The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-05-28

WheeZy, tremulOuS and exhausted.
A young man, having suddenly inherited
large property, sits at the hazard tables
and takes up in a dice box the estate won by
a fathers lifetime sweat and shakes it and
losses it away. InteInperance soon stigma
tues its victim, kicking him out, slavering
fool, into the ditch, or sending him, with the
drunkard's hiecoughs. staggering up the
street where his family lives. But gambling
does not in that way expose its victims. The
gambler NAV be eaten up by the gamblers
passion, yet you only discover by the greed
in his eyes. the hardness of his features, the
nervous restlessness, the threadbare coat and
his embarrassed business. Yet he is on the
road to hell, and no preachers voice or
startling warning or Wife's entreaty can
make him stay for a moment his headlong
career. The Internal spell is on him, q giant
is aroused within, and though you 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 piled up in his path
heaven high Bibles, tracts and sermons, and
on the top should set the cross of the Son of
God over them oil tho gambler would leap,
like a roe over the rocks, on his way to per-
dition.
A man used to re aping scores of hundreds
OF dollars from the gaming table will not be
content with slow work. He will say,
"What is the use of my trying to make these
$50 in my store when l can get five times
that in half an hour down at Billy's?" You
mover knew a confirmed gambler who was
industrious. The men given to this vice
spend their time not actively engaged in the
game il idleness, Or intoxication, or sleep.
or in cOrruptinS new victims. This sin has
dulled the capenter's saw and cut the band
of the factory wheel, sunk the cargo, broken
the teeth of the farmers harrow and sent a
strange lightning to shatter the battery of
the philosopher. The very first idea in
gaming is at war with all the industries
of society. Any trade or occupation that
is of use is ennobling. The street sweeper
advances the interests Of society by the
cleanliness effected. Tho cat pays for the
fragments it eats by cleaning the house Of
vermin. The fly that takes the sweetness
from the dregS of the cup compromises by
purifying the air and keeping back the
pestilence. But the gambler gives not any,
thing for that which he takes. recall that
sentence. He does make a return, but it is
disgrace to the man he feeces, despair to his
heart, ruin to his business, anguish to his
wife, shame to his children and eternal vast
ing away to his soul. He pays in tears, and
blood, and agony, and darkness, and woe.
What dull work is blowing TO the farmer
when in the village saloon in one night
he makes and loses the value OF sum-
mer harvest! Who will want to sell
tape, and measure nankeen, and cut gar
ments, and weigh sugars, when in a nights
game he makes and loses and makes again
and loses again. profits of a season? John
bOrack was sent as mercantile agent from
Bremen to England and this country. After
two years his employers mistrustel that all
WAS not right He was defaulter for $751;
900. 1t was found that he had lost in Lom-
bard street, London, 100000; in Fulton
street, New York, $4,000. and in New Or
,priSn h1t aft
ward escaped and went into the gambling
profession. He died in a lunatic asylum.
This crime is getting its lever under many
mercantile house in our cities and before
long down will come the great establish
ment, crushing reputation, homo comfort
and immortal souls.
The whole world is robbed What is most
sad. there are no consultations for the loss
and suffering entailed by gaming. II 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 ofthe forest oozes
there @ balm that can sOOthe the gamester's
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 whisper hope and
cheer to the emaciated victim OF tho 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 aSonies of the gambler? In NoIthum-
btrIand was one OF tho finest estates in Eng
land. Mr.. Porter owned it and gambled it
Il Il 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 a side alley met a friend, from
whom he borrowed ten guineas. He went
back to the saloon, and before q great while
hal won e., 900. He died at last beggar
i'll St. Giles. How many gamblers felt sorry
for Mr.. Porter? Who consoled him on the
loss of his estate? What gambler subscribed
to put d stone over the poor mans grave?
No one. Furthermore, this sin is the
source of uncounted dishonesty. The
zane Of hazard itself is often cheat. How
many tricks and receptions in the dealing of
the cards! The opponents hand is ofttimes
found out by fraud. Cards are marked SO
tnat they may be designated from the back.
Expert gamesters have their accomplces
ANA one wink may decide the game. The
dice have been found loaded with platina,
50 that doublets come up every time. These
dice are irtr0duced by the gamblers unob-
served by tho honest men who have come
into the play, and this accounts for the fact
that ninety-nine out OF q hundred who gam
pie, however wealthy wien Iuey began, Ut
the end are found to be poor. miserable. bag
gard wretches, that would not now be al
lowed to sit on the doorstep OF the house
that they once owned.
Ina gaming house in San Francisco a
young man having just come from the mines
deposited q large sum upon the ace and won
S22 900 But the tide turns. Intense
anxiety comes upon the countenances of all.
! Slowly the cards went forth. Every eye is
fixed. Nota sound is heard until the ace is
revealed. favorable to the bank. There are
shouts of Foul Four but the keepers of
! the table produce their pistols, and the up
! roar is silenced, and the bank has won $685.
! 900. Do you call this a game of chance!
! There is no chance about it. Bat these
di+honestie5 in the carrying on Of the
game are nothing when compared
with the frauds that are committed
in order to get money to go on with the ne
iarious work. Gambling, with its needy
hand, has snatched away the widows mite
and the portion Of the orphans; has sold the
daughters virtue to get the means to con-
tuue the game. has written the counterfrit's
signature. emptied the bankers money vault
and welded the assassn's dagger. There is
no depth of meanness to which it will not
5toop. There is no cruelty at which it is ap-
palled. There is no warning Of God that il
will not dare. Merciles5, indispensable
Jercer and wilder, it blinds, it hardens. il
10 If bIaStG II cr1IShpC if 6amnc Have