The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-05-12
NO. H..

street, New York, $4,000, and in New
orleans, $4,000. He was imprisoned.
out afterwards escaped and went into
the gambling profession. He died in a
iunatic asylum. This crime is getting
It's lever under many a mercantile
house in our cities, and before long
down will come the great establish
ment, crushing reputation, home COM
fort and immortal souls How it di.
verts and sinks capital may be inferred
from some authentic statement before
u.s. The ten gaming houses that once
| were authorized in Paris passed
through the banks yearly 325, ,OOO, ZOO
francs
Furthermore, this sin is the source
of dishonesty. The game of hazard
| itself is often a cheat. How manv
tricks and deceptions in the dealing of
the cards! The opponents hand is
| often found out by fraud Cards are
marked so thatsy may be designated
from the back. expert gamblers have
their accomplices, and one wink may
decide the game. The dice have been
found loaded with platina, so that
doublets come up every time. These
dice are introduced by the gamblers
unobserved by the honest men who
have come into the play and this ac-
counts for the fact that 80 out of 100
who gamble, however wealthy when
they began, at the end are found to be
poor, miserable, haggard wretches,
that would not now be allowed to sit
on the doorstep of the house that they
once owned.
In gaming-house in San Francisco,
young man having just come from
the mines, deposited large sum upon
the ace and won $4,000. But the tide
turns. Intense anxiety comes upon
the countenances of ALL Slowly the
cards went forth. Every eye is fixed.
Not sound is heard until the ace is
revealed favorable to the bank. There
are shouts of Foul! Foul!' but the
keepers at the tables produced their
pistols, and the uproar is silenced, and
the bank has won $o5. 900. Do you call
this game of chance? There is no
chance about it.
Shall l sketch the history of the
gambler? Lured by bad company, he
finds his way into a place where honest
men ought never to 60 He sits down
to his first game, but only for pastime,
and the desire of being thought socia-
Bile. The players deal out the cards.
They unconsciously play into Satan's
hands, who takes all the tricks and
both the players souls for trumps-
he being sharper at the game
"A slight stake is put up, just
to add interest to the play. Game
after game is played. Larger stakes
and still larger. They begin to move
nervously on their chairs. Their brows
lower, and eyes flash, until now they
who win and they who lose, fred alike
with passion, sit with set jaws, and
compressed lips, and clinched fists, and
eyes like fireballs that seem starting
from their sockets, to see the final turn
before it comes; if losing, pale with
envy and tremulous with unuttered
oaths cast back red.hot upon the heart
Or winning-with hysteric laugh
"Ha, ha! have it!"
A few years have passed, and he is
only the wreck of man. Seating him
self at the game, ere he throws the
first card, he stakes the last relic Of
his wife-the marriage ring which
sealed the solemn vows between
them. The game is lost, and
staggering back in exhaustion he
dreams. The bright hours of the
past mock his agony, and in his
dreams, fiends with eyes of fire
and tongues of flame circle about him
with joined hands, to dance and sing
their orgies with hellish chor is, chant
irg: Hail brother kissing his clam
MY forehead until their loathsome
locks, flowing with serpents, crawl in
to his bosom, and sink their sharp
fa,ngs and suck up his life's blood, and
coiling around his heart, pinch it with
cnills and shudders unutterable.
Take warning! You are no stronger
than tens of thousands who have by
this practice been overthrown. No
young man in our cities can escape be-
ing tempted. Beware of the first be-
ginnings! This road is down grade,
and every instant increases the momen-
tum. Launch not upon this treacher-
GUS sea. Splint hulks strew the beach.
Everlasting storms howl up and
down, tossing unwary craft into the
hellgate. l speak of what have seen
with my own eyes. To gamblers
death-bed there comes no hope. He
will probably die alone. His former
associates come not nigh his dwelling.
When his hour comes his miserable soul
will go out of miserable life into
a miserable eternity. AS his poor re-
mains pass the house where he was
ruined, old companions may look out
for moment and say: There goes
the old carcass-dead at last" but they
will not get up from the table. Let
him down now into his grave. Plant
no tree to cast its shade there,
for the long, deep, eternal gloom
that settles there is shadowv
enough. Plant no 'sforget-me
nots" or eglantines around the spot,
for flowers were not made to grow on
such blasted heath. Visit 1t not in
the sunshine, for that would be mock
ery but in the dismal night when M