Connecticut western news., 1897-08-05
THE SINOF GAMBLING
OR. TAlMAGE SAYS IT IS OF CART ROPE STRENGTH.

ROPE STRENGTH.
 Once the Habit Is Contracted It Is Hsrd
 to Break Away-There Is but One Way
 to Re Cured and That Is by the Grace
 of God-Hope For the Prodigal.
 WASHINGTON, Aug. 1.-Dr Talmage in his sermon depicts the insidious modes by which evil habit gains su premacy and shows how splendid men are cheated into ruin. Text, Isiah V, IS, "Woe unto them that sin, as it were with cart rope"
 There are some iniquities that only nibble at the heart. After lifetime of their work the man still stands upright, respected and honored. These vermin have not strength enough to gnaw through mans character. But there are other transgressions that lift them selves up to gigantic proportions and seize hold of a man and bind him with 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 cart rope. l sup pose you know how they make 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 great many of these threads are inter wound-then you have rope strong enough to bind an OK or hold 8 ship in tempest.
 A 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 infiu- enee out of which that mighty iniquity is twisted. This crime is on the ad- vance, so that it is we'll 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, can stand aloof from such subject as this and say, "It has no practical bear ing upon my life," for there may be in a short time in your history an experi- ence in which you will find that the discussion involved three worlds-earth, heaven, he'll. There are gambling estab- lishments by the thousands.
 Thousands of Gamblers.
 1 There are about $500 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 little way out of Broadway, New York. You go up the marble stairs. You ring the bell. The 1iveried 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 He'll, :" 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.
 
 gambling establishment. To it you are introduced by card through some ''roper in" Having entered, you must either gamble or fight Banded cards, dice loaded with quicksilver, poor drinks mixed with more poor drinks will soon help you to get rid of all your money to tune in short meter with staccato 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 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 go along little farther and find the policy establishment. In that place you 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 "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, most appropriate title for the door, for there in that room. a 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 z4 4< what are the small threads out of which it is made. There is in many disposi- tion to hazard. They feel delight in walking near precipice because of the sense of danger. There are people who go upon Jungfrau, not for the largeness of the prospect, but for the feeling that they have of thinking, "What would happen if I should fall off?' There are persons who have their blood flliped and accelerated by skating very near an Rirhole. There are men who find positive delight in driving within two inches of the edge of bridge. It is this disposition to hazard that finds develop ment in gaming practices. Here are $500. I may stake them. If I stake them, may lose them, but may win $5,000. Whichever way it turns have the excitement. Shuttle the cards. Lost! Heart thumps. Head dizzy. At it again just to gratify this desire for hazard.
 The Desire For Gain.
 Then there are others who go into this sin through sheer desire for gain. It 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 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
 r1 .z-I4 A.