The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-02-23

j
very tins his son. who was his partner in
business, was one Of the heaviest players
in Hesrnes nous gaming IS ablish-
ment Another refused mis- patronage on
the same ground, not knowing that his first
bookkeepsr. though receiving a salary OF
only thousand dollars, was losing IRON
fifty to one hundred dollars per night. Inc
presiden: Of a railroad company refused 10
patrOnizs the Institution, SAYING; That
society is good for the defense Of mer-
chants. but we railroad people are not in
jured BY this evil > not knowing that, al
that very time, two Ct bis conductors were
Z spending three nights Of each week at faro
tables In New York Directly or indi-
rectly, this evil strikes the whole world.
Gambling is the risking Of something
more or less valuable in the hope of winning
r.Iore than you hazards TIE ms ruments Of
gaming may differ. but the priaciple IS the
same. The shutting and dealing Of cards,
however full Of temptation. Is not gambling
I unle7s stakes are put IN; while. on the other
hand gambling NAV be carried on without
cards, or dice, or billiards, or q ten-pin
! alley The man who bets on horses, on
elections, on battles-the man who deals in
| fancy stocks, or conducts business which
hazards extra capital, or goes into
| transactions withou. foundation, but de-
pendent upon what men call "luck," is
| gambler. Whatever you expect to get
| from your neighbor without offering an
equivalent in money or time or skill is
| either the product OF theft or gaming. Lot
terry tickets and lottery policies come into
the same category. Fairs for the founding
| Of hospitals, schools and churches, con-
| Quoted on the rafting system, come under
the same denomination. Do not, therefore,
associate gambling necessarily with any in
| strument or game, or time or place, or
think the prime pile depends upon whether
you clay for a glass Of wine, or one hun-
dred shares Of railr lad stock. Whether you
| patroniZe auction pools French mutu-
als,n or ''bookmaking," whether you en-
ploy faro or billiards, rondo and keno,
cards, OF bagatelle, the very idea of the
thing is dishonest; for it processes to bestow
upon you good for which you give no
equivalent
| 1t is estimated that every day in christen-
| dom eighty million dollars pass from hand
to hand through gambling practices, and
every year in christend1m onelhundred and
twenty-three billion one hundred million
dollars change hands in that way. There
| are, in this cluster Of cities, about eight
| hundred confessed gambling establish
ments. There are about three thousand five
hundred professional gamblers. Out of
the eight hundred gambling establishments,
how many OF them do you suppose profess
to be honest because they are merely the
ante-chAmber to the seven hundred
and ninety that are acknowl-
edged fraudulent There are first
class gambling establishments. You go up
the marble stairs. You ring the bell. The
liveried servant introduces you. The
walls are lavender tinted. The
msntels are Of Vermont marble. The
pictures are "Jephthsh's Daughter and
| Dore's "Dante's and Virgirs Frozen Region
of Hell" a most appropriate selection, this
last, for the place. There is the roulette
table, the finest. the costliest, most exquisite
piece of furniture in the United States.
There is the banqueting room, where, free
| Of charge to the guests, you may find the
plate, and viAnds, and wines, and cigars,
sumptuous beyond parallel.
Then you come to the second-class gamb-
ling establishment To it you are intro
duced 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 all your money TO tune in
short meter with staccato passages. You
wanted to see. You saw. The low villains
OF that place watch you as you come 10.
| Does not the panther, squat in the grass,
know a calf when he sees itl Wrangle not
for your rights in that place, or your body
will be thrown bloody into the street, or
along a little further and find the
policy establishment In that place
you let on numbers. Betting on two num-
| bers is called ''saddle;n betting on three
numbers is called gig" betting on four
numbers is called a ''horse," and there are
thCusandsof our young men leapin e into that
saddle" aid mounting that gig" and be-
hind that horse" riding to perdition There
is always one kind of sign on the door
Exchange most appropriate title for
the door, for there, in that room, a man ex-
changes health, peace and heaven, for loss
Of health, loss of home, loss of family, loss
OF immortal soul Exchange sure enough
and infinite enough.
Men wishing to gamble will find places
just suited to their capacity, not only in the
underground oyster-cellar, or at the table
back OF the curtain, covered with greasy
cards, or in the steamboat smoking cabin
where the bloated wretch with rings il his
ears instead Of his nose deals the pack, and
winks in the unsupported traveler-provid-
ing free drinks all around-Lut in gilded
parlors and amind gorgeous surroundings
young man, having suddenly heired a
large property, sits at the hazard table, and
takes up IN dice box the estate won by a
fathers lifetime sweat, and shakes it and
tosses il away. lntemperance soon stigma
tizes its victim-kicking him out, a SLAYER
ing fool into the ditch, or sending him, with
the drunkards hiccough, staggering up the
street where his family lives. But gamb-
ling does not in THAI way expose its victims.
The gambler may be eaten up by the gam
bler's passion, yet you only discover 1t by
the greed in his eyes, the hardness of
his features, the nervous restlessness,
the threadbare coat and his en-
barassed business Yet he is on
the road to hell, and no preachers voice or
startling warning, or wifs's entrea y, can
make him stay for a moment his headlong
career. The internal spell is on him; a
giant is aroused within; and though you
bind him with cables, they would part like
{ read; and though you fasten him seven
times round with chains. they would snap
like rusted wire; and though you piled upon
his path heeven-high Bibles, tracts and
sermons and on the top should set the cross
of the Son of God, over them ell the gam
bier would leap, like a roe over the rocks,
on his way to perdition.
Again, this sin works ruin by killing in
dustry. A man used to reaping scores, or
hundreds, or thousands of dollars from the
gaming table will not be content with slow
work. He VIII say, "What is tho use of
trying to make these fifty dollars in my
store when l can get five times that i'll hall
an hour down at Billy'sm You never knew
a confirmed gambler who was industrious.
The men given to this vice spend their time
not actively employed in the game, in idle
ness, or iEtoxication, or sleep, or in corrupt
ing new victims This sin has dulled the
carpenters saw, and cut the band of thC
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