Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1895-03-28

against the button, and the banker won.
He tried again and again, until he lost
some three or four dollars to win that
button, and then went to bed. The
banker had now several persons betting
small bets on the game, and won some
eight or ten dollars, and there was quite a
noise and hustle going on.
'The young man, who had quit and
! gone to bed, got up; he felt strong pro-
pensity to win all He began betting on
| the game, and in short time lost the
whole of his $500, trying to win button!
For that was all he could have won, as the
man had at first no money except what
| he had won from the young man. The
young man WAS obliged to make his way
home without his health being benfited,
and without his money"
ga colored fireman on board steam
boat running from st. Louis to New
Orleans, having lost all his money at
poker with his companions, staked his
clothing, and being still unfortunate,
pledged his own freedom for small
amount. Losing this, the bets were
doubled, and he finally, at one desperate
hazard, ventured his own value as a slave,
and laid down his own free papers to
represent the stake. He lost, suffered his
certificates to be destroyed, and was
actually sold by the winner to slave
dealer, who hesitated not to take him at
a small discount upon his asserted value"
There is fearful fascination about the
evil, and no man should risk himself by
even so much as learning the tricks
merely for pastime. The all-too-c com
mon practice of card playing in the home
for amusement should never be allowed.
Many protesting Christians argue that it
is safer to teach their boys to play cards at
home, for then they will not care to visit
gaming places to practice this art mys-
FERROUS. w hat inexcusable foolishness I!
What father would teach his boy to
swear at home, thus hoping to forestal
his swearing abroad? What mother
would teach her son to drink at home,
and assist him in the cultivation of a
healthy appetite for liquor, thus hoping
to prevent his getting drunk abroad?
But this would be just as wise as to teach
the boys cards. 1t stands to reason that
home, will sooner or later want to dis
play his ability abroad And he will do
it, too. He may not bet at first. But lool,
out. There is danger ahead. One taste
of victory in gambling, and he is gone.
1t is startling fact that there are very
few reformed gamblers.
There is nothing says Steele, "that
faa : l,a of Ia,
card table, and those cutting passions
which naturally attend them"
This particular game is by far the most
common and potent for evil. Perhaps
ninetenths of all the gambling in satan S
dens is conducted with cards. So true is
this, that the very words "poker" and
''euchrea seem almost synonymous with
hell. | would not exclude from this COM
parison the modern fashionable game OF
progressive euchre, often engaged i'll by
prominent and popular church members
The Rev. Sam Jones, though harsh
was not far wrong when he styled this
new diversion progressive damnation." "
Considering, to place it mildly, that
card playing is an Improbable use of
time, that it is associated with OF her evils,
and that it leads to gambling, no re-
spectacle man should play cards, much
less gentlemen and ladies who claim to
be followers of the meek and lowly Naz-
arene.
The following incident is said by Rev.
VIM. B. Tappan, of Boston, to rest on
good authority:
"The desperate depravity to which
gambling reduces its votaries is strik-
ingly illustrated in the case of three
gamblers here related. They determined
on game which was doubtless meant to
show their contempt of all things sacred
in this world and the next Accordingly,
they enter at night the charnel- house,
and take from thence corpse that very
day placed in the vault. They bear the
body into the cathedral, pass within
the chancel, light up one of the candles
before the altar, seat the grim corpse by
The communion table, and, gathering
around the table themselves, proceed tc
engage in game of cards. Shameless
sacrilegious doings, that none but gam
bers could think of without shuddering
''Inicss above himself he can
Erect himself, how poor a thing is man.