St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1891-04-18

minds; or of the Magdalen asylums,
where the lost one OF the street
comes to bathe the Saviour's feet with
her tears, and wipe them with the hairs
of her head-confding in the pardon of
out sin cast the frst stone at her." I
need not speak of the institutions for
the blind. the lame, the deaf and the
dumb, for the incurables, the widow,
the orphan and the outcast; or of the
thousand-armed machinery that sends
streaming down the reservoirs the clear,
bright, sparkling, God-given water that
rushes through our aqueducts, and
dashes out of the hydrants, and tosses
up in our fountains, and Kisses in our
steam engines, and showers out the con-
fagration, and sprinkles from the bap-
tismal font of our churches, and with
silver note, and golden sparkle, and
crystalline chime, says to hundreds of
thousands of our population, in the au-
thentic words of Him who said: 81 will;
be thou clean!''
course of sermons on the Ten Plaques
of these three cities lest some stupid
man might say am depreciating the
place of my residence. I speak to you
to-day concerning the plague of gam
bling. Every man and woman in this
house ought to be interested in this
theme.
Some years ago, when an association
for the suppression of gambling was
organized, an agent of the associa-
ton came to prominent citizen and
asked him to patronize the society. He
said: s.No, [ can have no interest
in such an organization. I am
in nowise affected by that evil. :"
At that very time his son, who
was his partner in business, was one of
the heaviest players in Hearne's famous
gaming establishment. Another refused
his patronage On the same ground, not
knowing that his first book-keeper,
though receiving a salary of only thou
sand dollars, was losing from fifty to
one hundred dollars per night. The
president of railroad company refused
to patronize the institutions. saying:
''That society is good for the defense of
merchants, but we railroad people are
not injured by this evil;'' not knowing
that, at that very time, two of his con-
ductors were spending three nights of
each week at faro tables in New York.
Directly or indirectly this evil strikes at
the whole world.
Gambling is the risking of something
more or less valuable in the hope Of
winning more than you hazard The
instruments of gaming may differ, but
the principle is the same. The shut
fling and dealing cards, however, full of
temptation, is not gaming, unless stakes
are put up; while, on the other hand,
gambling may be carried on without
cards or dice, or billiards or ten-pin
alley. The man who bets ON horses, on
elections, on battles-the man who
deals in fancy stocks, or conducts a
business which hazards extra capital,
or goes into transactions without foun-
dation, but dependent upon what men
call luck" is a. gambler, whatever
you expect to get from your neigh
Dor without offering an equivalent
in money or time or slxilIs is either
the product of theft or gaming. Lottery
tickets and lottery policies come into
the same category. Fairs for the
founding Of hospitals, schools and
churches, conducted on the rafting
system, come under the same denomi-
nation. Do not, therefore, associate
gambling necessarily with any instru-
ment, or game, or time or place, or
think the principle depends upon
whether you pay for glass of wine or
one hundred shares of railroad stock.
Whether you patronize 'sauction pools,
French mutuals'' or '.book-making,
whether you employ faro or billiards,
rondo or keno, cards or bagatelle, the
very idea of the thing is dishonest: for
it processes to bestow upon you good
for which you give no equivalent
It is estimated that every day in
Christendom thirty million dollars pass
from hand to hand through gambling
practices, and every year in Christen-
dom one hundred and twenty-three
billion one hundred million dollars
change hands in that way. There are
in this cluster of cities about eight hun
dred confessed gambling establish
ments. There are about thirty-fve
thousand professional gamblers. Out
of the eight hundred gambling estab-
lishments, how many of them do you
suppose profess to be honest? Ten.
These ten protesting to be honest be-
cause they are merely the ante-chamber
to the seven hundred and ninety that are
acknowledged fraudulent. There are
frst-class gambling establishments.
You go up the marble stairs. You ring
the bell. The 1iveried servant intro
duces you. The walls are lavender
tinted. The mantels are of Vermont
marble. The pictures are 'sJephthahs
Daughter" and Dore's .Dante and Vir-
gil's Frozen Region of He'll, a most APP
propriate 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 seeond-class
gambling establishment. Toit you are
introduced by card through some
'sroper-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 in. Does not the panther, squat
in the grass. know a calf when he