The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-05-12

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 aiiiuence, 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 d,y that
members may attend the races; and in
the best circles of society in this coun-
try to-day are many hundreds of pro-
fesscdly respectable men who are ac-
knowledged gamblers.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in
this land are every day won and lost
through sheer gambling. Says trav-
eler through the west: Il have trav-
eled 1000 miles at time upon the
western waters, and seen gambling at
every waking moment from the COM
mencement to the termination of the
journey" The southwest of this coun-
tryreeks with this sin. In some of those
cities every third OR fourth house in
many OF the streets is a gaming place,
and it may be truthfully averred that
each of our cities is 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 COW
cred with greasy cards, or in the steam
boat smoking cabin, where the bloated
wretch with rings in his ears deals out
his pack, and winks on the unsuspect-
ing traveler-providing free drinks all
around-butin gilded parlors and amid
gorgeous surroundings. This sin
works ruin, first, by providing an
unhealthful stimulant Excitement is
pleasurable. Under every sky and in
every age men have bought it. We
must at times have excitement. A
thousand voices in our nature demand
1t. 1t is right. 1t is healthful. 1t is
inspiriting. 1t is a desire God-given.
But anything that first grati6es this
appetite and hurls it back in terrific
reaction is deplorable and wicked.
Look out for the agitation that, like a
rough musician, in bringing out the
tune plays 50 hard he breaks down the
instrument! God never made a man
strong enough to endure the wear and
tear of gambling excitements.
A young man having suddenly in
herited large property, sits at the
hazard tables, and takes up in dice
box the estate won by fathers life
time sweat, and shakes it and tosses it
away. Intemperance soon stigmatizes
its victim, kicking him out, slavering
fool, into the ditch, Or sending him,
with the drunkard's hiccough. stagger-
ing up the street where his family
lives. But gambling does not in that
way expose its victims. The gambler
may be eaten up by the gamblers pas
sion, yet you only discover it by the
greed in his eyes, the hardness of his
features, the threadbare coat, and his
business. Yet he is on
the road to ruin, and no preachers
voice, or startling warning, or wife
can make him stay for a mo-
ment his headlong career.
The Internal spell is on him; giant
is aroused within; and though you bind
him with cables, they would part like
thread, and though you fasten him
seven times around with chains, they
would snap like rusted wire; and
though you piled up in his path
Heaven-high Bibles, tracts and SER
mons, and on the top should set the
cross of the Son of God, over them all
the gambler would leap like roe over
the rocks, on his way to perdition.
''Aceldama, the field of blood.''
Again, this sin works ruin by killing
industry. A man used to reaping scores
OF hundreds of dollars from the gam
ing table will not be content with slow
work. He will say: What is the use
OF trying to make these $50 in my store
when l can make five times that in
half an hour by the dice?" You never
knew confirmed gambler who was in
dustrious. The men given to this vice
spend their time not actively employed
in the game in idleness or intoxication.
Or in sleep, OF in corrupting new vic
Tins. This sin has dulled the car
perter's saw and cut the band of the
factory wheel, sunk the cargo, broken
the teeth Of the farmers harrow. and
sent strange lightning to shatter the
battery OF the philosopher The very
first idea of gaming is at war with all
the industries of society
Any trade or occupation that is of
use is ennobling. The street sweeper
advances the interests of society by the
effected. The cat pays for
the fragments it eats by clearing the
house Of vermin. The fly that takes
the sweetness from the dregs of the
cup compensates by purifying the air
and keeping back the pestilence. But
the gambler gives not anything for
that which he takes. recall that SEN
tence. He does make return. but it
is disgrace to the man he neeces, de-
spair to his heart, ruin to his business,
anguish to his wife, shame to his chill
dren and eternal wasting away to his
soul. He pays in tears and blood and
agony and darkness and woe.
What dull work is plowing to the
farmer when in the village saloon in
one night he makes and loses the value
Of summer harvest. Who will want