The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-04-05
"a DOWNWARD PATH.
DR.. TALMAaE POINTS OUT THE END
4 OF THE GAMBLER. ,-

OF THE GAMBLER.
s+
A Powerful Indictment Of the Evils In
volved In Games Of Chance Church
Rshies MISUNDERSTANDING Results In
Moral as Well - Financial Loss.
copyright, 1898, by American Press Asso-
ciationI
WASHINGTON, April 8.-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 /, 10, "Aceldama-that is to say, the
field of blood"
The money that Judas gave for surren-
derlng Christ was used to purchase a
graveyard. As the money was blood mon.
ey, the ground bought by 1t was called in
the Syriao tongue Aceldama, meaning
1.-THE field Of blood" Well, 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
mon and women bet for sums Of money,
large or small, and that is word inOar-
nadined with the life Of innumerable VIC
tins Aoeldama.
The gambling spirit, which Is at all
times stupendous evil, ever and anon
sweeps over the country like an epidemic,
Frustrating uncounted thousands. There
has never been worse attack than that
from which all the villages, towns and
cities are now suffering.
While among my hearers and readers are
those who have passed on into the after
noon of life and the shadows are lengthen-
ing and the sky orimsons with the glow
Of the setting sun, large number of them
arc In early life, and the morning ia COM
ing down out of the clear sky upon them,
and the bright air Is redolent with spring
blossoms, and the stream Of life, cleaning
and CHANGING, rushes on between fiowery
banks, making music as 1t 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
chlsel your way through life, and success
awaits you. Some are preparing for pro-
fessional life, and grand opportunities arc
before you-nay, some of you already have
buckled on tho armor But, whatever your
ago and calling, the subject Of gambling,
about which speak today, is pertinent
A Worldwide EVIL.
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 pat
ronize 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 bis part
ner in business, was one of the heaviest
players in famous gambling establish
mont Another refused his patronage on
tho same ground, not knowing that his
first bookkeepor, though receiving salary
of only 81 900, was losing from $50 to 500
per night. The president of a railroad
company refused to patronize the institu-
ton, saying, "That society is good for the
defense 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
Gambling is the risking of something
more or less valuable in tho hope of win
ming more than you hazard. The instru
ments of gaming may differ, but the prin
ciple Is the same. The shuflling and deal
ing cards, however full Of temptation, is not
gambling unless stakes arc put up, while
on the other hand gambling may be car
ried on without cards or dice or billiards
or tenpin alley. The man who bets OH
horses, on elections, on battles, tho man
who deals in Clancy" stocks or conducts u
business which hazards extra capital or
goes into transactions without foundation,
but dependent upon what men call luck"
Is gambler.
Whatever you expect to get from your
neighbor without offering an equivaleptin
money or time or skill Is either tho product
of theft or gaming. Lottery tickets and
lottery policies come into the same cato
CORY. Bazaars for the founding Of hospi-
tails, schools and churches, conducted on
the rafting system, come under the Same
denomination. Do not, therefore, associ-
ate gambling necessarily with any instru-
ment 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 patronizo
auction pools, French mutuals or book
making, whether you employ faro or bill
lizards, rondo and keno, cards or bagatello,
the very idea Of tho thing is dishonest, for
1t processes to bestow upon you good for
which you give no equivalent.
The Curse of Centuries.
This crime Is no new born sprite, but a
haggard transgression that comes staggCr-
ing down under mantle of curses through
many centuries. All nations, barbarous
and civilized, have been addicted to it.
But now tho laws of the whole civilized
world denounoo the system. Enactments
have been passed, but only partially en-
forced, and at times not enforced at all.
Tho men interested in gaming houses and
in jockey clubs WELD such influence by
their numbers and aflluenoe that the
judge, the jury and the police officer must
be bold indeed who would array them
selves against these Infamous establish
ments. Tho house of commons of Eng
land actually adjourns on Derby day that
members may attend the races, and in tho
best circles Of society in this country today
arc many hundreds of professedly respect
able men who are ack nowlGdged gamblers.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in this
land are every day being won and lost
through sheer gambling. Says traveller
through tho west, ~ have travelled 1000
miles at a time upon the western waters
and seen gambling at every waking mo-
ment from the commencement to the
termination of the Journey" The south
west Of this country reoks with this sin.
In some of those cities every third or
fourth house in many Of the streets is q
gaming place, and it may DO truthfully
averred that each Of our cities IL Cursed
with this evil.
Men wishing to gamble will find places
just suited to their capacity not only In
the underground oyster cellar or at the
table back of the curtain, covered with
greasy cards, or in the steamboat smok-
ing cabin, where the bloated wretch
with rings in his ears deals out his pack
and winks in the unsuspecting traveller,
providing froo drinks all around, but in
gildcd parlors and amid gorgeous sur
roundings. This sin works ruin first by
providing an unhealthful stimulant E1-
element is plcasureable. Under every sky
and In every age men have sought 10. We