The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1898-04-07


--he field Of blood
The money that Judas gave for sur
rendering Christ was used 70 purchase
a graveyard. AS the money was blood
money, the ground bought by II was
called in the Syrian tongue Aceldama.
meaning the field of blood" Well,
there is one word want to write to-
day over every race course where waG-
ers are staked, and every poolroom,
and every gambling saloon, and every
table, public or private, where men and
women bet for sums of money, large
or small, and that is word ncarna-
dined with the life of innumerdble vic
lims-ACeldama
The gambling spirit, which is at all
times Il stupendous evil, ever and anon
sweeps over the country like an epi-
demic, prostrating uncounted thou
sands. There has never been a worse
attack than that from which all the viii
lagos, towns and cities are now suffer
ing.
While among my hearers and readers
are those who have passed on into the
afternoon of life and the shadows are
lengthening and the sky crimson with
the glow of the setting sun, a large
number of them are in early life, and
the morning is coming down out of the
clear sky upon them, and the bright
air is redolent with spring blossoms,
and the stream of life. cleaning and
banks, making music as it goes. Some
of you are engaged in mercantile con-
Germs as clerks and bookkeepers and
your whole life is to be passed in the
exciting world Of traffic. The sound OF
busy life stirs you as the drum stirs the
fiery war horse. Others are in the me-
chanical arts to hammer and chsel
your way through life and success
awaits you. Some are preparing for
professional life, and grand opportu-
mites are before you-nay, some of you
already have buckled on the armor
But, whatever your age and calling,
the subject of gambling, about which
i speak to-day is pertinent.
Some years ago when an association
for the suppression of gambling was
organized an agent of the association
OIL came to a prominent citizen and asked
him to patronze the society He said:
mo; 1 can have no interest in such
an organization. i am in no wise af-
fected by the evil" AT that very time
his son, who was his partner in busi-
Of bn hnn ,,ia al
in famous gambling establishment
Another refused his patronage on the
same ground not knowing that his first
bUokkeeper, though receiving a salary
of ony $4,000, was losing from $50 to
800 a night. The president of a rail-
road company refused to patronize the
ins.itution. saying: That society is good
fur the defense OF merchants, but we
railroad people are not injured by this
cvil-not knowing that at that very
time two of his conductors were spend
ing three night of each week at faro
cables in New York. Directly or in
directly, this evil strikes at the whole
world.
Gambling is the rsking of something
more or less valuable in the hope OF
winning more than you hazard. The
instruments Of gaming may differ but
the principle is the same. The shufflinG
and dealing cards, however full OF
temptation, is not gambling, unless
stakes are put up. while on the other
hand gambling may be carried on with
nr Il ,,p
pin alley. The man who bets on horses,
on elections, on battles. the man who
deals in fancy" stocks or conducts a
business which hazards extra capital
Or goes into associations without foun-
dation, but depends upon what men
call luck" is a gambler.
Whatever you expect to get from
your neighbor without Offering an
equivalent in money or time or skill
IS either the product of theft or gamb-
ling. Lottery tickets and lottery pol
lcies come into the same category. Ba-
Ears for the founding of hospitals,
schools and churches, conducted on the
rafflng system, come under the same
denomination. Do not, therefore, asso-
ciate gambling necessarily with any
instrucment or game or time or place
or think the principle depends upon
whether you play for a glass Of wine
Jr 100 shares Of railroad stock. Whether
you paironi2e auction pools, French
mutuals or book-makinE, whether you
employ faro or billiards, rondo and
Keno, cards or bagatcile, the very idea
ot the thing Is dishonest, for ii profess
as to bes,ow upon you Il good for which
you give no equivalent.
This crime is no newborn sprite,
but haggard transgresstOn that
comes staggering down under a mantle
Of curses through many centuries. All
nations. harbarous and civilized. have
hen addicted 10 It,
Mat now the laws Of the whoe civil
lged world denounCe the system
Enactments have been passed, but only
partially enforced, ana at times not
enforced at all The men interested In
gambling houses and in jocky clubs
WELD such influence by their number:
and affluence that the judge, the jur!