Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-04-04

this land are every day being won and
lost through sheer gambling. Says
traveller through the west, 81 have trav-
eled |. O0G miles at a 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-
try reeks with this sin. In some of those
cities every third or fourth house in
many of the streets is gaming place,
and it may be truthfully averred that
pach Of our cities is cursed with this
evil
Abundance of Opportunities.
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 in the unsuspecting
travelcr-providing free drinks all
around-but in 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 sought it. We must at times have
excitement A thousand voices in our
nature demand it. 1t is right. It is
healthful. 1t is inspiriting. 1t is de-
sire God given. But anything that first
gratifies this appetite and hurls it back
in a terrific reaction is deplorable and
wicked Look out for the agitation
that like a rough musician, in bringing
out the tune plays SO 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 inner
tied large property sits at the hazard
tables asd takes up in dice box the es-
tate won by fathers lifetimes sweat
and shakes it and losses it away. In
temperance soon stigmatiZes it's victim,
kicking him out,a slavering fool, into the
ditch, or sending him, with the drunk
ards hiccough, staggering up the street
where his family lives But gambling
does not in that way expose it's victims
The gambler may be eaten up by the
gamblers passion, yet you only discover
it by the greed in his eyes, the hardness
of his features, the nervous restlessness,
the threadbare coat and his embarrassed
business. Yet he is on the road to ruin
and no preachers voice or startling
warning or wife's entreaty can make
him stay for a moment his headlong ca
reer.
The Internal spell is on him. A 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 sermons, 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
or hundreds Of dollars from the gaming
table will not be content with slow
work He will say, "What is the use of
trying to make this $50 in my store
when 1 can make five times that in half
an hour by the dice. " You never knew
a confirmed gambler who was industri-
Gus. The men given to this vice spend
their time not actively employed in the
game in idleness or intoxication or
sleep or in corrupting new victims.
This sin has dulled the carpenters saw,
and cut the band of the factory wheel,
sunk the cargo, broken the teeth of the
farmers harrow, and sent a strange
tightening to shatter the battery of the
philosopher. The very first idea in gam
ing is at war with all the industries of
society.
Any trade Or occupation that is of use
is ennobling. The street sweeper adj
vances the interests of society by the
cleanliness 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 sentence.
He does make return, but it is dis
grace to the man that he feeces, despair
to his heart, ruin to his business, an
guish to his wife, shame to his children
and eternal wasting away to his soul.
He pays in tears and blood and agony
and darkness and woe.
What dull work is blowing to the
farmer when in the village saloon in
one night he makes and loses the value
of a summer harvestl Who will want
to sell tapes and measure nankeen and
cut garments and weigh sugar when in
nights game he makes and loses and
makes again and loses again the profits
of a season?
An Example.
John BoracIz was sent as mercantile
agent from Bremen to England and this
country. After two years his employers
mistrusted that all was not right. He
was a defaulter for $S7, ZOO. It was