News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-02-26

reservoirs lil6 GEAR, bright, SpdIAulS
God given water that ruShes through
our aqueducts and dashes out OF the
hydrants, and losses up in our tount-
aims, and Kisses in our steam engines.
and showers out the contlagration, and
sprinkles from the baptisnal font OF
our churches; and with silver note
and golden sparkle, and crystalline
chime, says to hundreds of thousands
If our population, in the authentic
words of him who said, Il will: be thou
elean!"
All this | premise in opening this
course of sermons on the ten plaques
Of these three cities, lest some stupid
man might say l am depreciating the
place of my residence. speak to you
today concerning the plague Of gam
bling. Every man and woman in this
house ought to be interested in this
theme.
THE PLAGUE OF GAMBLING.
Some years ago, when an association
for the suppression of gambling was or
ganized, an agent of the association
came to prominent citizen and asked
him to patronize the association. He
said, No, | have no interest in such
an organization. l am in no wise af-
fected by that evil" At that very time
his son, who was his partner in bust
ness, was one of the heaviest players in
Hearnes famous gambling establish
age on the same ground, not knowing
that his first boozkeeper, though re-
ceiving q salary of only q thousand dol
lars. was losing from fifty to one Inn
dred dollars per night. The president
of a railroad company refused to pat
ronize the institution, saying, That
society is good for the defense of mer-
chants. but we railroad people are not
injured by this evil, /" not knowing that
at that very time two of his conductors
were spending three nights of each
week at faro tables in New York. Di-
rectly 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 shutting
and dealing cards, however full of
temptation, is not gambling unless
stakes are put up; while, on the other
hand, gambling may be carried on with
out cards or dice, or billiards or ten
T,,,+ he
on elections, on battles-the man who
deals in fancy" stocks, or conducts a
business which hazards extra capital, or
goes into transactions without founda
ton, but dependent upon what men
call luck" is Il 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 OF. gaming.
Lottery tickets and lottery policies
come into the same category. Fairs for
the founding of hospitals, schools and
churches conducted on the rafting sys-
tenn come under the same denomina-
ton. Do not, therefore, associate gam
bling necessarily with any instrument
or game or time or place or think the
principle depends upon whether you
play for glass of wine or one hundred
shares of railroad stock. Whether you
patronize auction pools" French
mutuals" or book making" whether
you employ faro or billiards, rondo and
keno, cards or bagatelle, the very idea
of the thing is dishonest, for it pro-
fesses to bestow upon you a good for
which you give no equivalent
EIGHTY MILLION DOLLARS EVERY DAY.
1t is estimated that every day in
Christendom eighty 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
hundred confessed gambling establish
mentS. There are about three thou
sand five hundred professional gam
blers. Out of the eight hundred gam
bling establishments, how many of them
10 you suppose profess to be honest?
Ten. These ten profess to be honest
because they are merely the ante
chamber to the seven hundred and
ninety that are acknowledged fraudu-
lent.
There are first class gambling estab-
lishments. You go up the marble
stairs. You ring the bell. The liver
led servant introduces you. The walls
are lavender tinted. The mantels are
Of Vermont marble. The pictures are
''Jephthah's Daughter" and Dore's
''Dante's and VirgiIs Frozen Region of
Helr'-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 banquet
ing room where, free of charge to the
guests, you may find the plate and vi
ands and wines and cigars sumptuous
beyond parallel
Then you come to the second class
gambling establishment To it you are
by 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 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, or dead into the
East river.
You go along little further and find
the policy establishment. In that place
you bet on numbers. Betting on two
is called a saddle" betting
on three numbers is called gig" bet
ting on four numbers is called a
''horse," and there are thousands of
our young men leaping into that sad
die" and mounting that gig, and be-
hind that 'horse, riding to perdition.
There is always one kind of sign on the
door" Exchange" a 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 in
finite enough.
MEN CAN GAMBLE WHERE THEY LIKE.
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
smoking cabin, where the
bloated wretch with rings in his ears