The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-02-27

| Then you come to the second class
gambling establishment. To it You are
introduced by a card through some
'roper in" Having entered you must
either gamble or fight. Sanded cards,
dice loaded with quicksilver, poor
drinks, will soon help you to get rid Of
your money to tune in short metre
with staccato passages. You wanted to
see. You saw The low villains of the
place watch you as you come in. Does
not the panther, squat in the grass,
know a calf when he sees it? Wrangle
not for your rights in that place oryour
body will be thrown bloody into the
street. or dead into the East river.
You go along little further and find
the policy establishment. In that place
you bet on numbers. Betting on two
numbers is called a saddle" betting
on three numbers is called gig"
betting on four numbers is called a
''horse. " and there are thousands o.
young men leaping into that saddle, s.
and mounting that gig" and behind
that ''hOrse." riding to perdition.
There is always one kind of sign on the
Exchange" most appropriate
title for the door. for there in that
room, a man exchanges health. peace
and heaven. for loss of health. loss of
home, loss of family, loss of immortal
soul. Exchange sure enough and inf
mite enough.
! a young man having suddenly heired
large property. sits at the hazard
table and takes up in dice box the es-
tate won by fathers lifetime sweat and
shakes it and losses it away. Intemper-
ance soon stigmatizes its victim-kick-
ing him out. a slavering fool. into the
ditch or sending him, with the drunk
ards hiccOughs. staggering up the
street where his family lives. But
gambling does not in that wav expose
| its victims. The gambler may be eaten
up by the gamblers passion yet YOU
only discover it by the greed in his
eyes. the hardness of his features, the
nervous reStlesSneSS. the threadbare
coat and his embarrassed business. Yet
| he is on the road to hell and no preach
er's voice CT startling writing or wife's
entreaty can make him stop for mo-
ment his headlOng career. The infer
nal 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
rOnnd 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 roe over
the rocks, on his way to perditiOn.
! Again. this sin works ruin by killing
| industry. A man used to reaping scores,
or hundreds, or thousands of dollars
from the gambling table will not be
content with slow work. He will say,
what is the use of trying to make these
| fifty dollars in my store when ! can get
| five times that in half an hour down at
"Billy's?" You never knew a confirm
ed gambler who was industrious. The
men given to this vice spend their time
not actively employed in the game in
idleness. or intOXicatiOn, or sleep, or in
cOrrupting new victims. 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 lightning to
shatter the battery of the philosopher.
The very first idea at gambling is at
war with ali the industries of society.
This crime is getting its lever under
many a mercantile house in our great
cities, and before long down will come
the great establishment, crushing repu-
tatiOn, home, comfort and immortal
souls. How it diverts and sinks capital
may be inferred from some authentic
statement before us. The ten gambling
houses that were authorized in Paris.
passed through the banks yearly 325,-
0O0, 600 francs. Where does all the
money come from? The whole world is
robbed. What is most sad, there are
no consultations for the loss and suffer-
ing entailed by gambling. If men fail
in lawful business, God pities ard So
ciety commiserates; but where in the
Bible or in any society is there any con-
ISOLATION for the gambler? From what
tree of the forest Oozes there balm
that can soOthe the gamblers heart?
In that bottle where God keeps the
tears of his children, are there any
tears of the gambler? Do the winds
that came to kiss the faded cheek of
sickness. and to cool the heated bro of
the labOrer, whisper hope and cheer to
the emaciated victim of the game of
hazard? When an honest man is in
trouble he has sympathy. Poor fell
low they say. But do gamblers come
to weep at the agOnieS of the gambler?
In Northumberland was one of the fin
est estates in England. Mr.. Porter
owned ii and in year gambled it away.
Having lost the last acre of the estate,
he came down from the saloon and got
into his carriage: went back; put up
his horses and carriage and town house
and played. He threw and lost. he
started home, and in side alley met a
friend. from whom he borrowed 10
guineas; went back to the saloon and
before a great while had won e20. 900.
He died at last, a begger in st. Giles.
How many gamblers felt sorry for Mr..
Porter? Who consoled him on the loss
of his estate? What gambler subscrib-
ed to put a stone over the poor mans
grave? Not one.
Furthermore. this sin is the source of
uncounted dishonesties. The game of
hazard itself is often a cheat. How
many tricks and receptions in the deal
ing of the cards! The opponents hand
is 'oftirhes found out by fraud. Cards
are marked so that they may be desig
mated from the back. Expert gamblers
have their accomplices and one wink
may decide the game.
The dice have been found loaded
with Tlatan, so the doubles" come up
every time. These dice are introduced
by the gamblers unobserved by honest
men who have come into the play, and
accounts for the fact that ninety-nine
out of hundred who CANDLES, however
wealthy they began, at the end are
found poor, miserable, ragged wretches
that would not be allowed to sit on the
door step of the house they once owned.
In gaming house in San Francisco a
young man having just come from the
mines deposited large sum on the ace
and won $4,000. But the tide turns.