The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-11-11

mofauGy Is 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, light
ed or upholstered by such processes as that
come to great financial and spiritual decrepf-
tudcs The devil says: II helped to build
that house of worship, and l have as much
right there as you have;" and for once the
devil is right.
We do not read that they had a lottery for
building the church at Corinth or at Antioch,
or for getting up an embroidered surplice for
St Paul
All this 1 style ecclesiastical gambling.
More than who is destroyed can say
that his first step the wrong road was
when he won something at 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
loss. The custom is pernicious in the ex-
IRENE where scores of men in respect
able life give themselves up to betting
AAo't OAA
ball club, now on that.
Betting, that once was chiefly the accom-
panlment 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
will y-ou bet on that. srH'
This custom may make no appeal to slow,
1ethargic temperaments, but there in the
country tens of thousands of quick nervous,
ifaJ,1
be acted upon, and their feet will soon tako
hold on death. For some months, and per-
haps for years. they will linger in the moro
polite and elegant circle of ganesters, but,
after 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 theif fngernails, blood-tipped,
will pierce the wood, and then, with white
cheek and agonlzed 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 man! 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 I 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 the
pins at the other end of the alley! Now stand
back and give the gamester full sweep! Roll
the frst-there! it strikes! and down goes
his respectability! Try it again Roll the
second-there! it strikes! and down goes the
last feeling Of humanity! Try it again
Roll the third-there it strikesl and down
goes his soul forever! It was not SO much
the pins that fell as the soul! the soull Fatal
ia for of f1n qoJJ
Of BLOOD
Shall I sketch the history Of the gamblerl
Lured BY bad company, he finds his way into
place where honest men ought never to CO.
He sits down to his first game, but only for
pastime and the desire Of being thought socia-
bic. 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 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 chairA Their
brows lower and eyes FASH 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 f1reballs,
that seem starting from their sockets, to see
tho final turn before 1t comes. II losing, pale
with envy and tremulous with unuttored
oaths cast back red hot upon the heart; or
winning, with hysterfc laugh, "Hai hal I
have It'll"
A few years have passed, and ho Is only
the wreck Of Q man. Seating himself NJ the
game, ere he throws the first card, he stakes
The last relic Of his wifs-ths 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 hends
. a. nd -
about him with joined hands, to dance and
sing their orgies with hellish chorus, chanting
1Hail, brotheri" kissing his clammy forehead
until their loathsome locks, flowing with scr
penis, crawl into his bosom and sink their
sharp fangs and suck up his LIES blood, and,
coiling around bis heart, pinch u with chills
and shudders unutterable
| Take warning! You are no stronger than
tens Of thousands who have by this prac-
| tice been overthrown. No young man in
| our cities can escape being tempted Be
ware of the first beginnings! This road Is q
down grade. and every instant increases the
| momentum Launch not upon this treach-
| erous sea. Splint hulks strew the beach.
! Everlasting storms howl up and down, toss
! ing unwary crafts into tho hell gate speak
| Of what have seen with my own eyes.
| have looked of into the abyss, and have seen
the foaning and the kissing and the whirline
OF tn6 nOTTlu Oeep III WHICH tuo I1auSIou VIC
| TINS writhed one upon another, and struggled
strangled, blasphemed and died-the death
stare Of eternal despair upon their counter
ances as tho waters gurgled over theml
To gamblers deathbed there comes nc
hope. He will probably die alone. His for
| NOR associates come not nigh his dwelling
| When the hour comes his miserable soul viii
| go out of q miserable life into . miserable
eternity. As his poor remains pass tho hous.
where he was ruined old companions may
look out a moment and say: There goes The
old carcass-dead at last" but they will MOI
get up from the table. Let him down nov
into his grave. Plant no tree to cast its shade
there, for the long, deep, eternal gloom tina
settles there is shadow enough. Plant nj
forget-me-nots or eglantines around th'
| spot, for flowers were not made to grow OF