The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-10-25

gins, for that is gambling, or the effort
to get that for which you give no
equivalent, and gambling, whether on
large scale or small scale, ought to
be denounced of men as it will be ac-
cursed of God. If you have won so
cents or $1,000 as a wager, you had bet
ter get rid of it. Get rid of it right
away. Give it to some one who lost in
bet, or give it to some great reforma-
tory institution, or if you do not like
that, go down to the river and pitch it
off the docks. You cannot afford to
keep it. 1t will burn a hole in your
purse, it will burn a hole in your es-
tate, and you will lose all that-per-
haps ten thousand times more-per-
haps you will lose all. Gambling
blasts a man or it blasts his children.
Generally both and all.
What a spectacle when at Saratoga,
or at Long Branch, or at Brighton
Beach, or at Sheepshead Bay, the horses
start, and in flash fifty or a hundred
thousand dollars change hands! Null
titudes ruined by losing the bet, others
worse ruined by gaining the bet; for if
may be discouraged and quit, but if he
win the bet he is very apt to go straight
on to hell,
An intimate friend, a journalist, who
in the line of his profession investiga-
ted this evil, tells me that there are
three different kinds of betting at
horse races, and they are about equally
leprous; by auction pools" by
French mutuals," by what is called
''bookmaking' gambling, all bad,
all rotten with iniquity. There is one
word that needs to be written on the
brow of every pool seller as he sits de-
Quoting his } or per cent, and slyly
ringing up more tickets than were
sold on the winning horse-a word to
be written also on the brow of every
bookmaker who at extra inducement
scratches 4 horse off of the race, and
on the brow of every jockey who
slac&ens pace. that, according to agree
ment, another may win, and written
over every judges stand, and written
on every board of the surrounding
fences. That word is ''swindle"' Yet
thousands bet. Lawyers bet. Judges
of courts bet. Members of the legisla-
ture bet. Members of congress bet.
Professors of religion bet Teachers
and superintendent of Sunday schools,
l am told, bet. Ladies bet, not directly,
but through agents Yesterday and
every day they bet, they gain, they lose,
and this summer, while the parasols
swing and the hands clap, and the huz-
zas deafen, there will be a multitude
of people cajoled and deceived, and
cheated, who will at the races 60 neck
and neck, neck and neck to perdition.
Cultivate the horse. by all means; drive
him as fast as you desire, provided you
do not injure him or endanger your.
self or others; but be careful and dc
not harness the horse to the chariot of
sin. Do not throw your jewels of NOR
ality under the flying hoof Do not,
under the preteXt of improving the
horse, destroy a man. Do not have
your name put down in the ever-in-
creasing catalogue of those who are
ruined for both worlds by the dissipa-
tions of the American race course.
They say that an honest race course
is a straight track, and that a dis
honest race course is n crooked"
track-that is the parlance abroad; but
| tell you that every race track sur
rounded by betting men and betting
women and betting customs is a
straight track-I mean straight down!
Christ asked in one of his gospels: lis
not a man better than a Sheep l say,
yes, and he is better than all the
steeds that with lathered TANKS ever
shot around the ring at a race course.
That is a very poor job by which
man in order to get horse to come
out full length ahead of some other
racer, so lanes his own morals that he
comes out a whole length behind in
the race set before him.
Do you not realize the fact that there
is a mighty effort on all sides to-day tC
get money without earning it? That
is the curse of all the cities; it is the
curse of America-the effort to get
money without earning it. and as other
forms of stealing are not respecta bic,
they go into these gam bling practices.
l preach this sermon on square
old-fashioned honesty. have
said nothing against the horse, l
have said nothing against the turf.
have said everything against their
prostitution. Young men. you go into
straightforward industries and you
will have better livelihood, and you
will have larger permanent success
than you can ever get by a wager; but
you get in with some of the whisky.
rum-blotched crew which see going
down on the boulevards, though
never bet. l will risk this wager, five
million to nothing. you will be de-
bauched and damned.
Cultivate the horse, own him if you
can afford to own him, test all The
speed he has. if be has any speed in
him; but be careful which way you
drive. You cannot always tell what
direction a man is driving in by the
way his horses head. In my boy
hood we rode three miles every
Sabbath morning to the country
church. We were drawn by two
fine horses. NY father drove.
He knew them, and they knew
him. They were friends. Sometimes
they loved to go rapidly, and he did
not interfere with their happiness. He
had all of US in the wagon with him.
He drove to the country church. The
fact is, that for eighty-two years he
drove in the same direction. The roam
span l speak of here was long ago I'M
hitched, and the driver put up his
whip in the wagon house never
again to take it down; but in
those good old times l learned some
thing that | never forgot, that man