The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-10-26
THE EVILS OF BETTING
REV. DR, PHILLIPS PREAoHES IN
 CxSIYELY AGAINST THE VICE.

f9tpch AaEu iu
 The Rev. Dr. Phillips preached a practical and tenchant discourse on the
 Evils of Betting" to a large congrega- ton in the Church of the Redeemer last evening. He based his sermon on
 unto them, let me now put forth rid
 dle unto you; if ye can declare it me
 within the seven days of the feast
 and find it out, then I will give you
 changes of raiment; but if ye cannot
 declare 1t me, then shall ye give me
 thirty linen garments and thirty changes of raiment."
 This is one of the oldest bets on rec
 ord. Though it is in the Bible it is not there to indicate that 1t has the divine sanction; the character of Samson is not one that is held up for our admir- ation or emulation. But, the evil that
 men do lives after them" Vicious hab- | it's and customs survive with wonder ful pertnacity, The custom of betting is one of these; all the more mische- | vious because many otherwise good men profess to see no harm in it. It seems
 to be a great temptation-one that the average man can hardly resist--to att tempt to prove statements, to establish ones reputation for courage, for gen eral wisdom, for special knowledge, or
 the spirit of prophecy by putting up stake Men appear to believe that bet indicates confidence, familiarity
 with the order of the universe, a cor rectness of judgment which cannot be proved in any other way I say this is ] one of the evils that survives. It
 spreads among all classes, 1t Is present
 on almost all occasions. There is a re- cent cartoon representing two sports men falling from a collapsed balloon;
 as they sail down one says to the other:
 T will bet you dollar I strike the
 ground first.' That's not exaggera- i tion; the caricaturist has hit upon a 1 great, vicious fact in human life. I
 remember, on return passage from l Europe, there was a rollicSing com
 pany of American commercial travel ! lers on board-not that these are sin ners above all others in Galilee-but 1 they were full of vitality and not much l given to meditation or reading, They 1 bet on everything in the heavens s above, the ship beneath, and the waters { under the ship. All day long their 1 books were out pools were formed, and
 hundreds of dollars changed hands. ] As we neared New York harbor they
 fell to betting about the pilot the color 1 of his hair, the newspaper he would { have in his pocket, and which foot he I would first put on deck; and they called { it all harmless sport; was it? killing l time, how much has q thoughtful man
 right to kill in his short life on the I earth? I have chosen this theme at { this time because the papers are just
 now full of the accounts of bets on the
 coming election. They are reported as
 matters of course, recorded like any { other news, as if of great importance l to the public. The odds offered in fa-
 vor of one or the other candidate are quoted, counted as straws indicating
 the result; and with great glee 1t is declared that the speeches and litera- 1 ture used in the boasted campaign of education" have had little effect upon | the betting" Many people, who would
 not bet on anything else, evidently
 think it g. perfectly harmless diversion
 to bet on an election. But what is set- l tied by this process? It Is used as if I it were final and unanswerable argu- nent; as if 1t showed the strength of ones convictions and his willingness {, to sacrifice for truth to close a discus
 sion with the challenge. what will you | hot rTliie.5 xr ha hof Tor ba t1
 with a fight, though there may be some l question of that, but what has been l settled? Here is the great evil in rac- ] ing and all similar contests MT 1 Beecher preaching on pool-seling. once said: Tt Is we'll to improve the breed l of horses, but we cannot afford to feed them with young men" He uttered a ! most significant truth. One of the chief adornments of most race-tracks is the moral skeletons of young men
 slain by the betting evil College
 games suffer immeasurably from the
 same vicious accompaniment. What greener laurel could Yale add to her
 other splendid triumphs than by leading
 a reform movement, and announcing:
 No betting on our athletic field" One
 of the common forms of betting popu- lar among people who cannot quite shake off their early teachings is to say: T will give-dollars to any char ity you may name, and you shall give dollars to any charity I may name"
 Alas, sweet charity! But the principle
 is the same, and the arrangement has
 the added viciousness of an attempt to
 salve ones conscience with the notion
 that his money is doing good. That
 was not the reason the money was put up, it was risked to gratify vanity in
 an attempt to prove themselves right. It is a singular perversity of human
 nature by which men always call these
 "debts of honor" And they are very punctilious about paying them when perhaps their tailors and washerwomen find it very hard to collect their bills.
 They are rather debts of dishonor' ,
 They show a willingness to give or take
 something for nothing; they encourage
 men to live by their wits; they are the
 gateway to professional gambling and
 all kindred villainies. Betting is a sur-
 vival of the principle of the duel and
 the physical contest in settlement of
 differences. This is proved by the fact
 that bets are seldom made, except by
 professional sportsmen, unless men are excited and on the verge of anger then
 unable to convince by reasoning they