Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-05-13
SPIRIT OF HAZARD.
Rev. Dr.. Talmage Arraigns the
Gambling Habit.
One OF the Most Stupendous of Evils
Whether in Church or Gambling
Hell Its Influence Is Equal
LIZ pernicinns.

In the following sermon the spirit of
hazard is severely arraigned by Rev. 4.
Dewitt Talmage and the path to per-
dition of the gamester clearly pointed
out The text is:
Aceldama that is to say, the field OF blood
Acts t.. 10
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, "Acel-
dama," meaning THE field of blood. :"
Well, there is one word want to write
to-day over every race-course where
wagers are sta.led, and every pool
room, and every gambling saloon, and
every table, public or private, where
men and women bet for sums of money,
large or small, and that is word in
carnadined with the life of innumer-
able victims-Aceldama.
The gambling spirit, which 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 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, a
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 bios
SONS, and the stream of life, cleaning
and glancing, rushes on between flow
cry banks, making music as it goes.
Some of you are engaged in mercantile
concerns, as clerks and boollkepers,
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. 9th
ers are in the mechanical arts, to ha M
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 buclSled on
the armor. But, whatever your age
and calling, the subject of gambling,
about which | speak to-day, is perti-
nent.
Some years ago, when an association
for the suppression of gambling was
organized, an agent of the association
came to prominent citizen and asked
him to patronize the society. He said:
mo, can have no interest in such an
organization. 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
railroad company refused to patron
ize the institution, saying: THAT So
ciety 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.
Gambling is the rislting 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 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, OF
a ten-pin alley. The man who bets on
horses, or elections, on battles, the
man who deals in fancy" stocks, OF
conducts business which hazards
extra capital, or goes into transactions
without foundation, but dependent
upon what men call luck" is gam
bier.
Whatever you expect to get from
your neighbor without Offering al
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 thu
rafting system, come under the sam,
denomination. Do not, therefore, as
sociate gambling necessarily with any
instrument, or game, or time, or place
or think the principle depends upor
whether you play for glass of wine
or 100 shares ofnational stock. Whether
you patronize auction pools, "Frcncl
mutuals," or "bool1mal1ing," whethc
you employ faro or billiards, rondo ant
keno, cards or bagatellc, the very idei
of the thing is dishonest; for it pro
fesses to bestow upon you a good TO
which you give no equivalent.
This crime is no new born sprite, bu
a haggard transgression that come
staggering down under mantle o
curses through many centuries. AL
nations, barbarous and civilized, hav
been addicted to it.
But now the laws of the whole civil
lied world denounce the system
Enactments have been passed, but onl'
partially enforced, and at times not en-
forced at all. The men interested il
gaming houses, and in jockey clubs
WELD such influence by their number
and affiuence, that the judge, the jur,
and the police officer must be bold in
deed who would array themselve
against these infamous establishments
The house Of commons of England act
ually adjourns on Derby day that
members may attend the races; and il
the best circles of society in this coun
try to-day are many hundreds of pro
fessedly respectable men who are ac
knowledged gamblers.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars il
| this land are every day won and LOST