The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-02-01

Furthermore, the E.mesters indul-
gence must be put IN the list Of temp
tations delicious s-t destructive. You
who have crossed b ocean many
times have noticed that always one OF
the best rooms has, from morning until
ate at night, G given up to gambl-
ing practices. I heard OF men who
went on board with enough for a Euro
can excursion who landed without
money to get their baggage up to the
hotel or railroad station To many
there is a complete fascination in
games OF hazard or the riskfng Of
money on possibilities. It seems as
natural for them to bet as to eat. In
deed the hunger for food is often over
powered by the hunger for wagers. 1t
is absurd for those OF US who have
never felt the fascination of the age
to speak slightingly Of the temptation.
1t has slain a multitude OF intellectual
and moral giants, men and women
stronger than you or I. Down under
its power went glorious Oliver Gold-
smith, n Gibbon, the famous histo-
rian, and Charles Fox, the renowned
statesman, and in olden times, senators
Of the United States. who used to be
as regularly at the gambling house all
night as they were in the halls Of leg
islation by day. Oh, the tragedies Of
the faro table! I know persons who
begun with a slight stalk in a ladies'
parlor, and ended with the suicides
pistol at Monte Carlo. They played
with the square pieces of bone with
black marks on them, not knowing that
satan was playing for their bones at
the same time, and was sure to sweep
all the stakes off or his side of the
table. State legislatures have again
o~I ocro;~ -o~ot;1-1l TN ~,i~Lfx will
by passing laws in defense of race
tracks, and many young men have
lost all their wages at uch so-called
meetings." Every man who voted
for such infamous bills has on his
, hands and forehead the blood of those
| souls.
But in this connection some young
| c%onvert say to me: rs it right to
play cards? Is there any harm in a
game of whist or euchre?" Well, I
know good men who all play whist,
and euchre, and other styles of games
without any wagers. I had a friend
who played cards with his wife and
children, and hen at the close said:
Come, now, let us have prayers I
will not judge other mems conscien-
ces, but I tell you that cards are in
my mind so associated with the tenn
| poral and spiritual ruin Of splendid
young men, that I would as soon say
to my family: Come, let us have a
| game of cards." as I would go into a
menagerie and say: Come, let us
have a game OF rattlesnakes," or into
a cemetery, and sitting down by a mar
BILE slab, say to the gravediggers:
Come let US have a game of skulls"
Conscientious young ladies are silently
saying: do you think card-playing
-,:l1 l. 1890 $1,000 %, Do~ho~- xoof
but how will you feel if in the great
day of eternity, when we are asked to
| give an account of u influence, some
man should say: 81 was introduced
to games of chance in the yea 1898,
at your house, and l went ON from
that sport to something more exciting
and ven on down until I lost my bus
mess, and lost my morals, and lost my
soul, and these chains that you see
on my wrists and feet are the chains
| of a gameSter's doom, and I am on my
way to a gamblers hell" Honey at
the start, eternal catastrophe at the
last.
Stock-gam61ers come into the same
catalogue. 1t must be very e~lila rat
ing to so into the stock market and,
depositing a small sum Of money, rum
the chance Of taking put a fortune.
Many men are doing an honest and
safe business in the stock market, n
you are an ignOramuS if w do ut
know that it is just as lesit'~2 : to
| deal in stocks as it is to deal il coffee,
or sugar, OF flour But nearly all the
| outsiders who go there on a financial
excursion lose all. The old spiders eat
up the unsuspecting flies. I had a
friend who put his hand ON his hip
| pocket, and said in substances: II have
/ t1arn tho xyo11Ja 0f fuyn h1,rI1~a1 n ND
fifty thousand dollars" His home is
to-day penniless. What was the mat
ter? Safeguarding. OF the vast
majority who are victimized you hear
not one word. One great stock firm
| goes down, and whole columns OF news
papers discuss their fraud or their dis
aster, and we are presented with their
features and their Biography, But
where one such famous firm ST. IS,
five hundred unknown men sink with
them. The great steamer goes down.,
and all the little boats are swallowed
in the same engulfment. Gambling is
gambling, whether in stocks or bread
stuffs, or dice, " race horse betting.
E~xhilaration at the start, but a raving
brain, and a shattered nervous system,
and a sacrificed property, and a des-
troyed soul at the last. Young men,
buy no lottery tickets, purchase no
prize packages, bet on no base BAH
games or yacht racing, a nc faith
in luck, answer no mysterious circu-
lars proposing great income for small
investment, drive away the buZzards
that hover around our hotels trying to
entrap strangers. Go out and make
an honest living. Have God on your
side, and be a candidate for heaven.
Remember all the paths Of sin are
banked with flowers at the start, and
there are plenty Of helpful hands to
fetch the gay charger to your door and
hold the stirrup while you mount. But
further on the horse plunges to the pit
in a slough inextriciable.
The best money is not like that which
Jonathan took on the end of the rOt
and brought to his lips, but that whioI
God puts on the banquetins table OF
mercy, at which we are II invited to
sit. 1 was reading of a boy among the