The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-04-09

A Mpool room, and
REV saloon, and every
table, public or private, where men
and women bet for sums OF money,
large or small, and, that is a word in
carnadined with the life of innumer'
able victims-Aceldama.
The gambling spirit, which is at al
times a stupendous evil ever and anon
sweeps over the country like an cpl
demic, Frustrating u~ncounted thou
sands. There has never been a worse
attack than that from which all the
villages, towns aud cities are now suf-
fering.
While among my hearers and read
ers 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, a
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 glancing, PUSHES on be-
tween fiowery 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 mechanical
arts, to hammer and chisel your way
through life. and success awaits you.
Some are preparing for professional
life. and grand opportunities are be-
fore you; nay, some of you already
have buckled on the armor. But,
whatever your age and calling, the
subject of gambling about which l
speak to-day is pertinent.
Some years ago, when an association
for the suppression of gambling was
organized, an agent of the association
came to a prominent citizen and asked
him to ~patronize the society. He said:
'No, / can have no interest in such an
organization. ] am in no wise affect
ed by the evil At hat very time his
son, who was his partner in business,
was one of the heaviest players in a
famous gambling establishment. An
other refused his patronage on the
same ground, not knowing that his
first bookkeeper, though receiving a
salary of only 81. 600. was losing from
$50 to 500 per night. The president
of q railroad company refused to pat
onize the institution, saying: THAT
society is good for the defense of mer-
chants, but we railroad people are not
injured by this evil;" not knowing
that at that very time two of his con-
ductors were spending three nights of
zach week at faro tables in New York.
Directly or indirectly this evil strikes
at the whole world.
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 principal is the came. The
shutting and dealing cards, however
full Of temptation, is not gambling IN
less stakes are put up; while, on the
other hand. gambling may be carried
on without cards, or dice, or billiards,
or a ten-pin alley. The man who bets
on horses, on elections, on battles, the
man who deals in fancy" stocks, pr
conducts a business which hazards ex.
ira capital, or goes into transactions
without foundation, but dependent
upon what men call "luck" is a gam
bier.
Whatever you expect to get from
your neighbor without offering an
equivalent in money, or time, or skill,
is either the product of theft OF gam
ing. Lottery tickets and lottery poll
cies come into the same category.
Bazars for the founding of hospitals,
schools and churches. conducted on the
rafting system, come under the same
denomination. Do not, therefore, as
gambling necessarily with any
or game, or time, or place,
think the principle depends upon
whether you play for a glass of wine
100 shares of railroad took. Wheth-
err you ~patronize auction POOLS"
French mutuals," or ''bookmaking,'
yvhsther 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 yop a good
for which you give no equivalent.
This crime is no new born sprite, but
haggard transgression that comes
down under a mantle of
curses through many centuries. All
nations, barbarous and civilized, have
been addicted to it.
But now the laws of the whole civil
lied world denounce the system. En-
have been passed, but only
partially enforced, and at times not
enforced at all. The men interested
in gaming houses, and in jockey clubs,
WELD such influence by their numbers
and afiuence, that the Judge, the jury
and the police officer must be bold in
deed who would array themselves
against these infamous establishments.
The house of of England
actually adjourns ON derby day thot
members may attend the races; and in
the best circles or society in this coun-
try to-day are many hundreds of pro-
respectable men who aFS ac-
gamblers.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in
this land are every day won and lost
through sheer gambling. Says a trav-
eler through h west, II have trav-
eled 1000 miles at a time upon the
waters, and seen gambling at
syery waking moment from the COM
mencement to the Termination Of the
Journey" The southwest of this coun-
reeks with this sin. In some of
those cities every third or fourth house
in many of the streets is Il gaming
place, and it may be truthfully averred
CdCb Va u NAC - tAoCo WIN
this evil. Men wishing to gamble will
ind places just suited to their capacity,
not only in the underground oyster
or at the table back of
the curtain, covered with greasy
cards, or in the steamboat smoking
where the bloated wretch with
in his ears deals out his pack,
and winks in the unsuspectjpg traveller
free drinks all around
but in gilded parlOrs and amid gor-
geoas surroundings. This sin works
ruin. first, by providing an unhealth-
full stimulant. Excitement is pleasur-
able. Under every sky and in every
age men have sought il. We must ct
times have excitement. 4 thousand
voices ia our nature demand it. 1t IS
light. 1t is healthfuL 1t IS inspiring.
Z is a desire God-giyep. But anything
hat first %gratifes this appetite and
lurls it back in a terrific reaction is
and wicked. Look out for
agitation that. like q rough must
,ian in bringing out the tune plays so
he breaks down the instrument!
3od never made a man strong enough