Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-02-27

~. ~ oui steam engines, and showers ont
sne I.oiiiasratlon. and sprinlSles from the
oap1'slliai lont OF our churches: and with
SILVER note, and golden sparkle, and
.nfys1alilhe chime, says to hundreds of
=. HOUSINGS OF our population. i'm the an
.hentlc words of Him who said. s.T will.
be thou clcan.'' wig
AZ inns l promise in opening this
. .'' OF sermons on the ten plaques of
.leSe thfce cities. lest some stupid man
ihisllo say am dcprcciating the place of
my residence. / speak to YOU to-day con-
corning the plague of gambling. Every
man and woman in this house oupit to
De Interested in this theme.
some years ago, when an association
Tor the suppression of gambling was Or
canned. an agent of the association came
10 prominent citizen and asked him to
patlonlzc the society. He said. mo. I
can nave no interest in such an organiza-
Won. 1 am in nowisc affected by the
evil AT that Very time his son. who
was his partner i'll business, was one of
the heaviest players in Hcarne's famous
gambling establishment. Another re-
fused his patronage on the same ground.
not Knowing that his first booll-keeper,
lhough receiving a salary of only a
thousand dollars, was losing from fifty
to one hundred dollars per night. The
president OF Il railroad company refused
To patronize the institutions. saving.
That society is good for the defense of
merchants, but we railroad people are
not injured by this cvil:' not knowing
that, ut that very time, Two of his con-
durtors were spending three nights of
each week at faro tables in New York.
Directly or Indirectly, this evil strikes at
thu whole world
Gambling is the risking of something
more or less valuable in the hope of WIN
ming more than you hazard The in
strlmcnts OF gaming may differ but the
principle is the same The shutting and
dealing of cards. however full of temp
tation. is not gambling unless stakes are
put up: while, on the other hand, gam
bling may be carried on without cards or
dice: or billiards. or Il tcn-pin alley. The
man who bets on horses, elections. on
battles-thc man who deals in '.fancy''
stocks, or conducts a business which
hazards extra capital, or goes into trans
actions without foundation, but depend
cntupon what men call ''luck.'' is a gam
bier. Whatever YOU expect to get from
your neighbor without offering an equiv
alcnt in money or time or skill is either
tho product of theft or gambling. Lot
terry tickets and lottery policies come into
the same category. Fairs for tho found
ing OF hospitals, schools. and churches,
conducted on the rat1ling system, come
under the same denomination. DO not,
therefore, associate gambling necessarily
with any Instrument, or game, or time or
place, or think the principle depends
upon whether you play for Il glass OF
wine or one hundred shares of railroad
stock Whether you patronizc ':auction
pools" ''French mutuals," or shook
malling," whether you employ faro OF
billiards, rondo and keno, cards or baga.
tcllc, the very idea of the thing is dishon-
est, for it processes to bcstow upon you
a good for which you give no equivalent
1t is estimated that every day in Chris
tendon eighty million dollars pass from
hand to hand through gambling prac
ticcs. and every year in Christendom ont
hundred and twenty-thrce billion, ont
hundred million dollars change hands il
that way. There are in this cluster OF
cities about eight hundred confessed
gambling establishments. There arc
about three thousand five hundred pro
fessional gamblers. Out of the egh
hundred gambling establishments, how
many OF them do you suppose profess tt
be honest? Ten. These ten profess tt
be honest because they arc merely thu
ante-chamber to the seven hundred ant
ninety that are acknowledged fraudu
lent. There are first class gambling es
! Establishments. You go up the marble
stairs. You ring the bell. The liveriet
servant introduces you. The. walls arc
| lavender tinted. The mantels are o.
Vermont marble. The pictures ar,
'.Jephthah's Daughter and Dore's
"Dante's and Virgil's Frozen Region o.
Hcllf;-a most appropriate selection, this
last, for the place. There is the roulette
table, the finest, the costlicst. the mos
! exquisite piece of furniture in the United
| States. There is the banqueting room
where, free of charge to the guests, yol
may find the plate and viands and wines
and cigars sumptuous beyond parallel.
Then you come to the second class
gambling establishment. To it you arr
introduced by card through some roper
! in" Having entered, you must either
gamble or fight. Sanded cards, dict
| loaded with quicksilver, poor drinks, will
soon help you to get rid of all your money
| to Il tune in short meter with staccatt
1 EtiSSISCS. IOu WiIilLctl w SCc. ou sd y"
| The low Williams of that place watch yor
as you come in. Does not the panther
| squat in the grass, know a cal
when he sees it? Wranglc not for youl
rights in that place, or your body will b.
thrown bloody into the street, or dcat
into the East River. You go along ;
little further and find the policy estab
| lishment. In that place you bet on mum
bcrs Betting on two numbers is calico
Il s'saddle,' betting on three numbers i:
called gig" betting on four number:
is called 'horse,' and there arc thou
sands of our young men lcaping int
that saddle and mounting that "gig,
and behind that horse riding to per
dition. There is always one kind of sign
on the or-'EXchangc," a most appro
pirate title for the door. for there. il
that room, IL man exchanges health
peace and heaven: for loss OF health, loss
of home, loss Of family, loss OF immorta
soul. Exchange sure enough and infinite
enough.
| Men wishing to gamble will find places
| inst suited to their capacity, not only ii
| the underground oyster cellar, or at the
table back of the curtain, covered with
1 a.. - han