The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-03-18
Notice also the effect Of the crime upon

Notice also the effect OF the crime upon
domestic happiness It has sent its ruthless
plowshare through hundreds Of families, un-
til the wife sat in rags, and the daughters
were disgraced, and the sons grew up to the
same Infamous practices or took short cut
to destruction across the murderer's scaffold.
Home has lost all charms for the gambler.
How tame are the children's caresses and q
wife's devotion to the gambler! How drearily
the fire burns on the domestic hearth! There
must be louder laughter, and something to
win and something to lose; an excitement to
drive the heart faster and flip the blood
and fire the imagination. No home, however
bright, can keep back the gamester. The
sweet call of love bounds back from his iron
soul, and all the endearments are consumed
in the flames Of his passion. Tho family
Bible will 60 after all other treasures are lost,
and if bis crown in haven were put into his
hand he would cry: Here goes ole more
game, my boysl On this one throw /
stake my crown in heaven" A young
man in London, on coming Of age,
received q fortune Of one hundred aud
twenty thousand dollars, and, through gam
bling, in three years was thrown on his
mother for support. An only son went to
southern city; he was rich, intellectual and
elegant in manners. His parents gave him
on his departure from home their last bless
hattered him. They lured him to the gam
ing table, and let him win almost every time
for a good while and patted him on the
back and said, First rat, player" But full
ly in their grasp they heecad him, and his
thirty thousand dollars were lost. Last Of
all he put up his watch and lost that. Then
he began to think of his home and his old
father and mother, and wrote thus:
my Beloved Parents-You will doubtless
feel momentary joy at the reception Of this
letter from the child Of your BOSOM on
whom you have lavished all the favors OF
your declining years But should feeling
when you should have received this from
ME, cherish it not. I have fallen deep
never to riser Those gray hairs that l
should have honored and protected shall
bring down with sorrow to the grave. will
not curse my destroyer, but oh! may God
avenge the wrongs and impositions practissd
upon the unwary in q way that shall best
please him. This, my dear parents, is the
last letter you will ever receive from me.
humbly pray your forgiveness. 1t is my
dying prayer. Long before you have re-
ceived this letter from me the cold grave
will have closed upon me forever. Life to
not, suffer the shame of having ruined you.
Forget and forgive is the dying prayer Of
your unfortunate son."
The old father came to the postoffice, got
the letter and fell to the floor. They thought
he was dead at first; but they brushed back
the white hair from his brow and famed
him. He had only faintei. wish he had
been dead, for what is life worth to father
alter his son is destroyed? When things 60
wrong at gaming table they shout: Foul!
Foul!' Over all the gaming tables OF the
world I cry out: Foul foul! Infinitely
FOUL"
Shall sketch the history Of tho gambler?
Lured by bad company he finds his way
into place where honest men ought never
to 20. BE sits down to his first game, but
only for pastime and the desire Of bsirG
thought sociable. TIE players deal out
the cards. They unconseiously play into
Satan's hands, who takes all the tricks and
both the players souls for crumps-he being
sharper at any game. A slight stake Is
put up just to add interest to the play. Game
after game Is played. Larger stakes aud
still larger. They begin to move nervously
fash, until now they who win and they who
lose, fired alike with passion, sit with set
jaws, and compressed lips, and clinched fists
and eyes like fire balls that seem starting
from their sockets to see the final turn be-
fore it comes; If losing, pale with envy and
tremulous with unuttered oaths cast back
red hot upon the heart-or, winning, with
hysteric laugh-"Ha, ha! have it! have
itr'
A few years have passed and lie is only the
wreck Of man. Seating himself at the game
ere he throws the first card, he stakes the
last relic of his wife, and the marriage ring
which sealed the solemn VOWS between them.
The game is lost, and staggering back IN eX.
haustion he dreams. The bright hours CT
the past mock his agony, and in his dreams
fiends with eyes Of fire ana tongue OF name
circle about him with joined hands to dance
aud sing their orgies with hellish chorus,
chanting "Hail brotherp kissing his ciammy
forehead until their loathsome locks, toWing
with serpents crawl into his bosom ana SINK
their sharp fangs and suck up his mes
blood, and coiling around his heart plnca h
with chills ani shuddars uautterable.
Take warning! You are no stronger IMAM
tens of thousands who have by this pr:actics
been overthrown. No young man IN our
cities can escape being tempted. Beware OF
the first beginnings! This road is down
grade, and every Instant increases the mo-
mentum. Launch not upon this trcacherous
sea. Split hulks strew the beach. Eyerlast-
ing storms howl up and down, tossing ua'
wary crafts into the Hellgate. speak %
what have seen with my own eyes. hay
looked OH into tha ABYSS, and l have seen
the foamingr and the Kissing, and tho whirl.
ing of the horrid deep in which the mangled
victims writhed, one upon another, and
struggled, strangled, blaspbemad and died.
the death stare OF eternal despair upon their
countenances' as the water gurgled over
them.
To gamblers deathbed there comes no
hope. He will probably die alone. His for.
mer associates come not nigh his dwelling.
When the hour comes his miserable soul will
60 out of miserable life into a miserable
eternity. As his poer remains pass the house
where he was ruined, old companions may
look out moment and say, "There goes tho
old carcass-dead at last, " but they will not
get no from the table. Let him down now
into his grave. Plant no tree to cast its shade
there, for the long, deep, eternal gloom that
settles there is shadow enough. Plant no
tsforget-me-nop or eglantines around the
spot, for flowers were not made to grow on
such blasted heath. Visit it not in the sum
shine, for that would be mockery but in the
dismal night, when no stars are out and ths
spirits of darkness come down horssd on ting
wind, then visit the grave Of the gamblerI