The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-09-09

Then there are others who go into
this sin through sheer desire for gain. |
1t 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 be-
yond the dice, and for that they watch
as the spider in the web, looking US if
dead until the fly passes. Thousands
of young men in the hope Of gain go
into these practices. They say: well,
my salary is not enough to allow this
luxury. | don't get enough from my
store, Office or shop. l ought to have
finer apartments. | ought to have bet
ter wines. l ought to have more rich
ly-favored cigars. | ought to be able
to entertain my friends more expen-
slvely. l won't stand this any longer.
l can, with one brilliant stroke, make
fortune. Now, here goes, principle
or no principle, Heaven or hell. Who
cares?" When a young man makes up
his mind to live beyond his in
come, Satan has bought him out and
out, and it is only a 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
righteOusness-tha man is bound to
go on. When man makes $1,000
year and spends $1,000; when young
man makes 81, 500 and spends 81, ,700 all
the harpies of darkness cry out: ''Ha!
ha. we have him!'' and they have.
This sin works very insidiously.
Other sins sound the drum, and t1aunt
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 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 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 awhile,
| however, there is an exposure, as when
in Boston the police swooped upon q
| gaming establishment and found in it
the representatives of all classes of cit
| liens, from the first merchants of
State street to the low Ann street
gambler; as when Bullock, the cashier
of the Central Railroad of Georgia, was
found to have stolen $l03, 900 for the
purpose of carrying on gaming prac-
tices; as when a 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 man connected with Wall
street insurance company was found tC
have stolen $3.50, 900 to carry on his
gaming practices. But that is excep,
tional
Many years ago for sermonic pur
poses, and in company with the chiei
of police of New York | 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 whispering of the
officer with the guard at the door we
were admitted into the hall, ant
thence into the parlors, around ont
table finding eight to ten men in mid
life, we'll dressed-all the work goinI
on in silence, save the noise of thu
rattling chips on the gaming tabl
, in one parlor, and the revolving
ball of the roulette table in the othe
parlor. Some of these men, we wer
told, had served terms in prison; som
, were shipwrecked bankers and broker
.. and money-dealers, and some were &c
ing their first rounds of vice-but a.
! intent upon the table, as large or sma
fortunes moved up and down befor
them. Oh. there was something awfnll
i solemn in the silence - the intens
t gaze, the suppressed emotions of th
a player. No one looked up. They a
: had money in the rapids, and | hay
" no doubt some saw, as they sat ther
a horses and carriages, and horse
# and lands, and home and famil
" rushing down into the vorte
d A mans life would not have bee
e worth a farthing in that presence ha
II he not been accompanied by the polio
e if he had been supposed to be on
a Christian errand of observation. Son
d of these men went by private Ike
II some went in by careful introductio
NJ some were taken in by the patrons
l. the establishment. The officer of tt
law told me: None get in here exec
TT by police mandate, or by some letter
w a patron" While we were there
Of young man came in, put his mon
Y, down on the roulette table, and 10:
a put more money down on the roulet
ce table, and lost. put more mol1y dow
re on the roulette table, and lost; tn
OF feeling in his pockets for more none
ut finding none, in severe silence
of turned his back upon the scene
I passed out. While we stood there N
rs lost their property and lost tn
c. souls. Oh, merciless place! Not on
r- in all the history of that gamir
>rsl< IS go