Connecticut western news., 1898-04-07
THE FIELD OF BLOOD.
AN EFFECTIVE SERMON ON GAMBLING
 BY DR. TALMAGE.

The Downward Path of the Gamester
 Pointed Out With Startling Fidelity.
 The Church Not Gultless-The Betting
 uabit-Modern Gift Enterprises.
 [Copyright, 1898, by American Press Asso-
 cation.l
 WASHINGTON, April 3.-The spirit of hazard in this sermon is arraigned by Dr. Talmage, and the downward path of the gamester is plainly pointed out; text Acts i, 19, "Aceldama-that is to say, the field of blood"
 The money that Judas gave for sur rendering Christ was used to purchase graveyard. AS the money was blood money the ground bought by it was called in the Syriac tongue "Aceldama, '" meaning "the field of blood" We'll, there is one word want to write today over every race course where wagers are staked, and every poolroom, and every gambling saloon, and every table, public or private, where men and wom- en bet for sums of money, large or small, and that is word incarnadined with the life of innumerable viotims- Aceldama.
 The gambling spirit, wLich is at all times a stupendous evil, ever and anon sweeps over the country like an epi- demic, prostrating uncounted thou sands. There has never been worse attack than that from which all the villages, towns and cities are now suf- fering.
 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 crimsons with the glow of the setting sun, 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, gleaming and glanc- ing, rushes on between fowery banks, making music as it goes. Some of you are engaged in mercantile concerns 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 mechanical arts to hammer and ohisel your way through life, and success awaits you. Some are preparing 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 speak today is pertinent.
 Some years ago, when an association of nor n ganized, an agent of the association came to prominent citizen and asked him to patronize the society. He said: "No, can have no interest in such an organization. am in nowise affected by the evil" At that very time his son, who was his partner in business, was one of the heaviest players in famous gambling establishment. Another re- fused his patronage on the same ground, not knowing that his first bookkeeper, though receiving salary of only $4, 900, was losing from $50 to $100 per night. The president of railroad company re- fused to patronize the institution, say ing, "That society is good for the de- fense of merchants, but we railroad peo- pie 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. Directly or indirectly this evil strikes at the whole world.
 What Is Gambling?
 ambling is the risking 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 without cards or dice or billiards or tenpin 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 foun- dation, but dependent upon what men call 'luck," is 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 gaming. Lottery tickets and lottery policies come into the same category. Bazaars for the founding of hospitals, schools and churches, conducted on the railing sys- tenn, come under the same denomina- tion. Do not, therefore, associate gam bling necessarily with any instrument or game or time or place or think the principle depends upon whether you play for glass of wine or 100 shares of railroad stock Whether you patronize "auction pools, I" 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 professes to bestow upon you good for which you give no equivalent.
 This crime is no newborn sprite, but . haggard transgression that comes stag gering down under d mantle of curses through many centuries. All nations, barbarous and civilized, have been ad- dicted to it.
 But now the laws of the whole civi- lized world denounce the system. Enact ments have been passed, but only par tially enforced and at times not en- forced at all. The men interested in gaming houses and ill jockey clubs wield buCu lhnuchCO blCAA dho affiuence that the judge. the jury and the police officer must be bold indeed who would array themselves against these infamous establishments. The house of commons of England actually adjourns on Derby day that members may attend the races, and in the best circles of society in this country today are many hundreds of professedly re- spsctable men who are acknowledged gamblers.
 Hundreds of thousands of dollars in this land are every day being won and lost through sheer gambling. Says traveller through the west, "I have trav- eled 1000 miles at a time upon the western waters and seen gambling at every waking moment from the oom- menoement to the termination of the tourney" The southwest of this coun- trv racks wi th this sin In some of thosa