in ten pin
alleys and they have always been to me the
means Of physical recuperation. I can
hardly think of any better form Of
amusement than a ten-pin alley. Yet you
know as we'll as that some Of these places
have been turned into gambling saloons
Husband, father brother, son enter a ten-pin
alley for this purpose. Let the boy set up
the pins at the other en- Of the alley. Give
the gamester full swing Now stand out OF
his way. Roll the first. There, itstrikes. Down
goes his respectabilily. Stand back now. give
he strikes down the last feeling of humanity.
Give him full swing. Lot the gamester have
full chance. Roll the third. 1t strikes.
Down goes his soul. 1t was not the ten-pins
that fell-a soul, an immortal soull Let
me give YOU in brief the history OF q
gambler. Lured by friends he goesto places
where an honest man ought never go. De
sits down at the table just for the purpose OF
being thought sociable, or Willing away the
hands and he takes all the tricks and both
the players s,uls for trumps, he being
sharper at any game. A small stake is put
mn lust to make it interesting. Game after
game is played. larger stakes aud st II larger,
until after q while they begin to move nerv-
ously on their chairs, and the brows lower
aud the eyes flash AMI the lips more and
more compressed andthe fist is clenchei and
the eyes like fire balls seem starting from
comes IF losing, paling with envy and
tremulous with unutterel oaths cast
back red hot upon the heart; or
winning. with hysteric laugh, crying:
"Aha, aha! have it," A few years have
passed on aud he is the mere wreck of a man.
Before he throws his first card now he puts
down the last relic of his wife. the marriage
ring that sealed the VOWS between them. He
plays Heloses. He sags back. He dreams,
and in his dreams the past hours mock
him with great agony, and friends with
eyes Of fire and tongues of flame gather
around him and join hands to dance with
hellish chorus chanting, "bal, brothsrm
and kiss his clammy forehead, and their
loathesomo locks flowing in serpents crawl
into his bosom and sink their sharp faugs
and suck at his life blood, and coiling around
his heart pinch it with chills and shudders
indescribable.
That is you oh young man, if yon come to
the terminus Of that blasted road on which
YOU have already started. May God help
you! Remember that this is down grade,
that every sep adds swiftnesS to the mo-
mentum already gathered. On this
treacherous sea, oh how many have
launched Split hulks strew the beach.
and everlasting storms howl up and
down and toss the unwary craft into the He'll
Gate. have seen it with my own eyes,
have looked off upon the awful place where
men go down and I have seen and have
heard the writhing and the Kissing and the
foaming of the waters where men struggled
and stranglsd and blasphemed God and
died, the death stare Of eternal
despair upon their face as the waters gurgled
over them To gamblers death bed there
comes no hope. He probably will die alone.
His comrades in iniquity will not come to the
dwelling. His miserable soul will go out OF
a miserable life into miserable eternity.
As his poor remains pass the pla:e where ne
was ruined his old comrades will Look out OF
the window and say:"There goes the old car.
cass. Dead at lastn But they will not rise
from their chairs Let him down
now into the grave. Plant no tree
to shade it, for the long, deep, eternal
gloom is shadow enough. Plant no forget
me-nots nor eglantine to mark that spot, for
flowers were never intended to bloom on
such blasted heath. Visit it not in the SUM-
shine, for that would b. q mockery, but on
some dismal night when, no stars are out,
and spirits OF darkness come down horsed on
the wind, visit the grave of the gambler!