The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-08-18

Crock Island" or "New York Central"
and the rat, tat, tat, of the %auctioneer's
hammer, and the excitement OF making
Corners and getting up "pools," and
carrying stock, and a"break" from eighty
to seventy, and the excitement OF rushing
around in eurbstone brokerage, and the
sudden cries Of "Buyer three!" Buyer
ten" Take emf" "How many?" and the
making or losing OF $40, 900 by one opera
goes up the flight of stairs, amid business
offices, to the darkly curtained, wooden
suffered ROOM, gayly furnished inside,
and takes his place at the roulette or the
faro table. But I cannot tell all the pro-
cess by which men get into this evil. A
man went to New York. He was a Western
merchant. He went into a gaming
house on Park place. Before morning he
had lost all his money save 81. and he
moved around about with that dollar in his
hand, and after awhile, caught still more
powerfully under the Internal ~infatuation,
he came up and put down the dollar and
cried out until they heard him through the
saloon, zone thousand miles from home,
and my last dollar on the gaming table,"
Many years ago for sermonic purposes
and in company with the chief Of police OF
New York I visited one ofthe most brilliant
gambling houses in that city. It 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 midlife, we'll dressed-an the
work going on in silence, save the noise OF
the rattling "chips" on the gaming table
In one parlor and the revolving ball of the
roulette table in the other parlor. Some OF
these men, we were told, had served terms
In prison, some were shipwrecked bankers
and brokers and money dealers, aud some
were going their first rounds OF yice-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
looked up. They all had money in the
rapids, and I 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 q farthing In that pres
ence had he not been accompanied by the
police II he. had been supposed to be on a
Christian errand Of observation. Some Of
these men went bysprivate key, some went
in by careful Introduction, some were
taken IN by the patrons Oh tne estapilSu-
ment. The officer Of the law told me,
None gets in here except by police man
date or by some letter Of a patron" While
we were there a 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 their property and lost their
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 O man
dropped dead in one Of the clubhouses Of
London. His body was carried into the
clubhouse, aud the members Of the club
began Immediately to bet as to whether he
was dead or alive. and when 1t was pro-
posed to test the matter by bleeding him,
It was only hindered by the suggestion hat
it would be unfair to some Of the players.
In these gaming houses Of u cities men
have their property wrung away from them,
and then they go out, some OF them to
drown their grief in strong drink, some to
ply the counterfeiter's pen, and so restore
their fortunes, some resort to the suicides
revolver, but all going down, and that work
proceeds day by day and night by night.
'!That cart-rope,'N says some young man,
"has never been wound around my SOUL"
But have not some threads OF that cart
rope been twisted?
arraign before God the gift enterprises
of our cities, which have a tendency to
make this a nation Of gamblers. What
ever you get, young man, In such a place
as that, without giving a proper equiva-
lent, Is q robbery Of your own soul and a
robbery Of the community. Yet how we
are appalled, to see men who have failed
in other enterprises 60 into gift concerts,
where the chief attraction is not music,
but the prizes distributed among the au-
dience, or to sell books where the chief
attraction Is not the book, but the package
that goes with the book. Tobacco dealers
advertise that on a certain day they will
put money into their papers, so that
the purchaser Of this tobacco in Gin
cinnati or New York may unexpect-
eddy come upon a magnificent gratuity.
Boys hawking through the cars packages
containing nobody knows what, until you
open them and find they contain nothing.
Christian men with pictures IN their wall
gotten in a lottery, and the brain OF COM
munity taxed to a find out some new way
OF getting things without paying for them.
Oh young men, these al ethreads that make
the cart rope, and when a young man con-
sents to these practices he Is being bound
hand and foot by a habit which has already
destroyed "a great multitude that no man
can number"
Sometimes these gift enterprises are car
ried on In the name Of charity, and some OF
you remember at the close Of our civil war
how many gift enterprises were on foot,
the proceeds 70 60 to the orphans and
widows OF the soldiers and sailors. What
did the men who had charge Of those gift
widows2 Why, t1ov would have allowed
them to freeze to .uath upon their steps.
I have no faith in a charity which for the
sake OF relieving present suffering opens q
gaping jaw that has swallowed down 80
much ofthe virtue and good principle Of
the community. Young man, have nothing
to do with these things. They only sharpen
your appetite for games Of chance. Do one
Of two things-be honest or die.
I have accomplished my object II I put
you on the lookout. It is q great deal
easier to fall than 1t Is to get up again.
The trouble Is that when men begin to go
to say: "There's no use OF my trying to get
back. I've sacrificed my responsibility, I
CAM return" And they go on until they
are utterly destroyed. I tell you, my
friends, that God this moment, by His
Holy Spirit, can change your entire nature
80 that you will be q different man In a
minute. Your great w~ant-what Is it?
More salary2 Higher social position? No,
no. will tell you the great want OF every
man If he has not already obtained 1t.
It is the grace OF God. Are there any who
have fallen victims to the sin that I have
been reprehepdingP You are in o prison.
You rush against the wall Of this prison
and try to get out and you fail, and you
turn around and dash against the other