The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-04-16
SPIRIT OF HAZARD.
Rev. Dr.. Talmage Arraigns the
Gambling Habit.
One of che Most stupendous of Evils
Whistler In Church or Gambling
Hell It's Influence is Equal
ly PsrniciOus.

In the following sermon the spirit of
hazard is severely arraigned by Rev. L.
Dewitt Talmage, and the path to per-
dition of the gamester clearly pointed
out The text is:
Aceldams, that Is to say. the field Of blood
Acts l., 10
The money that Judas gave for sur
rendering Christ was used to purchase
. graveyard. AS the money was blood
mo ney, the ground bought by it was
called in the Syriac tongue, "Acel-
DANA" meaning "The field of blood"
Well, there is one word want to write
to-day over every race-co urse where
wagers are staked, and every pool
room, and every gambling saloon, and
every table, public or private, where
large or small, and that is word in
carnadined with the life of innumer-
able NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..
The gambling spirit, which is at all
times a stupendous evil, ever and anon
sweeps over the country like an cpl
demic, prostrating uncounted thou
sands. There has never been a worse
attack than that from which all the
villages, towns and cities are now suf-
fering.
While among my hearers and read
ers are those who have passed on into
the afternoon of life, and the shadows
are lengthening, and the sky crimsons
with the glow of the setting sun,
large number of them are in early life,
and the morning 10 coming down out
of the clear sky upon them, and the
h bright air is redolent with spring bios
SONS, and the stream of life, cleaning
and CHANGING, rushes on between flow
cry banks, making music az it goes.
Some of you are engaged in mercantile
concerns, as clerks and bookkepers,
and your whole life is to be passed in
the exciting world of traffic. The
sound of busy life stirs you aa the
| drum stirs the fiery war horse. 9th
ers are in the mechanical arts, to ham
mer and chishel your way through life,
and success awaits you. Some are pre-
pairing for professional life, and grand
opportunities 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 l speak to-day, is perth
nent.
Some years ago, when an association
for the suppression of gambling was
organized, an agent of the association
came to a prominent citizen and asked
him to patronize the society. He said:
mo, l can have no interest in such an
organization. l am in no wise affected
by the evil" At that very time his
son, who was his partner in business,
was one of the heaviest players in a
famous gambling establishment. An
other refused his patronage on the
same ground, not knowing that his
first bookkeeper, though receiving a
salary of only $4,000, was losing from
$50 to 500 per night. The president. of
a railroad company refused to patron
ize the institution, saying: THAT So
Gle y is good for the defense of mer-
chants, but we railroad people are not
injured by this evil not knowing that
at that very time two of his conductors
were spending three nights of each
week at faro tables in New York. Di-
rectly or indirectly this evil strikes at
! the whole world.
|
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 shut
fling 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
without cards, or dice, or billiards, or
q ten-pin alley. The man who bets on
horses, or elections, on battles, the
man who deals in fancy" stocks, or
conducts business which hazards
extra capital, or goes into transactions
without foundation, but dependent
upon what men call "luck, is a gam
bier.
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 gam
ing. Lottery tickets and lottery poll
cies come into the same category.
Bazaars for the founding of hospitals,
schools and churches, conducted on the
railing system, come under the same
denomination. Do not, therefore, as
sociate gambling necessarily with any
instrument, or game, or time, or place,
or think the principle depends upon
whether you play. for a glass of wine
or 100 shares of national stock. Whether
you patronize auction pools, "''French
mutuals," or 'bookmaking," whether
you employ faro or billiards, rondo and
keno, cards or bagatelle, the very idea
of the thing is dishonest; for it pro-
fesses to bestow upon you good for
which you give no equivalent.
This crime is no new born sprite, but
. haggard transgression that comes
staggering down under a mantle of
curses through many centuries All
nations, barbarous and civilized, have
been addicted to it.
But now the laws of the whole civil
lied world denounce the system.
Enactments have been passed, but only
partially enforced, and at times rot en-
for .ed at all. The men Interested in
gazing houses, and in jockey clubs,
WELD such influence by their numbers
and affiuence, that the judge, the jury
j and the police officer must be bold in
deed who would array themselves
against these Infamous establishments.
| The house of commons of England act-