Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-04-28

duct OF theft or gaming. LOTTERY tlcketS
and lottery policies come into the same
pitfalls, schools and churches, conducted
on the raffling system, come under the
same denomination. Do not, therefore,
associate gambling necessarily with any
instrument, or game, or time or place, or
think the principle depends upon whether
you pay for glass of wine or one hundred
shares OF railroad stock. Whether you
patronize "auction pools" French mu-
tuals," or "book-making," whether you
employ faro or billiards, rondo and keno,
cards or bagatelle. the very idea OF the
thing is dishonest; for it processes to be-
| stow upon you good for which you give
| no equivalent.
| Men wishing to gamble will find places
! just suited to their capacity, not only in
| the underground oyster-cellar or at the
| 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 traveler-providing
free drinks all around-but in gilded par
lors and amid gorgeous surroundings.
This sin works ruin, first, by providing an
unhealthy stimulant. Excitement is pleas
| urable. Under every sky and in every age
men have sought it. We must at times
have excitement. thousand voices in
our nature demand it. 1t is right; it is
heathful; 1t is inspiring; 1t is desire God
| given.
A young man having suddenly inherited
| a large property, sits at the hazard tables,
and takes up in a dice-box the estate won
| by fathers lifetime sweat, and shakes it
and tosses It away. Intemperance soon
stigmatizes its victim. kicking him out, a
slavering fool, into the ditch, or sending
him. with the drunkard's hiccough, stagger-
| ing up the street, where his family lives.
But gambling does not in that way expose
its victims. The gambler may be eaten up
| kI,n. NIA~
cover 1t by the greed in his eyes, the hard
ness of his features, the nervous restless
ness, the threadbare coat, and his embar-
rassed business.
| The internal spell Is on him; giant is
aroused within; and though you bind him
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 SER
mons, and on the top should set the cross
of the Son of God. over them all the gamb
| Ter would leap like roe over the rocks. on
his way to perdition. "Aceldama, the field
Of blood!
Notice, also, the effect Of this crime upon
domestic happiness. 1t has sent its ruth
less ploughshares through hundreds of
| families, until the wife sat in rags and the
| sons grew up to the same Infamous prac-
tices, or took a short cut to destruction
| across the murderers scaffold. Home has
lost all charms fo- the gambler. How tame
are the children's caresses and wife's de-
votion 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 drive the heart faster FLIP the blood
and fire the imagination. No home, how
ever bright can keep back the gamester.
| The sweet call OF love bounds back from
| his iron soul, and all endearments are con-
sumed in the fire of his passion. The
family Bible will go after all other treas
| ures are lost, and il his crown in heaven
were put into his hands he would cry:
| Here goes; one more game, my boys. On
this one throw stake my crown of heaven"
| The Church of God has not seemed will
| ing to allow the world to have all the ad-
| vantage 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. Forthwith the SON.
| ductors of the enterprise conclude that
| they will rattle for some of the valuable
| articles, and, under pretense of anxiety to
make their minister n present or please
some popular member of the church, fasci-
mating persons are dispatched through tho
room pencil in hand, to "solicit shares"
or perhaps each draws for his own advant-
| age, and scores of people go home with
their trophies, thinking that 1t is all right,
| for Christian women did the embroidery
and Christian men did the rafting, and the
| proceeds went toward new communion
| set. But you may depend on it that as far
| as morality is concerned, you might as
| well have won by the crack of the billiard
| ball or the turn of the dice box. Do YOU
wonder that churches are built lighted, or
upholstered by such processes as that come
to great financial and spiritual decrepitude2
All this l style ecclesiastical gambling.
More than one man who is destroyed can
say that his first step on the wrong road
was when he won something at a church
fair.
Shall I sketch the history Of the gambler?
Lured by bad company, he finds his way
into place where honest men ought
never to go. He sits down to his first
game, but only for pastime and the desire
of being thought sociable. The players
deal out the cards. They unconsciously
play into satan's hands, who takes all the
tricks and both the players souls for
trumps-he being sharper at any game.
slight stake is put up, just to add inter-
est to the play. Game after game Is
played. Larger stakes and still larger
They begin to move nervously on their
chairs. Their brows lower, and eyes flash,
fired alike with passion, sit with set jaws
and compressed lips, and clenched fists,
and eyes like flreballs that seem starting
from their sockets, to see the final turn
before it comes; II losing. pale with envy
and tremulous with unuttered oaths cast
ptch fCu-hol upon tuo HoutL-OE winning
with hysteric laugh-"Ha! ha! Ihave itl'
A few years have passed, and he is only
| the wreck OF man. Seating himself at the
game, ere he throws the first card, he
stakes the last relic OF his wife-the mar
riage ring which sealed the solemn vows
between them. The game is lost, and, stag
gering back in exhaustion, he dreams.
The bright hours OF the past mock his
agony, and in his dreams flends with eyes
OF fire and tongues OF flames circle about
him with joined hands. to dance and sing
their orgies with hellish chorus, chanting:
Hail, brother!'' kissing his clammy fore
head until their loathsome locks, flowing
with serpents, crawled into his bosom, and
sink their sharp fangs and suck up his
lifes blood, and, colling around his head,
pinch 1t with chills and shudders unutter-
able.
Take warning! You are no stronger than
tens OF thousands who have by this praa-
tice been overthrown. No young man in
our cities can escape being tempted. Be-
ware OF the first beginnings! This road is
a down grade and every instant increases
the momentum. Launch not upon this
treacherOus set Snlft I'm K q ar raw I II a hoo oh