The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1893-04-27

this season be wrecked on a gamblers table
4! There will be many money TIL that VII
spring leak. A Member OF Congress;
| gembled with a Member elect and wor
I $4,000. The old way of getting living is
| so slow. The old way of getting fortune 1:
| 81 stupid. Come, let us toss up and see wac
| shall have it. And SO the work goes on,
from the wheeling wretche5 pitching pen
| MES in 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 poolroon ticker. At these places mer-
chant princes dis mount, and legislators tired
| OF making laws, take respite in breaking
! them. All classes OF people are robbed by
! this crime the importer OF foreign silks and
| the dealer IN Chatham street pocket hand
kercaiefs. The CLERKS OF the store take a
| hand after the shutters are put up, aud the
| officers of 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 sus-
! pended bodies of suicides. Whatever be the
| splendor of the surroundings, there is no ex-
| cusa for this crime rne thu1der5 of eter
nal destruction roll in the deep rumble OF
that gambling teupin alley, and as men
| come out ID 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 5000, 900 sac
| rificed at the gaming table.
Perhaps some Of your FRIENDS nave oeen
| smitten of this sin. Perhaps some OF you
| have been smitten BY it. Perhaps there may
be a stranger in the house this morning
come from some OF the hotels LOOK out Tor
| those agents Of iniquity who larry around
about the hotels ana ASK you wv ould you'hke
| to see the city?' Yes, "Ravs YOU ever seen
| that splendid building uptown No. Then
the villain will undertake to snow you what
| he calls the lions and the elephants"
and after young man, through morbid
| curiosity or through badness of soul, has
seen the sfions" AMI the elephants" he will
be on ENCHANTED ground. LOOK out Tor
| these men who move around the hotels with
| sleek hats-always sleek hats-and patron
| izing air and unaccountable interest about
your welfare and entertainment. You are
a 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 hoor by the maid the com.
! rades were shutting cards again. You see
! there is more mercy in the highway man lot
| the belatei traveller on whose Doiy he heaps
, the stones; there is more mercy IN the frost
| for the flower that it kills; there Is more
mercy ia the hurricane that shlvers the
| steamer on the Long Island coast than there
| IS mercy in the heart OF a gambler for his
victim.
| In the midnight hour also, drunkenness
| does its worst. The drinking will be re-
;pectable at o'clock in ths evening, little
| flushed at g. laxative and garrulous at III.
| 1t II blaspnemous, at II the hat falls off and
| ;he man tails to the foo" asking for more
| drink. Strewn through the drinking
| laloons OF the city--fathers. brothers.
husbands, sons as good as you are BY nature,
| perhaps better.
In the higa circles OF society it is hushed
| up. A merchant prince. if he gets noisy
mi uncomfortable, is taken by mis- fellow
| jewellers, who try to get him to bed, OF take
| aim home, where he falls fat in the entry. Do
lot wake up the children. They have had
| iisgrace enough. Do not let them know it.
| Hush it up. But sometimes it cannot be
| lushel up-when the rum touches the brain
Ind the man becomes thoroughly frenzie1.
| Oh, if the rum touches the brain, you cam
| lot hush it up. You do rot sea the worst.
| In the midnight meetings great multitude
have been saved. We want a few hundred
| Christian men and women to come down
| from the highest circles of society to toll
|
! Iindle up light in the dark alley, even the
| badness of heaven.
, Do not 90 from your well filed tables with
| The idea tnat plous talk is gong to stop the
| ynawing OF an empty stomach or to warm
| tocl1ingiess feet. Take bread. take raiment,
! Jake medicine as we'll as take prayer. There
| IS a great deal of common sense IN what the
,oor woman said to the city missionary
! whan he was telling her how she ought to
| owe God and serve Him. "Oll' said she,
| ''if you were as poor and cold as am, and
| IS hungry, you could think OF nothing else"
A great deal OF what is called Christian
| WORK goes for nothing for the simple reason
It is not practical, as after the battle of
| Antietan man got out OF an ambulance
| with a bag Of tracts, aud he went distribut.
M the tracts, and George Stuart, one OF
| the best Christian men in tnis country, said
10 him; "What are you distributing tracts
or now? There are 1910 men bleeding to
death. Bind up their wounds, and then dis
tribute the tracts
| 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, during
the war, went into a hospital with tracts.
and coming to the bed OF a man whose legs
mad been amputated, gave him tract on
| the sin OF dancingl | rejoica before God
| that never are sympathetic words uttered,
never prayer offered, never Christian
| almsgiving INDUCED in but it is blessed.
| There is place in Swift sriand, [ have
/ been told, where the utterancs of one word
! will bring back score of echoes, and have
TO tell you this morning that sympathetic
word, kind word, generous word, a help
ful word uttered in the dark place of the
town will bring back ten thousand echoes
| from all the thrones o. heaven.
Are there in this assembage this morning