Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-04-13

burglar, and the false key will soon touch
the store lock This is an incendiary, aud
before morning there will be light on the
sky and cry Of "Fire firep This is an as
sassu, and tomorrow morning there will
be a dead body in one of the vacant lots
During the daytime these villains In our
cities lounge about, some asleep and some
awake, but when the third watch of the
night arrives, their eye keen, their brain
cool, their arm strong, their foot fleet to fly
or pursue, they are ready.
Many of these poor creatures were brought
up in that way. They were born in :, thieves
garnet. Their childish toy was a burglars
dark lantern. The first thing they remem-
Der was their mother bandaging the brow
of their father, struck by the police club.
They began by robbing boys pockets, and
now they have come to dig the underground
passage to the cellar of the bank, and are
preparing to blast the gold vault.
just SO long as there are neglected chill
dren of the street, just so long we will have
these desperadoes. Some one, wishing to
| make good Christian point and to quote
passage of Scripture expecting to get
| Scriptural passage in answer, said to one
! of these poor lads, cast out and wretChed,
when your father and your mother for
sake you, who then will take you upt' and
the boy said, THE perlice, the perlicer'
In the midnight, gambling does it's worst
work. What though the hours be slipping
away, and though the wife be waiting in
the cherries home? Stir up the fire.
Bring on more drinks. Put up more
stakes That commercial house that only
! little while ago put out sign of copartner-
| ship will this season be wrecked on gam
bler's table There will be many money
till that will spring leak member OF
congress pambled with member elect and
won $4,000 The old way of getting liv-
ing is so slow. The old way of getting a
fortune is 50 stupid. Come let us toss up
and see who shall have it. And so the
work goes on, from the wheeling wretchcs
pitching pennies in a rum grocery up to the
millionaire gambler in the stock market.
THE GAMBLERS HOURS.
In the midnight hour, pass down the
streets of our American cities, and you hear
the click of the dice and the sharp, keen tap
of the poolroom ticker. At these places
merchant princes dismount, and legislators
tired of making laws, take a respite in
breaking them. All classes of people are
robbed by this crime, the importer of foreign
silks and the dealer of Chatham street
pocket handkerchiefs. The clerks of the
store take a hand after the shutters are put
up, and the officers of the court while away
their time while the jury is out.
In Baden, when that city was the
greatest of all gambling places on earth, it
was no unusual thing the next morning in
the woods around that city to find the sus-
pended bodies of suicides. Whatever be the
splendor of the surroundings there is no ex-
cuse for this crime. The thunders of eter-
nal destruction roll in the deep rumble OF
Il, l. oil
come out to join the long procession of sin
all the drums Of woe beat the dead march
of a thousand souls. In one year in the city oil
New York there were s. 900 900 sacrificed at
the gaming table.
Perhaps some of your friends have been
smitten of this sin Perhaps some of you
have been smitten by it. Perhaps there
may be Il stranger in the house this morn
ing come from some of the hotels. Look
out for those agents of iniquity who tarry
around about the hotels and ask you
Would you like to see the city," Yes
Have you ever seen that splendid building
uptown" No. Then the villain will un
dertake to show you what he calls the
lions" and the "elephants," and after
young man, through morbid curiosity o.
through badness of soul, has seen thu
lions" and the elephants" he will be OF
men who move around the hotels with sleel
hats--always sleek hats-and patronizin!
air, and unaccountable interest about you
welfare and entertainment. You are a foo
if you cannot see through it. They wan
your money.
In Chestnut street, Philadelphia, while
! was living in that city, an incident occurred
r which was familiar to us there. In Chest
! nut street a young man went into a gam
, bling saloon, lost all his property, thel
/ blew his brains out, and before the bloc,
was washed from the floor by the maid tn
, comrades were shut1ling cards again. You
a see, there is more mercy in the highwaymal
for the belated traveller on whose body h
. heaps the stones, there is more mercy il
, the frost for the flower it kills, there i
| more mercy in the hurricane that shiver
, the steamer on the Long Island coast thai
there is mercy in the heart of gambler 70
his victim.
DRUNKENNESS IN HIGH PLACES.
In the midnight hour, also, drunkenness
: does its worst. The drinking will be re
/ spectacle at s o'clock in the evening, lit
tie flushed at Q, talkative and Carrulous a
10, at II blasphcmouS, at l.! the hat falls OF
q and the man falls to the lOOr asking 70
i, more drink. StreWn through the drinkin;
. saloons Of the city, fathers, brothers. hus
bands, sons, as good as you are by nature
e perhaps better.
In the high circles of society it is hushe,
up. A merchant prince, il he gets noisy ant
a uncomfortable, is taken by his fellow revel
!, ers, who try to get him to bed, or take hin
home, where he falls fiat in the entry. ID
q not wake up the children. They have ha
disgrace enough. DO not let them know il
q Hush it up. But sometimes it cannot b
a hushcd up-when the rum touches tn
!, brain and the man becomes thorough
:, frenZied.
y. Oh if the rum touches the brain, 20
v cannot hush it up. You do not see tn
- worst. In the midnight meetings grea
is multitude have been saved. We want
# few hundred Christian men and women t
{, come down from the highest circles of So
p ciety to toll amid these wand ering and de.
If titute ones and kindle up a light in tn
p dark alley, even the gadness of heaven.
10 Do not go from your well filed table
70 with the idea that pious talk is going I
! stop the gnawing of an empty stomach {
- to warm stockingless feet. Take breat