The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-11-10

the white hair from his brow and tanned
him He had only tainted wish he had
been dead, for what is life worth to a father
after his son is destroyedi HAceldema, the
field Of bloodiu
When things go wrong at gaming table
they shout: Foul Foulfs Over all the
gaming tables Of the world cry out; Foul
FOUL infini ely foulfs
Gift stores are abundant throughout the
country. With a book, or knife, or sewing
machine, or coat, or carriage there goes a
prize At these stores people get something
thrown in with their purchase. II may be a
gold watch or set OF silver, a ring, or q
farm. Sharp way to get of unstable goods
1t has filed the land with fictitious articles,
and covered up our population with brass
finger rings and despoiled the moral sense Of
the community, aud Is fast making us a
nation Of gamblers.
The church of God has not seemed willing
to allow the world to have all the advantage
Of these games Of chance. A church fair
opens, and toward the close it is found that
some of the more valuable articles are IN
saIable Forthwith the conductors Of the
enterprise conclude that they win rattle for
some of the valuable articles, and, under pre-
tense of anxiety to make their minister a
present or please some popular member of
the church, fascinating persons are dispatched
through the room, pencil in hand, to solicit
shares" or perhaps each draws for his own
advantage, and scores Of people go home
with their trophies, thinking that is all right,
for Christian ladies did the embroidery and
Christian men did the rafting and the pro-
seeds sent toward new communion set.
Bot you may depend on it, that as faras
morality is concerned, you might as wen havs
won by the crack Of the billiard ball or the
turn of the dice box.
Do you wonder that churches built, light
ed or upholstered by such processes as that
come to great financial and spiritual decrepi-
tudel The devil says: i 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,
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 the wrong road was
when he won something at a church fair
The gambling spirit has not stopped for
any indecency. There transpired in Mary
land lottery in which people drew for lots
in a burying groundl The modern habit of
writing about everything is productive Of
immense mischief. The most healthful and
innocent amusements of yachting and base
ball playing have been the occasion of put
ting up excited and extravaganza wagers.
That which to many has been advan-
tageous TO body and mind has been to
others the means of financial and moral
IS al, - IL
treme where scores of men in respect
able life give themselves up to betting
now on this boat, now on that; now on this
ball club, now ON that.
Betting, that once was chiefly the accom-
paniment of the racecourse, is fast becoming
a national habit, and in some circles any
opinion advanced on finance or politics is
accosted with the interrogation: How much
win you bet ON that. sir"
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 viii soon take
hold on death. For some months, and per-
haps for years, they will hnger In the moro
polite and elegant circle of gamesters, but,
after a while, their pathway will come to the
fatal plunge Finding themselves in the
rapids, they viii try TO back out, and, hurled
over the brink, they viii clutch the side of
the boat, until their fingernails, blood-tipped,
viii pierce the wood, and then, with white
cheek and agonized stare and the horrors of
the lost soul lifting the very hair from the
scalp, they will plunge down where no Crap
ping hooks can drag them out.
Young mani stand back from all styles of
gambling. The end thereof is death The
tenpin alley affords the best of physical ex-
ercise, and many an hour | have passed in
some such place getting physical invigora-
ton; but many of the tenpin alleys are now
given up to gambling practices. Husbands,
brothers, fathers, enter. Put down your 81 600
all in gold eagles Let the boy set up tho
pins at the other end of the alley! Now stand
back and give the gamester full sweep Roll
the frst-there! it strikesl and down goes
his respectability Try it again Roll the
second-there, it strikesi and down goes the
last feeling of humanity Try it again.
Roll the third-there! it strikes and down
goes his soul foreverl 1t was not so much
the pins that fell as the SOUL the soull Fatal
ten-strike for eternity! "Aceldama, the field
of blood.
Shall I sketch the history of the gamblers
Lured by bad company, he finds his way into
q place where honest men ought never to go.
He sits down to his first game, but only for
pastime and the desire of being thought socia-
ole. The players deal out the cards They
unconsciously play into Satan's hands, who
takes all the tricks and both the players souls
for trumps-he being a 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 nervously on their chairs Their
brows lower and eyes flash, until now they
who win and they who lose, fired alike with
passion, sit with set jaws and compressed
lips and clenched fists, and eyes like fireballs,
that seem starting from their sockets, to see
the final turn before it comes. If losing, pale
with envy and tremulous with unuttered
oaths cast back red hot upon the heart: or
winning, with hysteric laugh, "Hai hal I
have til"
A few years have passed, and he is only
the wreck of man. Seating himself at the
game, ere he throws the first card, he stakes
the last relic of his wife-the marriage ring
which sealed the solemn vows between them
The game is lost, and staggering back in ex-
haustion he dreams. The bright hours of the
past mock his agony, and in his dreams fiends
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 SER
penis, crawl into his bosom and sink their
sharp fangs and suck up his LIES blood, and,
coiling around his heart, pinch it with chills
and shudders unutterable.
Take warningl You are no stronger than
tens of thousands who have by this prac-
tice been overthrown No young man in
eifi hait,rr <oI TQ..
ware of the first beginnings This road is a
down grade, and every instant increases the
momentum. Launch not upon this treach-
erous sea- Splint hullzs strew the beach
Everlasting storms howl up and down, toss
ing unwary crafts into the hell gate / speak
of what | have seen with my own eyes I
have looked off into the abyss, and have seen
the foaming and the kissing and the whirling
of the horrid deep in which the mangled vic
Tins writhed one upon another and struggled.
strangled, blasphemed and died-the death
stare of eternal despair upon their counten-
ances as the waters gurgled over themi
To gamblers deathbed there comes no
hope. He will probably die alone. His for
mer associates come not nigh his dwelling
When the hour comes his miserable soul will
go out of a miserable life into a miserable
eternity. As his 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 viii not
get up from the table. Let him down now
into his grave. Plant no tree to cast its shade
there, for the long, deep, eternal gloom that
settles there is shadow enough. Plant no
forget-me-nots or eglantines around the
spot, for flowers were not made to grow on
such blasted heath. Visit it not in the sun
shine, for that would be mockery, but in the
dismal night, when no stars are out, and the
spirits of darkness come down horsed on the
winds, then visit the grave Of the gambleri
An Unbearable Nuisance.
The chestnut gong was rung so continually
in the public schools of Portland. Ore, that