Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-02-28


very idea Of the thing Is dishonest;
for Il processes TO best0W upon YOU 9
good for which You give no equivalent.
Il IL estimated that every day 10
Christendom $4,000, 900 passes from
hand 10 hand through gambling prac-
tices, and every year In Christendom,
Sl23. 0O0, 900 change hands In that way.
There are In this cluster OF cities about
800 confessed gambling establishments.
There are about $500 professional gam
blers. Out Of the 800 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 100 that are acknowled-
god fraudulent
They are first class gambling estab-
lishments. They 60 up the marble
stairs. You ring the bell. The
liveried servant introduces you. The
walls are lavender tinted. The mantels
are OF Vermont marble. The pictures
are "Jephthan's Daughter" and Dore's
"Dantas and Virgil's Frozen Region OF
Hell."a most appropriate selection,
this last, for the place. There Is the
roulette table, the finest, the c0stliest,
the most exquisite piece OF furniture In
the United States. There Is the BAN
quoting room where, free Of charge to
the guests you may find the plate and
viands and wines and cigars, sumptu-
Gus beyond parallel.
Then you come to the second class
gambling establishment. To 1t you are
introduced by Q 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
your money to tune in short metre
with staccato passages. You wanted to
see. You saw. The low villains OF the
place watch you as you come in. Does
not the panther, squat in the grass,
know calf when he sees it? Wrangle
not for your rights in that place oryour
body viii be thrown bloody into the
street, or dead into the East river.
You go along q little further and find
the policy establishment. In that place
you bet on numbers. Betting on two
numbers is called o Saddle" betting
on three numbers is called gig"
betting on four numbers is called q
"horse," and there are thousands o:
young men leaping into that Saddle"
and mounting that gig" and behind
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, man exchanges health, peace
and heaven, for loss Of health. loss Of
home, loss Of family. loss OF immortal
soul. Exchange sure enough and ind
mite enough.
A young man having suddenly heired
q large property, sits at the hazard
table and takes up in dice box the es-
tate won by q fathers lifetime sweat and
shakes it and tosses it away. Intemper-
ance soon stigmatizes its victim-kick-
ing him out, slavering fool, into the
ditch or sending him, with the drunk
ards hiccoughs. staggering up the
street where his family lives. But
gambling does not in that way expose
its victims. The gambler may be eaten
up by the gamblers 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 embarrassed business. Yet
he Is OIL the rod to hell and no preach
er's voice or startling writing or wife's
entreaty can make him stop for mo
ment his headlong career. The infer
nal spell Is on him; q giant is aroused
within: and though you bind him with
cables, they would part like thread; and
though you fasten him seven times
ronnd with chains they would snap like
rusted, wire; ard though you piled up in
his path heaven high Bibles, tracts and
sermons and on the top should set the
cross OF the Son Of God, over them Ill
the gambler would leap, like roo over
the rocks, on his way to perdition.
Again, this sin works ruin by killing
industry. A man used to reaping scores,
or hundreds, or. thousands Of dollars
from the gambling table will not be
content with slow work. He will say,
"what Is the use Of trying to make these
fifty dollars in my store when can get
five times that in half an hour down at
"Billy's?" You never knew confirm
ed gambler who was industrious. The
men given to this vice spend their time
not actively employed in the game in
idleness. 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 a strange lighting to
shatter the battery OF the philosopher.
The very first idea at gambling Is at
war with ali the industries Of society.
This crime is getting its lever under
many q mercantile house in our great
cities, sad before long down will come
the great establishment, crushing repu-
tation, home, comfort and immortal
souls. How it diverts and sinks capital
may be inferred from some authentic
statement before US. The ten gambling
houses that were authorized in Paris,
passed through the banks yearly $685.
DOC, 600 francs. Where does all the
money come from? The whole world Is
robbed. What Is most sad, there are
no consultations for the loss and suffer-
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