Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-02-27


You ring the bell The Inverted servant in
trodrces you The walls are lavender tinted
The mantels are Of Vermont marble. The
pictures are ."Jephthahs Daughter" and
Dore's "Dante's and Virgips Frozen Region
of Her"-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
70 the guests you may find the plate and
viands and wines and cigars saptuous bA'e'
You'd parallel
Then you come to the secona'eiass gam
bling establishment. To it You are intro
duced by card through soma 'roper-in."
Having entered, you must either gamble or
fight. Sanded cards, dice loaded with quick
silver, poor drinks, will soon help you to get
rid Of all your money to a tune in short
meter with staccato passages. You wanted
to see. You saw. The low villains Of that
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, or your body will be thrown
bloody into the street OF dead into the East
River You ge along little further and find
The policy establishment. In that place you bet
m numbers. Betting on two numbers is called
! saddle betting on three numbers is called
gig" betting on four numbers is called
horse and there ara thousands bf our
young men leaping into that Saddle" and
mounting The gig" and behind that
| horse riding to perdtion. There is always
one kind Of sign on the door Exchange"
q 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 infinite enough.
- sr-fcl Z ntrah1 rvil M tal0
lust 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
ia his ears instead Of his nose, deals the pack
and winks III the unsuspscting traveller
providing free drinks all around-but in
gilded parlors and amid gorgeous surround
ings
Again, this sin works ruin by killing indus
try \ man used to reaping scores or hun
dreds or thousands OF dollars from the gaming
table will not be content with slow work Hs
win say: "What is the use Of trying TO make
these fifty dollars in my store when can get
five times that III half an hour down at
pnly'sY' You never knew a confirmed
gambler who was industrious. The men
given to this vice spend their time, not ac-
lively engaged in the game, in ldleness 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 light
ming to shatter the battery Of the philoso-
pher. The very first idea in gaming is at
war with all the industries Of society.
This crime is getting its lever under many
a mercantile house in our great cities, and
before long down win come the great eStab-
lishment, crushing reputation, home, COM
fort and immortal souls How il diverts and
sinks capital may be inferred from some
authentic statement before us. The ten gam
ing houses that once were authorized in Paris
passed through banks, yearly, three hundred
and twenty-five millions of francs, here
does all the money como tromY The whole
world is robbie Il What il most sad, there
are no consultations for the loss and suffering
entailed by gaming If men fail In lawful
business. God pities and society conimiser-
ates but where In the Bible or in society is
there any consolation for the gamblerf From
what tree OF the forest oozes there balm that
can soothe the gamester's heart? in that
bottle where God keeps the tears of His chit
dreh are there any tears of the gambler; DO
the winds that come 10 kiss the faded cheek
of sickness and to cool the heated brow Of
the laborer whisper hope and cheer 70 the
emaciated victim of the game Of hazards
when an honest man is in trouble he has
sympathy. "Poor fellow they say. But
do gamblers come TO weep at the agonies OF
the gambler?
In Northumberland was one of the finest
estates III England. Mr.. Porter owned it,
and in year gambled it all away. Having
lost the last acre Of the estate, be came
down from the saloon and got into his car
I,oo /, of11 pqr
riage and town house and playei. he threw
and lost. He started home, and in side
allev met friend from whom he borrowed
ten guiness: went back 70 the saloon and be-
fore a great while had won twenty thousand
pounds He del az lass a beggar in st.
Giles, How many gamblers felt sorry for
Mr.. Porter Who consoled him on the loss
of his estate, What gambler subscribed to
put G stone over the poor mans gravel Not
Onel
Furthermore, this sin is the source Of IN
cOunte dshOnesties. The game Of hazard
it.ef is often game Of cheat. How many
tricks and deceptions in the dealing OF the
cards The opponents hand IS Outlines
found out by fraud. Cards are marked 50
that they may be designated from the back.
Expert eamesters have their accomplices,
and one wink may decide theSams. The dice
have been found loaded with platina, so that
''doublets' como up every time. These dice
are introduced by the gamblers, unobserved
BIZ honest men who have come into play and
this accounts for the fact that ninety-nine
ont of hundred who gamble, however
wealthy they began at the end are found TO
be poor, miserable, ragged wretches, that
would not now be allowed to sit on the door
step of the house that they once owned. In
a gambling house in San Francisco young
man having just come from the mines de-
posted large sum upon the ace, and won
twenty-five thousand dollars. But the tide
turns. Intense excitement comes upon the
countenances Of ALL Slowly the cards went
forth. Every eye is fixed. Not a sound is
heard until the ace is revealed favorable to
the bank. There are shouts Of Foul"
"Foulf but thu keepers of the table produce
their pistols and the uproar ssenced and the
bank has won ninety-five thousand dollars.
Do you call this game Of chance! There is
no chance about it.
But these dishonesties in carrying on of
the game are nothing when compared with
the frauds which Are committed in order to
get money to go on with the nefariOus work.
Gambling with its greedy hand has snatched
away the widows mite and the portion OF
the orphans; has sold the daughters virtueto
get the means to continue the game; has
written the counterfeit signature, emptied
the bankers money vault and welded the
assassin's dagger There is no depth of mean
ness to which it will not stoop. There is no
cruelty at which it is appalled,. There is no
warning Of God that it will rot dare. Merci-
less. unappeasable fercer and wilder it
blinds, it hardens, 1t rends, it blasts, it
brushes, it damns IL has peopled our pris-
ons and lunatic asyiums. How many raii-
road agents and cashiers and trustees
of funds it has driven TO dis
grace, in generation ard suicide! Wit
ness years ago a cashier of a railroad who
stole one hundred and three thousand dol
lars to carry on bis gaming practices. Wit
ness forty thousand dollars stolen from a
Brook Ign 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 purposel
These are only illustrations on a large scale
of the robberies every day committed for
the purpose of carrying out the designs Of
gamblers. Hundreds of thousands Of dol
lars every year leak out without observa-
ton from the merchants till into the
gambling hell. A man in London keeping
one of these gambling houses boosted that
he had ruined no5leman day; but if all
the saloons Of this land were 70 speak out
they might utter a more infamous boast,