The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-08-06

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strength enough to gnaw through
a mans character. But there are
other transgressions that lift
themselves up to gigantic pro-
portions, and seize hold of a
man and bind him with throngs for
ever. There are some iniquities that
have such great emphasis of evil that
he who commits them may be said to
sin as with a cart rope. suppose you
know how they make a great rope.
The stuff out of which il is fashioned
is nothing but tow which you pull
apart without any exertion of your
fingers. This is spun into threads,
any of which you could easily snap,
but great many of these threads are
interwound-then you have a rope
strong enough to bind an OK, or hold a
ship in tempest. speak to you of the
sin of gambling. A cart rope in
strength is that sin, and yet wish
more especially to draw your atten-
out of which that mighty iniquity is
| twisted.
This crime is on the advance, so that
it is well not only that fathers, and
| brothers, and sons, be interested in
such discussion, but that wives, and
mothers, and sisters, and daughters
| look out lest their present home be
sacrificed, or their intended home be
blasted. No man, no woman, can
stand aloft from such a subject as this
and say: ut has no practical bearing
upon my life" for there may be in
short time in your history an expert
ence in which you will find that the
discussion involves three worlds
earth, Heaven, hell There are gam
bling establishments by the thousands.
There are about $500 professional
gamblers. Out of all the gambling es-
adjustments. how many of them do
you suppose profess to be honest? Ten.
Then ten protesting to be honest
because they are merely the ante
chamber to those that are acknowl-
edged fraudulent. There are first
class establishments. You step little
way out of Broadway, New York.
You go up the marble stairs. You
ring the bell. The liveried servant in
PRODUCES you. The walls are lavender
tinted. The mantels are of Vermont
marble. The pictures are 'Jephthah's
Daughter" and DOre's "Dante's and
Virgirs Frozen Region of He'll, ," most
appropriate selection, this last, for the
place. There is the roulette table, the
finest, costliest, most exquisite piece of
furniture in the United States There
is the banqueting room, where,
free of charge to the guests, you
may find the plate, and viands,
and wines, and cigars, sumptu-
Gus beyond parallel. Then you come
to the second-class gambling establish
ment. To it you are introduced by
card through some roper in" Hav-
ing entered, you must either gamble
or fight. Sanded cards, dice loaded
with quicksilver, poor drinks mixed
with more poor drinks, will soon help
you to get rid of all your money to a
tune in short meter with staccato pas
sages. You wanted to see. You saw.
The low Williams of that place watch
as you come in. Does not the panther.
squat in the grass, know a calf when
he sees it? Wrangle not for your rights
thrown bloody into the street, or dead
into the river.
Now, you acknowledge that is cart
rope of evil, but you want to know
what are the small threads out of
which it is made. There is, in many,
a disposition to hazard. They feel a
delight in walking near a precipice
because OF the sense of danger. There
are people who go upon Jungfrau, not
for the largeness of the prospect, but
for the feeling that they have of think
ing: What would happen if should
fall Off" There are persons who have
their blood flliped and accelerated by
skating very near an airhole. There |
are men who find positive delight in
driving within two inches of the edge |
of bridge. 1t is this disposition to |
hazard that finds development in gam |
ing practices.
Then there are others who 90 into |
this sin through sheer desire for gain |
1t is especially so with professional |
gamblers. They always keep cool |
They never drink enough to unbalance |
their Judgment They do not see the |
dice so much as they see the dollar be- |
yond the dice, and for that they watch |
as the spider in the web, looking as if /
dead until the fly passes. Thousands |
of young men in the hope of gain go /
into these practices. When a young /
man makes up his mind to live beyond |
his income, Satan has bought him |
out and out, and it is only question |
of time when the goods are 10 be de-
livered. The thing is done. You may
plant in the way all the batteries of
truth and righteousness-that man is
bound to go on. When a man makes
81 900 year and spends $1,000; when a
young man makes 81, 500 and spends
81, 200, all the harpies of darkness cry
out: ''Ha! ha, we have him." and they
have. How to get the extra $500 or
the extra $4,000 is. the question. He
says: Here is my friend who started
out the other day with but little