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

! inghouse; this pulling down of 100
yards of goods and selling a remnant;
this always awaiting upon somebody
else, when l could put 500 on the ace
and pick up $1,000"
This sin works very insidiouslv.
/ Other sins sound the drum. and flaunt
the flag. and gather their recruits with
wild huzza. but this marches its pro-
cessiOn of pale victims in dead of night.
in silence. and when they drop into
the grave there is not so much sound
as the click of dice. Oh. how many
have gone down under it. Look at
those men who were once highly pros
pered. Now their forehead is licked
by tongue of flame that will never
go out In their souls are plunged the
beaks which will never be lifted.
Swing open the door of that mans
heart and you see a coil of adders
wriggling their indescribable horror
until you turn away and hide
your face and ask God to help
you to forget it. The most of this
evil is unadvertised. The community
does not hear of it. Men defrauded in
gaming establishments are not fools
enough to tell of it Once in a while,
however, there is an exposure, as when
in Boston the police swooped upon a
gaming establishment and found in
it the representatives of all classes of
citizens, from the first merchants of
State street to the low Ann street gam
bier; as when Bullock, the cashier of
the Central railroad of Georgia. was
found to have stolen sos, 900 for the
purpose of carrying on gaming prac-
tees; as when young man in one of
the savings banks of Brooklyn, many
years ago, was found to have stolen
$4,000 to carry on gaming practices;
as when a man connected with a Wall
street insurance company was found
to have stolen $50, 900 to carry on his
gaming practices. But that is excep-
tional.
Generally the money leaks silently
from the merchants till into the game
ster's wallet l believe that one of the
main pipes leading to this sewer of
iniquity is the excitement of business
life. Is it not a significant fact that
the majority of the day gambling
houses of New York are in proximity
to Wall street? Men go into the ex-
element of stock gambling, and from
that they plunge into the gambling
houses, as,vhen men are excited, they
go into liquor saloon TO get more
drink.
Many years ago for sermonic pur-
poses and in company with the chief
of police of New York l visited one of
the most brilliant gambling houses in
that city. 1t was night, and as we
came up in front all seemed dark.
The blinds were down; the door was
guarded; but after a whispering of
the officer with the guard at the door
we were admitted into the hall, and
thence into the parlors, around one
table finding eight or ten men in mid
life, we'll dressed-all the work going
on in silence, save the noise of the
rafting ''chips" on the gaming table
in one parlor. and the revolving ball
of the roulette table in the other par
Tor. Some of these men, we were
told, had served terms in prison;
some were shipwrecked bankers
and brokers and money-dealers,
and some were going their first
rounds of vice-but all intent upon the
table, as large or small fortunes moved
up and down before them. Oh, there
was something awfully solemn in the
silence-the intense gaze, the sup
pressed emotions of the player. No
one looked up. They all had money in
the rapids, and have no doubt some
saw, as they sat there, horses and car
riages, and houses and lands, and
home and family rushing down into
the vortex. A mans life would not
have been worth a farthing in that
presence had he not been accompanied
by the police, if he had been supposed
to be on Christian errand of observa-
ton. Seine of these men went by
private key, some went in by
careful introduction, some were
taken in by the patrons of the
establishment. The officer of the
law told me: None get in here except
by police mandate, or by some letter
of patron" While we were there
young man came in, put his money
down on the roulette table and lost;
put more money down on the roulette
table and lost; put more money down
on the roulette table and lost; then
feeling in his pockets for more money,
finding none, in severe silence he
turned his back upon the scene and
passed out. While we stood there
men lost there property and lost there
souls. Oh, merciless place! Not once
in all the history of that gaming house
has there been one word of sympathy
uttered for the losers at the game.
Sir Horace Walpole said that man
dropped dead in one of the club houses
of London; his body was carried into
the club house, and the members of
the club began Immediately to bet as
to whether he were dead or alive, and
when It was proposed to test the mat
ter by bleeding him, it was only
hindered by the suggestion that it
would be unfair to some of the play |
ers! In these gaming houses of our
cities, men have their property |
wrung away from them and then |