The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-12-09

moment his headlong career. The Internal
spell is on him; giant is aroused within;
and though you bind him with cables, they
would part like thread; and though you
fasten him seven times around with chains,
they would snap like rusted wire, and
though you piled up in his path, heaven
high, Bibles, tracts and sermons, and on the
top should set the cross of the Son of God,
over them all the gambler would leap like
a roe over the rocks on his way to perdition.
"Aceldama, the field of blood"
You never knew a confirmed gambler
who was industrious. The men given to
this vice spend their time, when not actively
employed in the game, in idleness or intoxi-
cation or sleep, or in corrupting new vic
tins. This sin has dulled the carpenters
saw and cut the band of the factory wheel,
sunk the cargo, broken the teeth of the
farmers harrow and sent strange light
ening to shatter the battery of the philoso-
pher. The very first idea in gaming is at
war with all the industries of society. Any
trade or occupation that is of use is en-
noblng. The street sweeper advances the
interests of society by the cleanliness eff
fected. The cat pays for the fragments it
eats by clearing the house of vermin. The
fly that takes the sweetness from the dregs
of the cup compensates by purifying the
air and keeping back the pestilence. But
the gambler gives not any thing for that
which he takes. l recall that sentence. He
does make return; but it is disgrace to
the man that he feeces, despair to his
heart, ruin to his business, anguish to his
wife, shame to his children and eternal
wasting away to his soul. He pays in
tears, and blood, and agony, and darkness,
and woe.
John Borack was sent as mercantile agent
from Bremen to England and this country.
After two years his employers mistrusted
that all was not right. He was a defaulter
for So, 900. 1t was found that he had lost
in Lombard street, London, 900; in Full
ton street, New York, $4,000, and in New
Orleans, 5000. He was imprisoned, but
afterwards escaped, and went into the
gambling profession. He died in a lunatic
asylum. This crime is getting its lever I'M
der many a mercantile house in our cities,
and before long down will come the great
establishment, crushing reputation, home
comfort and immortal souls. How it diverts
and sinks capital may be inferred from
some authentic statement before us. The
ten gaming houses that once were author
lied in Paris passed through the banks
yearly 325,0O0,O00 francs. Where does all
the money come from? The whole world is
robbed. What is most sad, there are 40 con-
solutions for the loss and suffering entailed
by gambling. If men fail in lawful business,
God pities and society comiserates; but,
where in the Bible or in society is there any
consolation for the gambler? From what
tree in the forest oozes there balm that
can soothe the gamester's heart2 In that
bottle where God keeps the tears of His
children are there any tears Of the gamblers
Do the winds that come to kiss the faded
cheek of sickness and to cool the heated
brow of the laborer whisper hope and cheer
to the emaciated victim of the game of haz-
ard? When an honest man is in trouble he
has sympathy. "Poor fellow" they say
But do gamblers come to weep at the ago
MES of the gamblers
Furthermore, this sin is the source of un-
counted dishonesty. The game of hazard
itself is often cheat. How many tricks
and receptions in the dealing of the cards.
The opponents hand is often found out by
fraud. Cards are marked so that they may
be designated from the back. Expert
gamesters have their accomplices, and one
wink may decide the game. The dice have
been found loaded with platina, so that
doublets come up every time. These dice
are introduced by the gamblers unobserved
by the honest men who have come into the
play, and this accounts for the fact that
ninety-nine out of one hundred who
gamble, however wealthy when they be-
gan, at the end are found to be poor, mis-
cradle, haggard wretches who would not
be allowed to sit on the doorstep of the
house that they once owned. Do you call
this game of chance. There is no chance
about it.
But these dishonesties in the carrying on
of the game are nothing when compared
with the frauds that are committed in order
to get money to go on with the nefarious
work. Gambling, with its needy hand, has
snatched away the widows mite and the
portions of the orphans; has sold the
daughters virtue to get the means to con-
tinue the game; has written the counter
felt signature, emptied the bankers money
vault and welded the assassin's dagger.
There is no depth of meanness to which it
will not stoop. There is no cruelty at
which it is appalled,. There is no warning
Of God that it will not dare. Merciless, I'M
appeasable, fierce and wild, it blinds, it
hardens, it rends, it blasts, it brushes, it
damns. 1t has peopled our prisons and lu-
matte asylums.
A man in London keeping one of these
gambling houses boosted that he had
ruined nobleman a day; but if all the
saloons of the land were to speak out, they
might utter a more infamous boast, for
they have destroyed a thousand noblemen a
year.
Notice also the effects of this crime upon
domestic happiness. 1t has sent it's 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, or
took short cut to destruction across the
murderer's scaffold
Home has lost all charms for the gambler.
How tame are the children's caresses and
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 imagina-
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"