The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-04-12

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 there are neglected chill
dren of the street, just SO long we viii have
these desperadoes. Some one, wishing to
make good Christian point and to quote
passage of Scripture, expecting to get a
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 perlicel'
In the midnight gambling does its worst
work What though the hours be slipping
away, and though the wife be waiting in
the cherries homer Stir up the fire.
Bring on more drinks. Put up more
stakes. That commercial house that only
q little while ago put out sign Of copartner-
ship will this season be wrecked on a gam
bler's table. There will be many money
till that will spring leak. A member of
congress gambled with member elect and
won $4,000. The old way of getting a liv-
ing is so slow. The old way of getting
fortune is so stupid. Come, let us toss up
and see who shall have it. And so the
work goes on, from the wheeling wretches
pitching pennies in rum grocery up to the
millionaire gambler in the stock market.
THE GAMBLEh HOOkS.
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-B 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
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 a thousand souls. In one year in the city of
New York there were s. ,O0O, 600 sacrificed at
the gaming table.
perhaps some or your friends have been
smitten of this sin. Perhaps some of you
have been smitten by it. Perhaps there
may he n 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,
"Woud you like to see the city," Yes.
"Have you ever seen that splendid building
uptown2" No. Then the villain will un-
dertake TO show you what he calls the
Lions" and the elephants" and after a
young man, through morbid curiosity or
a. q Il 4 h
Lions" and he 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 unaccountable interest about your
welfare and entertainment. You are fool
If you cannot see through it. They want
your money.
In Chestnut street, Philadelphia, while l
was living in that city, an incident occurred
which was familiar to US there In Chest
nut street a young man went into gam
bling saloon, lost all his property, then
blew his brains out, and before the blood
was washed from the floor BY the maid the
comrades were shutting cards again. You
see, there Is 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 it kills, there is
more mercy in the hurricane that shivers
the steamer on the Long Island coast than
there is mercy in the heart of a gambler for
his victim.
DRUNKENNESS IN HIGH PLACES.
In the midnight hour, also, drunkenness
does its worst. The drinking will be re-
spectacle at o'clock in the evening, lit
tie flushed at 9, talkative and garrulous at
10, at II blasphemous, at u 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 il is hushed
up. A merchant prince, if he gets noisy and
uncomfortable, is taken by his fellow revel-
ers, who try TO get him to bed, OF 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 up. 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 great
multitude have been saved. We want
few hundred Christian men and women to
come down from the highest circles of so
ciety to toll amid these wandering and des-
titute ones, and kindle up a light in the
dark alley. even the gladness of heaven.
Do not go from your well filled 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 rs well as take
prayer. There il a great deal of common
sense in what the poor woman said TO the
city missionary when he was telling her
how she ought to love God and serve him.
"Oh, " said she, IF you were as poor and
cold as | am and as hungry, you could
think Of nothing elser'
a great deal Of what is called Christian
work goes for nothing for the simple rea-
son it Is not practical, as after the battle of
Antietam a man got out Of an ambulance
with bag of tracts, and he went distribut-
ing the tracts, and George Stuart, one Of
the best Christian men in this country, said
to him: What are you distributing tracts
for now2 There are 600 men bleeding TO
death Bind up their wounds and then
distribute the tracts"
COMMON SENSE CHRISTIAN WORK.
We want more common sense in Chris
tian 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 dur
ing the last war went into hospital with
tracts, and coming to the bed of a man
whose legs had been amputated gave him
tract on the sin OF dancingl / rejoice be-
fore God that never are sympathetic words
uttered never a Drayer ofTereo never "a