The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-04-15
SPIRIT OF HAZARD.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Arraigns the
Gambling Habit.
One of the Most Stupendous of Evils
Whether in Church Gambling
Hell Its Influence is Equal
IL Pernicious.

| hazard is severely arralgned by Rev. L.
| 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 l., 10.
The money that Judas gave for sur
rendering Christ was used to purchase
a graveyard. As the money was blood
money, the ground bought by it was
called in the Syriac tongue, 'Acel-
| dama," meaning 1.-The field of blood. :"
| Well, there is one word l want to write
| to-day over every race-cO urse where
wagers are stai1ed, 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 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, 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 book<epers,
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 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 perti-
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. | 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 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 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
ten-pin alley. The man who bets on
horses, or elections, on battles, the
man who deals in ''fancy" stocks, or
conducts a 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
rafting 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 glass of wine
or 100 shares Irrational 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
a haggard tranSgresSion that comes
staggering down under 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 not en-
forced at all. The men interested in
gaming houses, and in jockey clubs,
WELD such influence by their numbers
and affiuence, that the judge, the jury
and the police officer must be bold in
deed who would array themselves
against these infamous establishments.
The house of commons of England act
ually adjourns on Derby day that
members may attend the races; and in
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 in
this lad are every day won and lost
through sheer gambling. Says trav-