Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-08-06
Once the Habit Is Contracted II Is Hard
to Break Away-There is but One Way
10 BE Cured and That Is by the Grace
of God-Hope For the Prodigal.

| thongs forever. There are some iniqui-
ties that have such great emphasis of
evil that he who commits them may be
said to sin as with a cart rope. l sup
pose you know how they make a great
rope. The stuff out Of which it is fash
ioned 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 a
great many Of these threads are inter
wound-then you have a rope strong
enough to bind an OK or hold a ship in
a tempest.
l speak to you Of the sin Of gambling.
\ cart rope in strength is that sin, and
yet wish more especially to draw your
attention to the small threads Of infu-
ence out Of which that mighty iniquity
is twisted. This crime is on the ad-
vance, so that it is well not only that
fathers and brothers and sons be inter
ested 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,
car stand aloof from such subject as
this and say, 1T has no practical bear
ing upon my life" for there may be in
a short time in your history an expert
ence in which you will find that the
discussion involved three worlds-earth,
heaven. hell There are gambling estab-
lshments by the thousands.
Thousands Of Gamblers.
There are about ., 800 professional
gamblers. Out Of all the gambling es-
tablishments how many Of them do you
suppose profess to be honest? Ten-
these ten protesting to be honest be-
cause they are merely the antechamber
to those that are acknowledged fraudu-
lent. There are first class establish
ments. You step a little way out Of
Broadway, New York. You 60 up the
marble stairs. You ring the bell The
liyeried servant introduces you. The
walls are lavender tinted. The mantels
are Of Vermont marble. The pictures
are "Jephthah's Daughter" and Dore's
Dante" and Virgil's Frozen Region
Of Hell, " most appropriate selection,
this last, for the place. There is the
roulette table, the finest, costliest, most
exquisite piece Of furniture in the Unit
ed States. There is the banqueting room,
where, free of charge TO the guests, you
may find the plate and viands and wines
and cigars sumptuous beyond parallel
Then you come to the second class
gambling establishment To it you are
introduced by a card through some
roper in " Having 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
stacoato 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 a
calf when she 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.
An Appropriate Door.
You 90 along little farther and find
the policy establishment. In that place
Won bet on numbers. Betting on two
numbers is called a saddle; betting
on three numbers is called gig" bet
ting on four numbers is called a
horse" and there are thousands Of
our Young men leaping into that sad
dle' and mounting that gig" and be-
hind that "horse" riding to perdition.
There is always one kind Of sign on the
door, Exchange, a most appropriate
title for the door. for there in that
room 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 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 disposi-
ton 20 hazard They feel delight III
walking near a precipice because of the
sense of danger There are people who
90 upon Jung au, not for the largeness
of the prospect, but for the feeling that
they have of thinking, "What would
happen if | should fall Off" There are
persons who have their blood filliped
and accelerated by skating very near an
airhole. There are men who find a
positive delight in driving within two
inches Of the edge OF bridge IL is this
disposition TO hazard that finds develop
ment in gaming practices. Here are
/ $500 | NAY stake them. If | stake
them, | nay lose them, but may win
$4,000. Whichever way it turns have
the excitement. Shuttle the cards. LOST
Heart thumps. Head dizzy. At it again
Just to crafty this desire for hazard.
The Desire For Gain.
Then there are others who go into
this sin through sheer desire for gain.
Il 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 beyond the
dice. and for that they watch as the
spider in the web, looking as II dead
until the fly passes. Thousands OF young
men in the hope of gain go into these
nractices. They say; "Well, my salary
Is not enough to allow this luxury:
don't get enough from my store, office
or shop. ought to have finer apart,
ments. ought to have better wines
ought to have more richly favored ci-
ears | ought to be able to entertain my
friends more extensively. Iwon'tstand
this any longer. can with one bril-
liant stroke make fortune. Now, here
goes, principle or no principle, heaven