The Forrest City times., 1891-02-27


 cancellations for tho loss and suffering en- tailed by gaming. If men fail in lawful business, God pities and society commiser- ates; but where in the Bible or in society is there any consolation for the gambler? From what tree of the forest oozes there Q balm that can soothe the gamester's hcartr In that bottle where God keeps the tears of his children, are there any tears of tho gambler? Do the winds that come to kiss the faded check of sickness, and to cool the heated brow of the laporer, whisper hope and cheer to the emaciated victim of the game of hazard? When an honest man is in trouble, he has sympathy. Poor felloww they say. But do gamblers como to weep at the agonies of the gambler? In Northumberland was one of the finest estates in England. Mir. Porter owned 1t and in a year gambled it all away. Having lost the last acre of the estate. he came down from the saloon and got into his car riage; went back; put up his horses and carriage and town house, and played. He threw and lost He started home, and in a side alley met friend from whom he borrowed ten guineas; went back to the saloon and before great while had won twenty thousand pounds. He died at last, a bcggar in St. Giles. How many gam bers felt sorry for Mir. Porter? Who con soled him on the loss of his estate? What gambler subscribed to put stone over the poor mans grave? Not one.
 Furthermore this sin is the source of uncouLted dishoncsties. The game of hazard itself is often cheat. How mary tricks and deceptions in the dealing of the cards! The opponents hand is oftimes found out by fraud. Cards are marked so bot b,I tod bo.,l 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 honest men who have come into the play; and this accou. for the fact that ninety out of hundred who gamble, however wealthy they began, at the end are found to be poor miserable, ragged wrctches, that would not now be allowed to sit on the doorstep of the house that they once owned. In a gaming house in San Francisco young man having just come from the mines deposited large sum upon the ace, and won twenty-two thousand. But the tide turns. Intense anxiety comes upon the countenanccs of all. Slowly the cards went forth. Every eye is fixed. Not sound is heard until the ace is revealed favorable to the bank. There are shouts Of Foul F Foul r' but the keepers of the table produce their pistols and the uproar is sllenced and the bank has won ninty-five thousard dollars. Do you cali 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 which are committed in order 10 get money to 20 on with the ne- farious work. Gambling with its greedy hand has suatched away the widows mite and the portion of the orphan; has sold the daughters virtue to get the means to con tiuuo tue game; has written the counter felt signature, cmpled the bankers money vault and wielded tho assassins dagger, There is no depth Of meanness to which it will not stoep. There is no cruelty at which it IS appalled,. There is no warning of God that it will not dare Merciless. uuappeasable, hcrcer and wilder. 1t blinds. t hardens, it rends. 1t blasts. il crushes, it damns. 1t has peopled our prisons and lunatc asylums. How many railroad agents and cashiers and trustees of funds ii has driven to disgrace, incarceration and suicide. Witness years ago cashier of n railroad who stole orc hundred and three thousand dollars to carry on his gaming practices. Witness forty thoussnd dol lars stolen from n Brooklyn bank within the memory of many of you. and the one hundred and eighty thousand dollars taken from Wall street insurance company for the same purpose These are only illus trations on large scale of tho robberies every day committed for the purpose of carrying out the designs of gamblers. Hundreds of thousands Of dollars every year leak out without observation from the merchants till into the gambling hell. A man in London keeping one of these gam bling houses boasted that he had ruined 2 nobleman day: but if all the saloons of this land were to speak out they might utter more infamous boast for they have destroyed a thousand noble men a year.
 Shall sketch the history of the gam bier? Lured by bad company he finds his way into place where honest men ought never to go. He sits down to his tlrst game but only for pastime and the desire of being thought sociahke. The players deal out the cards. They unconsciousiy play into Satan's hands who takes all tho tricks and both th 6 players souls for trumps-- he being sharper at any game. X 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 ncrvously on their chairs. Their brows lower and eyes flash. until now they who win and they who lose, fired alike with passion, all with set jaws and com pressed lips and clenchcd fists, and eyes like fire balls that seem starting from their sockets, to see the final turn before it comes. if losing. pale with envy and tremu- lous with unuttered oaihs cast back red hot upon the heart--or. winning, with hys- teric laugh--.Ha! ha. l have it. l have it Y
 
 To a gamblers death bed there comes no hope. He will probably die alone. His former associates come not nigh his dwell ing. When the hour comes his miserable soul will go out of miserable life
 into miserable eternity. As his poor remains pass the house where he was ruined, old companions may look out moment and say: There goes tho old carcass s--dead at last" but they will not get up from the table. Let him down now into his grave. Plant no tree to cast its shade there. for the long, deep, eternal tloom that settles there is shadow enough. Plant no forget me-notsn or elegautines around the spot, for flowers were not made to grow on such blasted heath. Visit it not in the sunshine, for that would be mocKery, but m the uismal nisnt wncn no stars arc out and the spirits of darkness come down. horsed on the wind, then visit the grave of the gamblerl
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