The National tribune., 1897-08-05

hEN. l.. LIE w II AIIliAGE. ~ ~
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 rope strong enough to bind an OK,
Or hold ship in tempest.
AS A CART-RoPE Is STRENGTH.
I speak to you Of the sin of gambling.
A cart-rope in strength is.that sin, and yet
wish more especially TO draw your attention
to the small threads of influence 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 in
terested 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 aloof from such a
subject as this and say: 1t has no prac
tical bearing upon my life.
There is, in many, disposition to hazard
They feel delight in walking near a preci-
pice because Of the sense of danger There
are people who go upon Junglrau, not for
the largeness of the prospect, but for the
would happen if | should fall off," There
are persons who have their blood filliped
and accelerated by skating very near an air
hole.
1t is this disposition to hazard that finds
development in gaming practices. Here are
$500. l may stake them. If l stake them
/ may lose them; but l may win $1,000.
Whichever way it turns have the excite
ment Shuttle the cards. Lost! Heart
thumps. Head dizzy. At it again-just to
crafty this desire for hazard.
Then there are others who go into this sin
| through sheer desire for gain. 1t is especi-
ally so with professional gamblers They
always keep cool They do not see the dee
SO much as they see the dollar beyond the
dice, and for that they watch as the spider
in the web. Thousands of young men in
the hope Of gain 60 into these practices.
They say:
We'll, my salary is not enough TO allow
| this luxury. l don't get enough from my
store, Office, or shop ought to have finer
apartments. ought to have better wines.
| ought to have more richly favored cigars.
/ ought to be able TO entertein my friends
more extensively. l won't stand this any
longer / can with one brilliant stroke
make fortune. Now, here goes principle
or no principle, heaven or hell. Who cares ?'
LIVING BEYOND ONES INCOME.
When 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 to be delivered.
! The thing is done. You may plant in the
way all the batteries of truth and righteous
ness, that man is bound TO 90 on. When a
man makes 81 900 a year and spends 81 200,
all the harpies of darkness cry out: Ha
hal" we have him." and they have. How
to get the extra $500 or the extra $1,000 is
the question. He says:
Here is my friend who started out the
| other day with but little money, and in one
night, SO great was his luck, he rolled up
| hundreds and thousands of dollars. Ii he
got il, why not /? 1t is such dull work,
this adding up Of long lines of figures in the
counting house; this pulling down of a
hundred yards of goods and selling a REM
nant; this always waiting upon somebody
else, when couId put 500 on the ace and
| pick up q thousand"
This sin works very insidiOusly. Other
sins sound the drum, and faunt the flag,
and gather their recruits with wild huzza,
but this marches its procession Of pale vic
Tins 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 Mt
those men who were once highly prospered
Now their forehead is licked by tongue of
fame 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 coil OF ladders wriygling
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 ir, n while