The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-04-15

mencement to the termination of the
Journey" The southwest of this coun-
try reel1s with this sin. In some of those
cities every third or fourth house in
many of the streets is gaming place,
and it may be truthfully averred that
each of our cities is cursed with this
evil
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 COW
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 on the unsuspect-
ing providing free drinks all
around in gilded parlors and amid
gorgeous surroundings. This sin
works ruin, first, by providing an
unhea1thful stimulant. Excitement is
pleasurable. Under every sky and in
every age men have bought it. We
must at times have excitement. A
thousand voices in our nature demand
it. 1t is right. 1t is healthful. 1t is
inspiriting 1t is desire God-given.
But anything that first gratifies this
appetite and hurls it 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 excitements.
A young man having suddenly in
herited large property, sits at the
hazard tables, and takes up in dice
box the estate won by a fathers life
time sweat, and shakes it and tosseS it
away. Intemperance soon stigmatizes
it's 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 by the gamblers pas
sion, yet you only discover it by the
greed in his eyes, the hardness of his
features, 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 mo-
ment his headlong career.
The Internal spell is on him; giant
isaroused 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 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 gambler would leap like roe over
the rocks, on his way to perdition.
'Aceldama, the field of blood!''
Again, this sin works ruin by killing
industry. A man used to reaping scores
or hundreds of dollars from the gam
ing table will not be content with slow
work. He will say: What is the use
of tr ying to make these $50 in my store
when 1 can make five times that in
half an hour by the dice?" You never
knew confirmed gambler who was in
dustrious. The men given to this vice
spend their time not actively employed
in the game in idleness or intOXication,
or in sleep, or in corrupting new vic
Tins. This sin has .dulled the car
perter's saw and cut the band of the
factory wheel, sunk the cargo, broken
the teeth of the farmers harrow, and
sent strange lightning to shatter the
battery of the philosopher. The very
first idea of gaming is at war with all
the industries of society
Any trade or occupation that is of
use is ennobling. The street sweeper
advances 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. recall that SEN
tence. He does make a return, but it
is disgrace to the man he feeces, de-
spair to his heart, ruin to his business,
anguish to his wife, shame to his chill
dren 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
in nights game makes and loses and
loses and makes again and loses again
the profits of season?
John Borack was sent as mercan-
tile agent from Bremen to England and
this country. After two years his en-
ployers mistrusted that all was not
L E. GsCo--
1t was found that he had lost in Lom-
bard street, London, $29, 900; in Fulton
street, New York, $4,000, and in New
Orleans, $4,000. He was imprisoned,
but afterwards 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 establish
ment, crushing reputation, home COM
fort and immortal souls. How it di-
verts 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 deceptions in the dealing of
the cards! The opponents hand is
often found out by fraud. Cards are
marked so that they may be designated
from the back. Expert gamblers have
their accomplices, 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 honest men who