Los Angeles herald., 1892-12-04

The requisite for membership in the as
sociation is the signing Of the following
antigambling pledge:
Recognizing the alarming prevalence and the
steady growth of the gaming habit, and believ-
| Ing that the vice is one which saps individual
| morality, desolates homes and tends to subvert
! the integrity of the state,
We the undersigned, hereby pledge our
| sacred honor that from the date of signature
! hereto we will abstain from gambling in every
| form, whether BY cards, dice or any other
| game of chance, and we will use our influence
| 10 induce others to do the same.
And to this pledge and its faithful fulfllment
we hereby pledge cur sacred word of honor, in
voking upon cur promise the blessing of the
Supreme Being, who knows no chance and &c
whom ali human hearts are an open book.
Thousands OF men, women and children
throughout the country have signed this.
"Are there any who have won money at
gambling in the association"
No. All losers" and Mr. Quinn smiled.
''They come to me after they have lost.
Many professional gamblers call, however,
some of them to pick up points. When
they come in a scoffing mood | open their
eyes, tell you. Most of them can beat at
their own games.
Several Pennsylvania railroad employ.
ees who gamble have been in here. | think
have cured them 1t would pay that rail.
road to frank me over its lines and give me
$4,000 year to lecture to its employees.
Last year in this country the embezzle-
ments footed up ST., 000,000, and nine-tenths
of it was due to gambling.
Cards within themselves are harmless
things, but we must judge things often in
connection with their associations. man
must play his first game before he becomes
h1 s1,ct n l. avid CT fol E-
his first glass of liquor. Men mutually
agree to go into gaming place or the
board of trade to win each others money,
but the mutuality makes it none the less
crime.
"The thousands have swlnd1ed in my
time could not have swindled had they
not known how to play cards.
"Gamblers form syndicates and are pro
tected by the authorities. They pay part
of what they steal for protection. The
| writer, the mechanic, the artisan, the law.
| yer, the clergyman-all can show some
reason for being in life, but with the gam
| bier this is impossible. He has no purpose
| for existing but to wreck the confidence
men have in each other. Astronomy made
Newton, art Angelo, law helped to make
Burke and Webster, traffic Peter Cooper
and Peabody, the press Greeley and Ray
mond, but gambling makes thieves
"This vice will clutch the brightest
minds of the age and reduce and degrade
their brains to the level of those of ascoun.
drel
"a gambler carries cinder where his
heart should be. He throws his drowning
brother bar of lead for life preserver.
You should as soon think of rattling the
handles of your dead baby's coffin for mu-
sic as to have pack of cards.
"The obligation of police departments to
enforce the law is distinct. Where it Is
not done there is completely or incompe.
teIce. When was boy my father used
to send me to the mill with sack of corn,
and the miller always took out a share for
mis- toll. Now I want to ask you if the au.
thorities allow the gamblers to grind suck
ers' money through their mill without
getting their toll?"