The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-04-08

Notice also the effect Of this crime
upon domestic happiness. IL has sent
its ruthless plowshare through hun
dreds of families, until the wife sat in
rags, and the daughters were dis
graced, and the sons grew up to the
same infamous practices, or took a
short cut to destruction across the
murderer's scaffold. Home has lost all
charms for the gambler. How tame
are the cbildren's caresses and wife's
devotion to the gambler! How dreari-
ly the fire burns on the domestic
hearth! There must be louder laugh
ter, and something to win, and some
thing to lose; an excitement to drive
the heart faster FLIP the blood aud
fire the imagination. No home, how
ever bright, can keep back the game.
ster. The sweet call Of love bounds
back from his iron soul, aud all en-
dearments are consumed in the fire of
his passion. The family Bible will go
after all other treasures are lost and
IL his crown in Heaven were put into
his hand he would cry: Here goes;
one more game, my boys, On this ono
throw | stake my crown of Heaven"
Gift stores" are abundant through
out the country. With a book, or
knife, or sewing machine, or coat, or
carriage, there goes prize. At these
stores people get some thing thrown in
with their purchase. 1t may be gold
watch or set of silver, ring, or
farm. Sharp way to get off unstable
| goods. 1t has filled the land with fic-
titious articles, and covered up our
| population with brass finger rings,
and despoiled the moral sense of the
community and is fast making us ma
ton of gamblers.
The church of God has not seemed
willing to allow the world to have all
the advantage of these games of
chance. A church bazar opens, and
toward the close it is found that some
of the more valuable articles are unsala-
BILE. Forthwith. the conductors of the
enterprise conclude that they will raffls
for some of the valuable articles, and,
under pretense of anxiety to make
their minister u present or please some
popular member of the church,
fascinating persons are dispatched
through the room, pencil in hand, to
solicit shares, or perhaps each draw
for his own advantage, and scores of
people go home with their trophies,
thinking that it is all right, for Chris
tian ladies did the embroidery and
Christian men did the rafting, and the
3 proceeds went toward new com
munion set. But you may depend
on it, 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 decrcpitude? The devil says; Il
= 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 not read that they had a lottery
for building the church at Corinth, or
at Antioch, or for getting up an en-
broidered surplice for st. Paul. All
this | 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.
, The gambling spirit has not stopped
I for any indecency. There transpired
n in Maryland a lottery in which people
drew for lots in a burying groundl
/ The modern habit OF betting about
t everything is productive of immense
mischief The most healthful and in
l nocent amusements of yachting and
$ baseball playing have been the oc-
, casion of putting up exciting and ex-
, travagant wagers. That which to
= many have been advantageous to body
and mind has been to others the means
of financial and moral loss. The
custom is pernicious in the extreme,
!. where scores of men in respectable
life give themselves up to bet
1 ting now on this boat, now on
r that; now on this ball club, now on
Y that Betting that once was chiefly the
) accompaniment of the race course is
, fast becoming national habit, and
/ in some circles any opinion advanced
( on finance or politics is accosted with
e the interrogation; How much will
. you bet on that, sir?" This custom
2 may make no appeal to slow, lethargIc
/ temperamcnts, but there are in the
I country tens of thousands of quick,
p nervous, sanguine, eXcitable tcmpera-
, ments, ready to be acted upon, and
. their feet will soon take hold on death.
: For some months, and perhaps for
d years, they will linger in the more po-
1 lite and elegant circle OF gamesters,
I but after awhile their pathway will
/ come to the fatal plunge
J. Take warning. You are no stronger
Il than tens of thousands who have by
I this practice been overthrown, No
II young man in our cities can escape be-
Il ing tempted. Beware OF the first be-
S ginnings, This road is down grade,
and every instantincreases the momen-
q tum. Launch not upon this PREACHER
d Gus sea Splint hullSs strew the beach.
v Everlasting storms howl up and down,
Il tossing unwary craft into the hell
IS gate. | speak of what have seen
e with my own eyes. To gamblers
?. death bed there comes no hope. He will
a probably die alone. His former asso-