The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-08-13
THE GAMBLERS SOUL.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Tells How It
Becomes Enslaved.
The Disposition to Hazard and What 1t
Leads tO-Gambling an InsIdIOus
Sin that Grags Its Devotee
Downward TO PerdItion.

The following sermon by Rev. T. De-
Witt Talmage is devoted to warming
men against the insidious sin of gam
bling. 1t is based on the text:
Woe unto them that sin as it were with car:
I rupe.-Isaiah Y. Is.
There are some iniquities that only
nibble at the heart. After lifetime
Of their work, the man still stands up
right, respected and honOred. These
vermin have not strength enough to
gnaw through a mans character. But
there are other transgressions that lift
themselves up TO gigantic proportions,
and seize hold of man and bind him
| with throngs forever. There are some
iniquities that have such great en-
| phasis of evil that he who commits
| them may be SAID to sin as with
a cart rope. l suppose you know how
/ they make a great rope. The stuff out
! of which it 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 ship in tempest. Ispeak
| 10 you of the ain of gambling. A cart
I rope in strength is that sin, and yet
wish more especially to draw your
attention to the small threads of in
I fIuence out Of which that mighty in
| iQulty is twisted. This crime is on the
advance, so that it is we'll not only
! that fathers, and brothers, and sons,
| be interested in such a 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 aloOf from
such d subject rs this and say: 1T has
no practical bearing upon my life;' for
there may be for a short time in your
history an experience in which you will
find that the discussion involved three
worlds-earth, Heaven, hell. There are
gambling csta blishments by the thou
sands. There are about ), 800 profess
siOnal gamblers. Out of all the gam
bling establishments, how many of
them do you suppose profess to
be honest? Ten. Then ten pro-
Tossing TO be honest because
they are merely the ante-cham6er
to those that are acknowledged fraud
ulent. There are first-class establish
ments. You step little way out of
broadway, New York. You go up the
marble stairs. You ring the bell. The
llveried servant introduces you. The
walls are lavender tinted. The man
tells are of Vermont marble. The pic
lures are .'Jephthah's Daughter" and
Dore's "Dante's and VirgiIs Frozen
Region of He'll" a most appropriate Sc
lection, this last, for the place. There
is the roulette table, the finest, cost
lest, 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 CT
CARS, sumptous beyond parallel.
Then you come TO the sec
ond-class gambling establishment.
10 it you are introduced by a card
through some roper in Having en-
tered, you must either gamble or fight.
Sanded cards, dice loaded with quicksil-
yer. 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 passages. You wanted
to see. You saw. The low villains of
that place watch you as you come in.
Does not the panther, squat in the
grass, know calf when he sees it?
Wrangle not for your rights in that
place, or your body will be thrown
bloody into the street, or dead into the
river.
You go along a little further and
find the policy establishment. In that
place you bet on numbers. Betting on
two numbers is called saddle bet
ting on three numbers is called gig"
betting on four numbers is called a
horse and there are thousanes of
young men leaping into that saddle"
and mounting that gig" and behind
that horse" riding to pcrdition. There
is ALWAYS one kind of sign on the door
Exchanges" most appropriate title
for the door, for there, in that room, a
man exchanges health, peace and
Heaven for loss of health, loss of
home, loss of family, loss of immortal !
soul. Exchange sure enough and in
finite enough.
Now, Won acknowledge that is cart |
rope of evil, but you want to know |
what are the small threads out of |
which Il is made. There is, in many,
a disposition to hazard. They feel /
delight in walking near the 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 |
thinking, What would happen if l |
should fall off?" There are persons |
who have their blood flliped and &C
celebrated by skating very near an air
hole. There arc men who find posi- /
tive delight in driving within two |
inches OF the edge of a bridge. 1t is
this disposition to hazard that finds l
development in gaming practices.
Here are $500. 1 may stake them. If |
1 stake them 1 may lose them; but L
NAV win s.. 600. Whichever it turns / |
have the excitement. Shuttle the
cards. Lost. Heart thumps. Head |
dizzy. At il again-just to crafty this
desire for hazard.
Then there are others who go into
this sin through sheer desire for gain.
1t is especially so with professional I
gamblers. They always keep cool.
They never drink enough to ambulance
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. They say: well,
my salary IS not enough TO allow this
luxury. 1 don't get enough from my