The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-05-29

aroused within, and though you may
bind him with cables, they would
part like thread, and though you fasten
him seven times round with chains,
they would snap like rusted wire; and
though you pilefhp in his path Heaven
high Bibles, tracts and sermons, and
on the top should see the cross Of the
Son of God, over them all the gambler
would leap like a roe over the rocks, on
his way to perdition.
| The whole world is robbed! What is
most sad, there are no consultations for
the loss and suffering entailed by gam
ing. If men fail in lawful business
God pities and society commiserates;
but where, in the Bible or society, is
there any consolation for the gambler?
From what tree of the forest oozes there
balm that can soothe the game
sters heart? In that bottle where
God keeps the tears of His children,
are there any tears of the gambler?
Do the winds that come to kiss the
faded cheek of sickness and to cool
the heated brow of the laborer whis-
per hope and cheer to the emaciated
victim of the game of hazard? When
an honest man is in trouble, he
has sympathy Poor fellow"
they say. But do gamblers
come to weep at the agonies
of the gambler? In Northumberland
was one of the finest estates in En-
gland. Mr.. Porter owned it, and in a
year gambled it all away. Having lost
the last acre of the estate, he came
down from the saloon and got into his
carriage; went back; put up his horses,
and carriage, and town house, and
played. He threw and lost. He started
for home and on side alley met friend
from whom he borrowed ten guineas;
went back to the saloon and before
great while, had won 100000 He died
at last beggar in st. Giles. How
many gamblers felt sorry for Mr.. Por-
ter? Who consoled him on the loss of
his estate? What gambler subscribed
to put stone over the poor mans
grave? Not one!
Furthermore. this sin is the source
of uncounted dishonesty. The game
of hazard itself is often cheat. How
many tricks and receptions in the deal
ing of the cards! The opponents hand
is oftimes found out by fraud. Cards
are marked so that they may be desig-
mated from the back. Expert
have their accomplices,
and one wink may decide the
game. The dice have been
found loaded with platina, so
that doublets come up every time.
These dice are introduced by the gam
blers unobserved by the honest men
who have come into the play, and this
accounts for the fact that 80 out Of a
100 who gamble, however wealthy
when they began, at the end are
found to be poor, miserable, hag-
gard wretches, that would not now
be allowed to Sit on the doorstep
If the house that they once owned. in
/ gaming house in San Francisco a
young man, having just come from the
mines, deposited large sum upon the
ice and won S22 900. But the tide |
;urns. Intense anxiety comes upon the |
of all. Slowly the cards
vent forth. Every eye is fixed. |
Not sound is heard, until the ace
s revealed favorable to the bank.
There are shouts of "Foul! foull' but
he keepers of the table produce
heir pistols and the oproar is silenced,
md the bank has won sos, 200. Do you
all this a game of chance? There is
10 chance about it. But these dis
lonesties in the carrying on of the
!ame are nothing when compared
With the frauds that are committed in
rider to get money to go on with the
lefarious work.
Gambling, with it's needy hand, has
matched away the widows mite and
he portion of the orphans; has sold
he daughters virtue to get the means
o continue the game; has written the
signature, emptied the
money vault, and WELD
ID the assassin's dagger. There
+ no depth of meanness to which it
will not stoop. There is no cruelty at
which it is appalled,. There is no
warming of God that it will not dare.
'1erciless, unappeasing, fiercer and
wilder it blinds, it hardens, it rends, it
blasts, it brushes, it damns. Have
nothing to do with the gamblers,
they gamble on large or small
scale.
Cast out these men from your COM
,any. Do not be intimate with them.
Always be polite. There is no demand
hat you ever sacrifice politn ess. A
roung man accosted Christian Quaker
With: ''Old chap, how did you make
Ill your money!" The Quaker replied:
BY dealing in an article that you
nayest deal in if thou wilt civility.'
Always be courteous, but at the same
line firm. Say mo" as if You meant
{. Have it understood in store, and
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