The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-04-08

fessedly respectable men who are ac-
knowledged gamblers.
Hundreds of thousands of dollavs in
this land are every day won and lost
through sheer gambling Says trav-
eler through the west, 81 have trav-
eled / 900 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-
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 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, covered with greasy
cards, or in the steamboat smoking
cabin, where the bloated wretch with
rings in his ears deals out his pack,
and winks in the unsuspecting traveller
providing free drinks all around
but in gilded parlors and amid gor-
geous surroundings. This sin works
ruin, first, by providing an unheslth-
full stimulaut. Excitement is pleasur-
able. Under every sky and in every
age men have sought 1t. We must at
times have excitement A thousand
voices in our nature demand ii. 1t is
right, 1t is healthful. 1t IS inspiring.
1t is a desire God-given But anything
that first gratifes this appetite and
hurls it back in Il terrific reaction is
Il l,I g.,
the agitation that. like rough musi-
clan in bringing out the tune plays so
hard he breaks down the instrument.
God never made man strong enough
TO endure the wear aud tear of gam
bling cxcitcments.
A young man having suddenly in
herited IA large property, sits at the
! hazard tables, and takes up in "A dice
box the estate won by fathers life
time sweat, and shakes il and losses it
away. lntemperance soon stigmatizes
its victim, kicking him out. SLAYER
| ing fool, into the ditch, or sending him
with the drunkard's hiccough, stagger-
ing up the street whore 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
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 mo-
m ent 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 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. lie will say. What is the
use Of trying to make these $50 in my
store, when can make five times that
amount in half an hour by the dice"
You never knew a confirmed gambler
who was industrious. The men given
to this vice spend their time, not
actively employed in the game, in idle
ness or iutoXication, or in 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 farm
er's harrow, and sent a strange light
ming to shatter the battery of the
philosopher. The very first idea ia
gaming is at war with all the indus
tries of society.
ANY trade or occupation that is OF
use is ennobling. The street sweeper
advances the interests of society by
the cleanliness effected. The cat pay,
for the fragments it eats by clearing
the house of vermin. The fly thai
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 thai
sentence. He does make q return; but
IT. is disgrace to the man he tlceces, de
; spair to his heart ruin to his business
= anguish To his wife shame TO his chill
dren and eternal wasting away to hi'
; soul. lie pays in tears and blood anC
agony and darkness and woe. VIVA
= duh work is blowing to the farmeI
when in the village saloon in one nigh
/ he makes and loses the value of Il sum
mer harvest! Who will want to sci
tape and measure nankeen and Gu
garments and weigh sugar when in
nights game he makes and loses an,
makes again and loses again the profit
of season?
, Furthermore, this sin is the sourc,
, of dishonesty The game of hazard
itself is often a cheat How man,
: tricks and receptions in the dealing o
, the cards. The opponents hand i
l often found out by fraud. Cards ar,
: marked so that they may be desig
: mated from the back Expert game