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

by the gamblers unobserved by the hon.
est men who have come into the play,
and this accounts for the fact that 80
out of 100 who gamble, however
| wealthy when they began, at the end
are found to be poor. miserable. bag
gard wretches that would not now be
allowed to sit in the doorstep of the
house that they once owned.
In gaming house in San Francisco
a young men having just come from
the mines deposited a large sum upon
the ace and won $22, 1000. 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 'tFoul! Foul! 20 but the keepers at
the tables produce their pistols, and the
uproar is silenced, and the bank has won
$95, 1000. Do you call this game of
chance? There is no chance about it.
Notice also the effect Of this crime
upon domestic happiness. 1t has sent
it's ruthless plowshare through hun
dreds of families, until the wife sat in
rags and the daughters were disgraced
and the sons grew up to the same infa-
nous practices or took short cut to
destruction across the murderer S scat
fold. Home has lost all charms for the
gambler How tame are the children
caresses and a wife's devotion to the
gambler! How drearily the fire burns
on the domestic hearth! There must be
louder laughter and something to win
and something to lose, an excitement to
1,,fxy 4lo fnC %ho
and fire the imagination. No home,
however bright, can keep back the
gamester. The sweet call Of love bounds
back from his iron soul, and all endear-
ments are consumed in the fire of his
passion. The family Bible will go after
all other treasures are lost, and if his
crown in heaven were put into his hand
he would cry: ''Here goes! One more
game, my boys On this one throw I
stake my crown of heaven.
A young man in London, on coming
of age, received fortune of $4,000,
and through gambling in three years
was thrown on his mother for support.
An only son went to New Orleans. He
was rich, intellectual and elegant in
manners. His parents gave him, on his
departure from home, their last bless
ing. The sharpers got hold of him.
They fattered him. They lured him to
the gaming table and let him win al
most every time for a good while, and
patted him on the back and said, "First
rate player. But, fully in their grasp,
they feeced him, and his $50, 900 were
lost. Last of all, he put up his watch
and lost that Then he began to think
of his home and of his old father and
mother and wrote thus:
"My beloved parents, you will doubt
less feel a momentary joy at the recep
tion of this letter from the child of
your bosom, on whom you have lavish
ed all the favors of your declining years.
But should feeling of joy for a mo-
ment spring up in your hearts, when
you should have received this from me,
cherish it not. L have fallen deep, never
to rise. Those gray hairs, that should
have honored and protected, I shall
bring down in sorrow to the grave. l
will not curse my destroyer, bat, oh,
may God avenge the wrongs and imro-
sltions practiced upon the unwary in a
way that shall best please him This,
my dear parents, is the last letter you
will ever receive from me. 7 humbly
pray your forgiveness. 1t is my dying
prayer. Long before you will have re-
ceived this from me the cold grave will
have closed upon me forever. Life to
me is insupportable. I cannot, nay, l
will not, suffer the shame Of having
ruined you. Forget and forgive is the
dying prayer of your unfortunate son."
The old father came to the postoffice,
got the letter and fell to the floor. They
thought he was dead at first, but they /
brushed back the white hair from his
brow and famed him. He had only
tainted. 'Aceldama, the field of bloodl''
When things go wrong at a gaming
table, they shout, Foul, foul p Over
all the gaming tables of the world cry
out: ''Foul, foul! Infinitely foulr'
Gift Enterprises.
"Gift stores" are abundant through
out the country. With a book or knife
or sewing machine or coat or carriage,
there goes prize. At these stores peo-
pie get something thrown in with their
purchase. It may be gold watch, or
set of silver, ring or farm. Sharp
way to get off unstable goods. 1t has
filled the land with fictitious articles
and covered up our population with
brass finger rings, and despoiled the
moral sense of the community, and is
fast making us nation of gamblers.
The church of God has not seemed
willing to allow the world to have all
the advantage Of these games of chance.
A church bazaar opens, and toward the
close it is found that some of the more
valuable articles are unstable. Forth
with, the conductors of the enterprise
conclude that they will rattle for some
of the valuable articles, and, under pre-
tense of anxiety to make their minister
a present or please some popular mem |