The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-05-12
A S1'UPENDOUS EVIL.
The Gambling Habit Arraigned by
Rev. DR.. Talmage.
An Evil that is Sweeping Over the Land
and Causing Innumerable Wrecks
Of Individuals, Families
and Homes.

Kew. L. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol-
lowing sermon, makes scathing ar
raignment of the curse of gambling
that has fastened itself upon the pco-
pie in almost every walk of life. The
text is:
Aceldama, that is to say, the field of blood
Acts t., 49,
The money that Judas gave for sur
rende' ing Christ was used to purchase
graveyard. AS the money was blood
money, the ground bought by it was
called in the Syriac tongue, ''Acel-
dama." meaning ''The field of blood. ;"
Well, there is one word want to write
to-day over every race-co urse where
wagers are staked, 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 stupendous evil, ever and anon
sweeps over the country like an epi-
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,
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, ruShcs on between flow
cry banks, making music as it goes.
Some of you are engaged in mercantile
concerns, as clerks and boo.skepers,
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,
und success awaits you. Some are pre-
pairing for professional life, and grand
opportunities are before you; nay,
some of you already have buc,zled on
the armor. But, whatever your age
and calling, the subject of gambling,
about which I speak to-day, is peril
nent.
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 patronize the society. He said:
NO, l can have no interest in such an
organization. l 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
famous gambling establishment An
other refused his patronage on the
same ground, not knowing that his
first boohkeeper, though receiving
salary of only $4,000, was losing from
$50 to 500 per night. The president of
a 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
We're 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 hoo, 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
a 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 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.
. III GiAC 1OululilS OI hospitals,
schools and churches, conducted on the |
raffiing system, come under the same
denomination. Do not, therefore, as
soclate gambling necessarily with any
instrument, or game, or time, or place,
or think the principle depends upon
you play for glass of wine
Or 100 shares ofnational stock. Whether
you patronize auction pools, I" "French
or ''bookmaking," whether
you employ faro OF 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 tina. comes |
down under a mantle of |
curses through many centuries. All |
bar barous and civilized, have |
been addicted to it.
But now the laws of the whole civil |
lied world denounce the system.
have been passed, but only |