Connecticut western news., 1898-04-07
each of our cities is cursed with this.
Abundance of Opportunities.

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 cov- 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 unsuspeeting traveler-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 healthful. It is inspiriting. It is de- sire God given. But anything that first gratifies this appetite and hurls 1t back in 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 settlements. A young man having suddenly inher- ited large property sits at the hazard tables and takes up in dice box the es- tate won by fathers lifetime's sweat and shakes it and losses it away. h. 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 its 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 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 J 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 bloodl"
 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 I can make five times that in half an hour by the dice." You never knew confirmed gambler who was industri- ous. The men given to this vice spend their time not actively employed in the game in idleness or intoxication or sleep or in oorrupting new victims. This sin has dulled the carpenters saw, and out the band of the factory wheel, sunk the cargo, broken the teeth of the farmers harrow, and sent 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 ad- yances 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. I recall that sentence. He does make a return, but it is dis grace to the man that he fleeces, 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 harvest Who will want to sell tapes and measure nankeen and cut garments and weigh sugar when i'll nights game he makes and loses and makes again and loses again the profits of a season?
 
 John Borack was sent as mercantile agent from Bremen to England and this country. After two years his employers mistrusted that all was net right. He was a defaulter for 1000. It was found that he had lost in Lom bard street, London, $29, ,0O0; in Fulton street, New York, $10, 900, and in New Orleans, $3, 900. He was imprisoned, but afterward escaped, and went into the gambling profession. He died in a lunatic asylum. This crime is getting its lever under many a mercantile house in our cities, and before long down will come the great establishment, crushing reputation, home comfort and immortal souls. How it diverts and sinks capital may be inferred from some authentic statement before us. The ten gaming houses that once were authorized in Paris passed through the banks yearly 325, 900, 900 francs.
 Furthermore, this sin is the source of dishonesty. The game of hazard itself is often cheat. How many tricks and Receptions in the dealing of the cards The opponents hand is ofttimes found out by fraud. Cards are marked so that they may be designated from the back. Expert gamesters have their accom- plices, and one wink may decide the game. The dice have been found loaded with platina so that doublets come up every time. These dice are introduced by the gamblers unobserved by the hon. est men who have come into the play, and this accounts for the fact that 99 out of 100 who gamble, however wealthy when they began, at the end are found to be poor, miserable, hag- 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 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