The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-04-06
THE GAMBLING SPIRIT.
DR.. Talmage breaches a Strong
Sermon Against It.
The EVIL Now Sweeping Over Our Country
1t Kills Industry as Well as Morality
Church Lotteries Included in the
General DenunciatiOn.

Al MS ldtSSl ScTlHOH tne pOpuldl
Washington divine calls attention to
the misery produced by the internal
spell of the gamester and sounds
warning note to those who are attrac:
ed by this sin. His text is Acts /: 10:
"Aceldama, that is to say the field of
blood"
The money that Judas gave for sur
rendering Christ was used to purchase
a graveyard. AS the money was blood
money, the ground bought by it was
called lin the Syriac tongue, "Aceldama,
meaning The field OF blood" Well,
there is one word want to write to-
day over every race course where
wagers are staked, and every pool room,
and every gambling saloon, and every
table, public or private, where men and
women bet for sums of money, large
or SMALL and that is word incarna-
dined with the life of innumerable vic
tims-Aceldama.
The gambling spirit, which is at all
times StupendouS evil, ever and anon
sweeps over the country like an cpl
demic, prostrating uncounted thou
sands There has never been worse
attack than that from which all the vii
lages, towns, and cities are now suffer-
ing.
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 crimsons with
the glow OF the setting sun, 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, rushcs on between howery banks,
making music as it goes. Some OF you
are engaged in mercantile concerns, as
clerks and bookkeepers, and your
whole life is to be passed in the exciting
world of traffic. The sound of busy
life stirs you as the drum stirs the fiery
war horse. Others are in the mechan
cal arts, to hammer and chisel your
way through life, and success awaits
you. Some are preparing for profes-
sional life and grand opportunities are
before you; nay some of you already
have buckled on the armor But, what
ever your age and calling, the subject
OF gambling about which | speak to-
day is pertinent.
Some years ago, when an association
for the suppression OF gambling was or,
ganized, an agent OF the association
came to a prominent citizen and asked
him to patronize the society. He said
mo, | can have no interest in such al
organization. / am in no wise affected
by the evil" At that time his son
who was his partner in business, was
one of the heaviest players in famous
gambling establishment. Another re-
fusedhis patronage on the same ground
not knowing that his first bookkeeper
though receiving salary OF only $4,000
was losing from $50 to 800 per night
The president of railroad company
refused to patronize the institution, say
ing: THAT Society is good for the de
fense OF merchants, but we railroad peo
pie are not injured by this evil" no
knowing that, at that very time, two o
his conductors were spending thre
nights of each week at faro tables il
New York. Directly or indirectly thi
evil strikes at the whole world.
Gambling is the risking of something
more or less valuable than you hazard
The instruments OF gaming may differ
but the principle is the same. TIL
shuff1ing and dealing of cards, howeve
full Of temptation, is not gambling un
less stakes are put up; while, on tn
other hand, gambling may be carrie,
on without cards, or dice, or billiard;
or a ten-pin alley The man who bet
on horses, on elections, on battles, tn
man who deals in fancy" stocks, o
conducts business which hazards ex
ira capital, or goes into transaction
without foundation bit dependent upo
what men call luck" is gambler.
Whateveryou expect to get from you
neighbor without offering an equivalen
in money, or time, or skill is either tn
product of theft or gaming. Lotter
tickets and lottery policies come int
the same category. Bazars for tn
founding of hospitals, schools, an
churches, conducted on the rattle syS
TEN, come under the same denomina
ton. Do not, therefore, associat
gambling necessarily with any instru
ment. or game, or time, or place, O
think the principle depends upon whctl
er you play for a glass OF wine or on
hundred shares of railroad stool
Whether you patronize auction pools,
French mutuals," or "book-making,
whether you employ faro or billiard
rondo or keno, cards or bagatclle, tn
very idea of the thing is dishonest; fc
it processes to bestow upon you a goo
for which you give no equivalent.
This crime is no newborn sprite, bt
a haggard transgression that come
staggering down under a mantle {
curses through many centuries All n;
tions, barbarous and civilized, have bee
addicted to it.
But now the laws of the whole ci,
ilzed world denounce the system
Fnactments have been passed, but onl
partially enforced, and at times not Ell
forced at all. The men interested
gaming houses, and in jocky clut
WELD such influence by their number
and affluence, that the judge, the jur.
and the police officer must be bold il
deed who would array themselvt
against these infamous establishment
The House OF Commons Of Englan
actually adjourns on Derby day tht
members may attend the races; and
the best circles OF society in this coul
try to-day are many hundreds Of pre-
fessedly respectable men who are a
knowledged gamblers.
Hundreds Of thousands OF dollars
this land are every day being won ar
lost through sheer gambling. Says
traveller through the West: 81 hay
travelled a thousand miles at a time III
on the Western waters, and seen gam
ling at every waking moment from Il
commencement to the termination
the journey" The southwest of TIL