The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-08-02

This sin works very insidlOuSly. Other
sins sound the drum. ana faunt the flag.
and gather their recruits with wild huZza,
but this marches It's procession of pale
victims in dead of night, la silence, and
when they drop into the grave there is
not so much sound as the click of dice.
on, how many have gone down under it,
Look at those men who were once highly
prospered. Now their forehead is licked
by a 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 wrigglng their indescriba-
bic horror until you turn away and hide
your face and ask God TO help you to for
get il. The most of this evil is unadVer-
tised. The community does not hear of
it. Men defrauded in gaming establish
ments are not fools enough TO tel Of it,
once in awhile, however. there is an ex-
posture, as when in Boston the police
swooped upon a gaming establishment and
found in it the representatives of ali class
IS Of citizens, from the first merchants on
State street to the low Ann street gamb-
Ter; as when Bullock the cashier of the
Central railroad of Georgia was found to
have stolen one hundred and three thou
sand dollars for the purpose OF carrying
on gaming practices; as when a young
man in one of the savings banks Of Brook
Ign, many years ago, was found to have
stolen forty thousand dollars to carry on
gaming practices; as when a man connect
ed with Wall street insurance company
was found to have stolen one hundred
and eighty thousand dollars to carry on
his gaming practices. But that is excep-
tional
Generally the money leaks silently from
the merchants till into the gamester's
wallet. ] 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 in New York are in
proximity to Wall street? Men go into
the excitement of stock gambling, and
from that they plunge into the gambling
houses, as, when men are intoxicated
they 90 into liquor saloon to get more
drink The agitation that is witnessed in
the stock market when the chair an
nounces the word Northwestern" or
Fort Wayne" or Rock Island" or New
York Central" and the rat tat! tat! of
the auctoneer's hammer and the excite
ment of making corners" and getting up
pools and carrying stock" and a
break from eighty to seventy, and the
excitement of rushing around I'm curb
stone brokerage and the sudden cries of
Buyer three" Buyer tenr Take
emf How Many?" and the making or
losing of ten thousand dollars by one OPP
GRAFTON, units a man to 20 home, and so
ness offices, to the darkly- curtained, wood
en-shuttered room, gaily furnished inside,
and takes his place at the roulette or the
faro table. But l cannot tell all the
process by which men get into this evil.
man went to New York. He was
western merchant He went into a gam
ing house on Park Place. Before morn
ing he had lost all his money save one
dollar, 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: lone thou
sand 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, l visited one of the 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 whis-
pering Of the officer with the guard at the
door, We were admitted into the hall and
thence into the parlors around one table
nnding eight or ten men in mid-lfe well
dressed-all the work going on in silence
save the noise of the rafting Chips" on
the gamng-table in one parlor and the
revolving bali of the roulette table in the
other parlor. Some of these men. we were
told, had served terms in prison; some
were ship-wrecked bankers and brokers
and money dealers, and some were going
their first rounds Of yice-but all intent
upon the table. as large or small fortunes
moved up ana down before them. Oh!
there was something awfully solemn in
the silence-the intense gaze, the Suppress
ed emotions of the players No one look
ed up. They all had money in the ran
ids, and l have no doubt some saw. as
they sat there. horses and carriages. and
hon md luNq
rushing down into the vortex A mans
life would not have been worth a farthing
In that presence had he not been accom-
panied by the police, If he had been sup
posed to be on Christian
errand Of observation. Some 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 We're 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 pass
ed out. While we stood there men lost
their property and lost their souls. on.
AlNlIllNh0 iilhNtt NOT once IN an the history
of that gaming house has there been one
word Of sympathy uttered for the losers
az the game Sir Horace Walpole said
that a man dropped dead IN one OF the
club houses of London; his body was car
ried into the club house, and the members
Of the club began Immediately TO
bet as to whether he we're dead
or alive. and when Il was
! proposed 90 test the matter by bleeding
him, 1t was only hindercd 10y the sugges.
non that II would be- unfair to some of the
players In these gaming houses of our
cltes, men have their property wrune
away from them. and then they 20 out.
some of them 20 drown their grief In
strong drink, some 20 ply tine counterfeit
! or's pen. and so restore their fortunes
some resort to the suicides revolver. but
all going down, and that work proceed
day by day, and night 10y night. That
/ cart rope says some young man. "has
never been wound around my soul" But
have not some threads Of that cart rome
] been twisted?
I arralgn before God the gift enterprises
| OF our cities. which have a tendency 10
! make this nation OF gamblers what
/ ever you gct young man. in such "a place
| nf that without giving a proper oauh,a.
| lent BE- "a robbery of your own soul. and "A
/ robbery OF The community Yet how We