Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-04-20

patronize "auction pools," "French mu-
tuals," or "book-making," whether you
employ faro or billiards, rondo and keno.
cards or bagatelle, the very idea Of the
thing Is dishonest; for it processes to be-
| stow upon you a good for which you give
no equivalent.
Men wishing to gamble will find places
| just suited to their capacity, not only In
| the underground oyster-cellar or at the
table back of the curtain, covered with
| greasy cards, or In the steamboat smoking
cabin, where the bloated wretch with rings
in his ears deals out his pack, and winks
in the unsuspecting traveler-provfding
| free drinks all around-but in gilded par
lors and amid gorgeous surroundings.
| This sin works ruin, first, by providing an
unhealthy stimulant. Excitement Is pleas
iuHable. Under every sky and in every age
men have sought it. We must at times
have excitement. A thousand voices IN
| our nature demand it. II is right; IL IL
heathful; 1t Is inspiring; it is desire COD
| given. -
A young man having suddenly inherite ga
large property, sits at the hazard tables,
and takes up In a dice-box the estate won
by fathers lifetime sweat, and shakes 1t
and tosses 1t away. Intemperance soon
stigmatizes its victim, kicking him out a
slavering fool, into the ditch, or sending
him, with the drunkard's hiccough, stagger-
Ing up the street, where his family lives.
But gambling does not in that way expose
its victims. The gambler may be eaten up
by the gamblers passion, yet you only dis
cover it by the greed In his eyes the hard
ness of his features, the nervous restless
ness, the threadbare coat, and his embsr-
rassed business.
The Internal spell is on him; a giant Is
aroused within; and though you bind him
with cables, they would part like thread,
and though you fasten him seven times
around with chains, they would snap like
rusted wire; and though you piled up in his
Dath haaVan-hiOh Ribles traefa and spr-
mons, and on the top should set the cross
OF the Son OF God, over them all the gamb-
Ter would leap like a roe over the rocks on
his wayto perdition. "Aceldama, the field
OF bloodi'
Notice, also, the effect of this crime upon
domestic happiness. 1t has sent its ruth
less ploughshares through hundreds of
families, until the wife sat in rags and the
sons grew up to the same infamous prac-
tices, or took a short cut to destruction
across the murderer's scaffold. Home has
lost all charms fer the gambler. How tame
are the children's caresses and q wife's de-
votion to the gamblerI How drearily the
fire burns on the domestic hearth! There
must be louder laughter, and something to
win and something to lose; an excitement
to drive the heart faster, FLIP the blood
and fire the imagination. No home, how
ever bright. can keep back the gamester.
The sweet call of love bounds back from
his iron soul, and all endearments are con-
sumed in the fire Of his passion. The
family Bible will go after all other Treas
ures are lost, and IL his crown in heaven
we're put into his hands he would cry:
Here goes; one more game, my boys. On
this one throw stake my crown of heaven"
The Church of God has not seemed will
ing to allow the world to have all the ad-
vantage OF these games of chance. A
church bazaar opens, and toward the close
It is found that some of the more valuable
articles are unstable. Forthwith the con-
dncfnrG nj da hat
they will raffle for some OF the valuable
articles, and, under pretense of anxiety to
make their minister a present or please
some popular member of the church, fasci-
mating persons are dispatched through tho
room, pencil in hand, to "solicit shares"
lor perhaps each draws for his own advant-
age. and scores of people go home with
their trophies, thinking that it is all right,
for Christian women did the embroidery
and Christian men did the railing and the
proceeds went toward a new communion
set. But you may depend on it that as far
as morality Is concerned, you might as
we'll have won by the crack of the billiard
ball or the turn OF the dice box. Do you
wonder that churches are built lighted, or
upholstered by such processes as that come
to great financial and spiritual decreptude7
hll this l style ecclesiastical gambling.
More than one man who is destroyed can
say that his first step on the wrong road
was when he won something at a church
fair.
Shall sketch the history of the gambler2
Lured by bad company, he finds his way
into place where honest men ought
never to go. He sits down to his first
game, but only for pastime and the desire
of being thought sociable. The players
deal out the cards. They unconsciously
play into satans hands, who takes all the
tricks and both the players souls for
trumPs-he being sharper at any game.
A slight stake is put up, Just to add inter-
est to the play. Game after game is
played. Larger stakes and still larger.
They begin to move nervously on their
chairs. Their brows lower, and eyes flash,
until now they who win and they who lose,
fired alike with passion, sit with set Jaws,
and compressed lips, and clenched fists.
and eyes like fireballs that seem starting
from. fHeir sockets, to see the final turn
bsfo-o { comes; II losing. pale with envy
and tremulous with unuttered oaths cast
back red-hot upon the heart-or winning
with hysteric laugh-"HaI hal Ihaveltl"
few years have passed, and he is only
the wreck OF man. Seating himself at the
game, ere he throws the first card he
stakes the last relic of his wife-the mar
riage ring which sealed the solemn VOWS
between them. The game is lost, and. stag
gering back In exhaustion, he dreams.
The bright hours Of the past mock his
agony, and In his dreams fends with eyes
Of fire and tongues OF flames circle about
him with joined hands, to dance and sing
their orgies with hellish chorus chanting:
"Hail brotherl" kissing his ciammy fore
head until their loathsome locks, flowing
with serpents, crawled into his bosom, and
sink their sharp fangs and suck up his
life's blood, and, coiling around his head,
pinch 1t with chills and shudders unutter-
able.
Take warningi You are no stronger than
tens OF thousands who have by this prac-
tice been overthrown. No young man in
our cities can escape being tempted. Be-
ware of the first beginnings! This road Is
Q down grade and every instant increases
tho momentum. Launch not upon this
treacherous set. Split hulks strew the beach.
storms howl up aud down,
tossing unwary craft into the Hell-gate
l speak OF what have seen with my own
eyes. To a gamblers death-bed there
comes no hope. He will probably die
alone. His former associates come not nigh
his dwelling. When the hour comes. his
miserable soul will go out of a miserable
life into q miserable eternity. As his poor
remains pass the house where he was
ruined, old companions may look out for
and say: "There goes the old
at last;" but they will not
get up from the table. Let him down now
into his grave. Plant no tree to cast its
shade there, for the long deep eternal
gloom that settles there is shadow enough
Plant no "forget- -nots" or eglantines
around the spot, for flowers were not male
to grow on such blasted heath. Visit it
not in the sunshine, for that would be
nockery, but in the dismal night, WI an no
stars were out, and the spirit OF darkness
comes down, horsed on the wind th-p
visit the grave Of the gambler