The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-04-11


won $120,OO0. The old way of getting a
living is SO slow. The old way of getting a
fortune is so stupid. Come let us toss up
and see vino shall have it. And so the
work goes on, from the wheeling wretches
pitching pennies in a rum grocery up to the
millionaire gambler in the stock market.
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 q
respite in breaking them: Al classes of
people arc robbed by this crime, the inn
porter of foreign silks and the dealer in
Chatham street pocket handkerchiefs. The
clerks of the store take hand after the
shutters are put up, and the officers or the
court while away their time while the jury
is out. In Baden-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 suspended bodies of suicides. VIVA t.
ever be the splendor of the surroundings,
there is no excuse for this crime. The
thunders of eternal destruction roll In the
deep rumble of that gambling tenpin alley,
and as men come out to join the long
procession of sin, all the drums of woe beat
the dead-march of thousand souls. In
was $1,OOO,OOO 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 stranger in
the house this morning who came from
some of the hotels. Look out for those
agents of inquity 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 undertake to show you what
he calls. the lions and the
ttn1nnhnntSo and after
man. through morbid curiosity
or through badness of soul. has seen the
lions and the elephants he will be on
enchanted ground. Look out for these men
who move around the hotels with sleek hats
always sleek hats--and patrOniZing air,
and unaccountabe interest about your wei
fare and entertainment. You are afool ii you
cannot see through it. They want your
money In Chestnut street, Philadelphia,
while ] WAS living Ill that city, an incident
occurred which was familiar TO us there.
In Chestnut street young man went into
then blew his brains out, and before the
blood was washed from the floor by the
maid, the comrades were shuiillng cards
again You see there is no more mercy in
the highwayman for the belated traveller
on whose body he heaps the stones. there
is more mercy in the frost for the flower
that it kills, there is more mercy in the
hurricane that shivers the steamer on the
Long Island coast, than there is mercy III
the heart of the gambler for his victim.
In the midnight hour, also, drunkenness
does its worst. The drinker will be respcc-
table ut s o'clock in the evening, a little
flushed Mt g. talking and garrulous at 10,
at II blasphemous at II the hat falls off
and the man falls to the floor asking for
more drink. Strewn through the drinking
saloons of the city, fathers, brothers, hUs-
bands, sons, as good as you are by nature,
perhaps better.
In the high circles of society it is hushed
up. A merchant prince, if he gets noisy and
uncomfortable, is taken by his fellow rcyel-
ers who try to get him to bed, or take him
home, where he falls fiat in the entry Do
not wake up the children. They have had
disgrace enough. Do not let them know it,
Hush it NJ. But sometimes it cannot be
hushed up. when the rum touches the brain
and the man becomes thoroughly frenZied
Oh, if the rum touches the BRAIN you
cannot hush it up You do not see the
worst In the midnight meetings a great
multitude have been saved. We want Il few
hundred Christian men and women to
come down from the highest circles Of So
cietv to toll amid these wandering and des-
titute ones, and kndle I'D Il light in the
dark alley, even the gladness Of heaven:
Do not go from your welllilled tables
with the idea that .pious talk is going to
stop the gnawing of an empty stomach or
to warm stockingless feet. Take bread,
take raiment, take medicine as well "a
take prayer: There is a great deal of com-
mon sense in what thFnpooI woman sad
llo ne nlH cif sn1 ~ ought to lo>; (. o. n0 K
Him. ooh" said she. eff you were as poor
md cold az am, and as hungry you could
think of nothing else.
A great deal of what is called Christian
work goes for nothing for the simple rp3-
ION that it is not practical as aftsr the battie
of Antietam Il man got out of an ambu-
lance with bag of tracts and he went
the tracts. and George Stuart,
one of the best Christian men III TINS coun-
trv. said ii him: What are you distribute
inc tracts for now? There are three thous-
and men bleeding to death. Bind up their
wounds and then distribute the tracts
We want more common sense III Chris
tan work, taking the bread of this life In
one hand and the bread of the next life
in the other hand No such inapt work as
that done by the Christian man who during
the last war, went into a hospital with
tracts, and coming to the bed OF man
whose legs had been amputatcd, gave him
n tract on the sin of dancing! L reJolce be-
fore God that never are sympathetic words
uttered never Il prayer offered, never Il
Christian almsgiving INDUCED i'll but 1t is
blessed.
There is a place in Switzerland, | have
been told where the utter0nce OF one word
will bring back score Of echoes; and /
have to tell you TINS morning that sym
athletic word, IL kind word, Il generous
word. a helpful word uttered in the dark
places of the town will bring back tea thou
sand echoes from all the thrones of heaven.
Are there in this asscmhlage this morning
those who know by experience the TRACE
dies of midnight in town! | am not here
TO thrust you back with one harsh word.
Take the bandage from your bruised soul,
and put on it the soothing salve OF Chrl$ts
gospel and of Gods compassion. Many
have come / see others coming to God this
tired of the sinful life. Cry up the
news to heaven. Set all the bells ringing,
Spread the banquet under the arches. Let
The crowned heads come down aud sit at
the Jubilee. | tell you there is more de
light i'll heaven over one man that gets re-
formed by the grace OF God Than over
ninety and nine that ever got oil the
track | could give You the history III i
minute of one of the best friends l ever
had Outside of my own family never
had Il better friend. lie welcomed me TO iny
home at the west. He was of splendid per-
sonal appearance. and he had an ardor OF
soul and warmth OF affection that made
me love him like a brother. ! saw men
coming out of the saloons and gambling
helIs. and they surrounded my Trend, anu
they took him at the weak point, his social
nature. and | saw him going down, ana
had a fair talk with him--tor never SeI
saw a man you could not talk Win OH Tue
subject of his habits. IT you talked WIN
Inn in the right way. | said to him, WHY
don't you give UP your bad haplts ana
l,.,na Il ('hriSIiani remember now