Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-04-09
THE FIELD OF BLOOD.
AN EFFECTIVE SERMON ON GAMBLING
BY DR.. TALMAGE.
Tho Downward Path of the Gamestcr
Pointed Out With Startling Fidelity.
Tho Church Not Guiltless-Tho Betting
uabit-Modcrn Gift Enterprises.

Pointed Out with Startilhs fluehCy'
Tho Church Not Guiltless-The Betting
uabit-Modcrn Gift Enterprises.
downright, 1898. by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, April S.-The spirit of
hazard in this sermon is arraigned by
DIR. Talmago, and the downward path
of the gamester is plainly pointed out;
text, Acts i, 10, "Aceldama-that is to
say, the field of blood. !"
The money that Judas gave for sur
rendering Christ was used to purchase
graveyard. AS the money was blood
money the ground bought by it was
called in tho Syriac tongue Aceldama, "
meaning "tho field of blood" Well,
there is one word I want to write today
over every race course where waGers
are staked, and every poolroom, and
every gambling saloon, and every table,
public or private, where mon and wom-
en- bet for sums of money, large or
small, and that is word incarnadined
with the life of innumorable victims
Aceldama.
The gambling spirit, which is at all
times stupendous evil, ever and anon
sweeps over tho country like an cpl
demic prostrating uncounted thou
sands There has never been worse
attack than that from which all the
villages, towns and cities are now suf-
fering.
While among my hearers and readers
are those who have passed on into the
afternoon of life, and the shadows are
lengthening, and the sky orimsons with
the glow of the setting sun, q 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 blossoms, and
the stream of life, cleaning and glanc-
ing, rushes on between fowery banks,
making music as it goes. Some of you
are engaged in mercantile concerns as
clerks and bookkeepers, and your whole
life is to DO passed in the exciting
world Of traffic. The sound Of busy life
stirs you as tho drum stirs the fiery
war horse. Others are in the mechanical
arts to hammer aud chisel your way
through life, and success awaits you.
Some are preparing for professional
life, and grand opportunities are before
you-nay, some of you already have
buckled on the armor But, whatever
your age and calling, the subject of
gambling about which I speak today is
pertinent.
Some years ago, when an association
for the suppression of gambling was or
ganized, IN agent of the association
came to prominent citizen and asked
him to patronize the society. He said:
"No, Gun have no interest i'll such an
organization am in howise affected
by the evil" At that very time his son,
who was his partner in business, was
one of the heaviest players i'll famo1s
gam bling establishment. Another re-
fused his patronage on the Same ground,
not knowing that his first bookkeeper,
though receiving salary Of only 81, 600,
was losing from $50 to 500 per night.
The president of railroad company re-
fused to patronize the institution, say
ing, "That society is good for the de-
tense of merchants, but we railroad pee
pie are not injured by this evil, :" not
knowing that at that very time two of
his conductors were spending three
nights of each week at faro tables in
New York. Directly or indirectly this
evil strikes at the whole world.
What Is Gambling?
Gambling is the risking of something
more or less valuable in the hope Of
winning more than you hazard. The
instruments of gaming may differ, but
the principle is the same. The shutting
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 q
tenpin alley. The man who bets on
horses or elections, on battles, the man
who deals in fancy" stocks or conducts
q business which hazards extra capital
or goes into transactions without foun-
dation, but dependent upon what men
call "luck, is gambler.
Whatever you expect to get from
your noighbor without offering an
equivalent in money or time or skill is
either the product of theft or gaming.
Lottery tickets and lottery policies come
into the same category. Bazaars for the
founding of hospitals, schools and
churches conducted on the rafting sys-
tenn, come under the same denomina-
tion. Do not, therefore, associate gam
bling necessarily with any instrument
or game or time or place or think the
principle depends upon whether you
play for glass of wine or 100 shares Of
railroad stock. Whether you patronize
"auction pools, French mutuals' or
"bookmaking, whether you employ
faro or billiards, rondo and keno, cards
or bagatelle, the very idea of the thing
is dishonest; for it processes to bestow
upon you a good for which you give no
eQulVaIe0G.
This crime is no newborn sprite, but
o haggard transgression that comes stag
gering down under mantle Of curses
through many centuries. All nations,
barbarous and civilized, have been I'D
dioted to it.
But now the laws Of the whole civil
liked world denounce the system. Enact
ments have been passed, but only par
TALLY enforced and at times not en-
forced at all. The men interested in
gaming houses and in jockey clubs WELD
such influence by their numbers and
efauence that the judge. the jury and
the police officer must be bold indeed
who would array themselves against
these infamous establishments. The
house of commons of England actually
adjourns on Derby day that members
may attend the races, and in the best