Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-11-08


sewing machine, or coat, or carriage,
there goes prize. ttnese stores people
! get something thrown in with their pur-
chase. 1t may be a gold watch, or a set
of silver. ring, or a farm. Sharp way TO
get off 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 COM
munty, 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 toward the close
1t is found that some of the more valuable
articles are unstable. Forthwith the
! conductors of the enterprise conclude that
they will rattle for some of the valuable
articles, and, under pretense of anxiety
to make tneIr minister present or please
some popular member of the cnuTch, fas-
cinating persons are dispatched through
the room, pencil In hand, to "soliclt
shares" or perhaps each draws for his
! own advantage, and scores of people 20
home with their trophies, thinking that is
all right, for Christian ladies' did the en-
| broidery, and Christian men did the raj
| fling, and the proceeds went toward a
new communion set. But you may de-
| pend upon II that, as far as morality 10
concerned, you might as well have won
by the crack of the billiard 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 decfepitude? Toe devil says
L" 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 tney had lottery
for building the church AT Corinth. or at
Antioch, or for getting up an embroidered
| surplice for Saint Paul.
All this l style ecclesiastical gambling.
| M )re 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.
The gambling spirit has not stopped tor
any ndecency. There transpired in Mary
land lottery in which people drew for
lots In burying ground. The modern
habit Of writing about everything ls pro.
ductive OF immense mischief. The most
healthful and Innocent amusements OF
yachting and base ball playing have been
the occasion of putting UP excited and
extravagant wagers. That which to many
has been advantageous 10 body and mind
mas been To others the means of financial
and moral loss. The custom is pernici-
Gus in the extreme, where scores of men
| In respectable life give themselves up 20
| DetJiDE, now on luis DOaLy now on LlNJ,
now on this ball club, now on that.
Betting, that once was chiefly the ac-
compartment of the race course, is fast
becoming a national habit, and In some
| circles any opinion advanced on finance
or politics is accosted with the interroga-
tion: show much will you bet on that,
| slrY'
This custom may make no appeal to
slow, letharVic temperaments, but there
are in the country tens of thousands OF
quick, nervous, saDguiDe, excitable
and their feet Will soon take hold on
death. For some moths, and perhaps for
years, they will linger IN the more polite
and elegant circle of gamesters, but. after
a while, their pathway will come to the
fatal plunge. Finding themselves in the
rapids, they will Try to back out, and.
hurled over the brink, they will clutch
the side OF the boat, until their finger
nails, blood.tipped, will pierce the wood,
and tnen, with white cheek and agon zed
stare, and the horrors OF the lost soul lift
Ing the very hair from the scalp, they will
plunge down where no graphing. hooks
can drag them out.
Young maui stand back from all styles
of gambling. The end thereof is death.
The n-pin alley affords the best of phys
ical exercise, and ma5y an hour | have
passed In some such place, getting phy g.
zeal invigoratIUn; but many OF the ten pin
| alleys are now given up TO gambling
| practices, Husbands, brothers, fathers,
enter. Put down your thousand dollars
all In gold eaglesl Let the boy set up the
pins at the other end of the alleyi Now
| siand back and give the gRmester full
sweepi Roll the firsL--there it strikes
and down goes his respectabIlityl Try IL
again. Roll the sec Cnd-there! 10 strikes |
| and down goes the last feeling of hu-
manityl Try it again. Roll the third
therel II strIkesi and down goes his soul
foreverl IL was not so much the pins
that fell, as the soull the soIl Fatal
ten-strike for eternity "Aceldama, the
field OF blood"
Shall sketch the history CT the gam
blerI Lured by bad company he finds his
way into place where honest men ought
never to 20. He sits down TO his first
| game. bnt only for pastime and the desire
| OF being thought socIabe. The players
deal out the cards. They unconsciou,ly
play into Satan's hands, who takes all the
tricks and both the players souls Tor
trumps-he being sharper at any game.
A slight stake is put up, just 10 add ln-
terest TO the play. Game after game ls
played. LarKer stakes and still larger.
They begin TO move nervously on their
chairs. Their brows lower, and eyes fash,
| until now they who win aud they who
lose, fired alike with passion, sit with set
jaws and compressed lips, and clenched
isis, and eyes like fire balls that seem
starting from their sockets TO see the final
turn before II comes; IL losing, pale
with envy and tremulous with unuttered
oaths cast back red not upon the heart
or. winning, with hysteric lauk kh-"Ha!
| hal | have itV'
A few years have passed, and he is only
the wreck OF a man. sealing himself at
the game, ere ne throws the nrst card, he
stakes the last relic Of mis- wite-the mar
riage ring which sealed the solemn vows
between them. The game is lost, and
staggering back in exhaustion be dreams.
| The bright hours Of the past mock bis
agony, and In his dreams iends with eyes
! OF lire and tongues Of fame circle about
him with Joined hands, 10 dance and sing
| their orgies with hellish chorus, chant
ing: Hail. brotherp kissing his clammy
forehead until their loathsOme locks, now
! ing with serpents, crawl IN o his bOsom,
and sink their sharp iangs and suck up his
| liie's blood, and cOiling around his heart
! pinch IL with chills and shudders unut-
terable.
Take warningi You are no stronger
than tens Of thousands who have by this
practice been oyerLbTOwn. No young man
in our cities can escape being tempted.
Beware OF the 6Tst beginuiDgsl This
road IL a down-grade, aud every instant