The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-04

| his watch and lost that Then he began
| 20 think of his home, and OF his old father
| and mother, and wrote thus:
My beloved parents, you will doubtless
feel a momentary joy at the reception OF
this letter from the child of your bosom,
on whom you have lavished all the Ia
vors of your declining years. But should
feeling of joy for moment spring up in
| your hearts, when you should have re-
ceived this from me, cherish ii not, l
| have fallen deep, never to rise. Those
/ gray hairs that / should have honored and
\ protected 1 shall bring down in sorrow to
| the grave. I will not curse my destroyer,
/ but, on, may God avenge the wrongs and
/ impositions practised upon the unwary, in
/ a way that shall best please Him! This,
my dear parents, is the last letter you
| viii ever receive from me. humbly pray
your forgiveness. 1t is my dying prayer.
| Long before you will have received this
from me, the cold grave will have closed
upon me forever. Life 20 me is insup-
( portable. / cannot, nay. I will not, suffer
| the shame of having ruined you. Forget
and forgive is the dying prayer of your
unfortunate SON.
The old father came to the postoffice,
/ got the letter and fell 10 the floor. They
/ thought he was dead at first, but they
brushed back the white hair from his
brow and famed him. He had only
tainted. "Aceidama, the field of bloodr'
When things go wrong at gaming
table, they shout: Foul FOUL over
| all the gaming-tables of the world 1 cry
out: Foul! foul! Infinitely foul"
Gift stores are abundant throughout
the country With a book or knife, or
sewing machine, or coat, or carriage, there
! goes prize. At these stores people get
] something thrown in with their purchase.
1t may be gold watch. or a set of silver,
a ring, a farm. Sharp way to get off
unstable goods. 1t has filed the land
with fictitious articles, and covered up
our population with brass finger-rings,
and despoled the moral sense of the
community and is fast making US a ma
| ton of gamblers.
The Church of God has not seemed
willing to allow the world to have all the
| advantages 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-
ductors of the enterprise conclude that
they will rattle 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, fas-
| chatting persons are dispatched through
the room, pencil in hand TO solicit
! shares" or perhaps each draws for mis-
| own advantage, and scores of people go
| home with their trophies thinking that it
embroidery and Christian men did the
| rafting, and the proceeds went toward a
| new communion set. But you may depend
| on 1t, that as far as morality is concerned,
! you might as well have won by the crack
of the billiard ball or the turn of the dice
| box. Do you wonder that churches built,
| lighted, or upholstered by such processes
| as that come to great financial and spirit
ual decrepltude? The devil says; I helped
| to build that house of worship, and have
| as much right there as you have" and
| for once the devil is right We do rot
read that they had a lottery for building
| the church at Corinth, or at Antioch, CT
for getting up an embroidered surplice
| for st. Paul. All this l style ecclesiastical
gambling. More than one man who is de-
| stroyed can say that his first step on the
wrong road was when he won something
! at a church fair.
The gambling spirit has not stopped for
any indecency. There transpired in Mary
land lottery in which people drew for lots
in a buryng- ground The modern habit of
betting about everything is productive of
| immense mischief. The most healthful and
| innocent amuSements of yachting and
base ball playing have been the occasion
| of putting up excited and extraVagant
wagers. That which to many has been adj
| Vantageous to body and mind has been
to others the means of financial and moral
loss. The custom is pernicous in the ex-
IRENE, where scores of men I'm respectable
life give themselves up to betting, now on
this boat, now on that: now on this ball
club; now on that. Betting that once was
chiefly the accompaniment of the race
course, is fast becoming a national habit,
and in some circles any opinion advanced
on finance or politics is accosted with the
| Interrogation: How much will you bet on
that, sir?"
This custom may make no appeal to
slow, lethargic temperaments, but there
are in the country tens of thousands of
quick, nervous, sanguine, eXcitable tenn
peraments ready to be acted upon, and
their feet will SOON take hold on death.
For some months, and perhaps for years,
they will linger in the more polite and ele-
giant circle of gamesters but, after awhile
their pathway will come to the fatal
plunge.
Shall sketch the history of the gamb-
Ter? Lured by bad company, he finds his
way into a place where honest men ought
never to go. He sits down to his first game
but only for pastime and the desire of be-
ing thought sociable. The players deal out
the cards. They unconsciously play into
satan's hands, who takes all the tricks and
both the players souls for trumps-he be-
ing sharper at any game. A slight stake
is put up, just to add interest to the play.
Game after game is played. Larger stakes
, and still larger They begin to move nerv-
ously 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 their sockets, to see
the final turn before it comes; If losing,
pale with envy and tremulous with unut-
tered oaths cast back red-hot upon the
heart-or winning-with hysteric laugh
"Ha, ha! have it!'
few years have passed, and he is only
the wreck of a 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, fiends with eyes of sfre
and tongues of fame circle about him with
joined hands. to dance and sing, their or
I giles with hellish chorus, chanting, Hail
brother!" kissing his clammy forehead I'M
til their loathsome locks flowing with SER
penis, crawl into his bosom, and sink their
sharp fangs and suck up his life's blood
and coiling around his heart pinch it with