The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-08-01

L
nation in szis national capital large |
book in which one of the early pres
idents of the United States kept an
account IN his own handwriting of
gains ana losses at playing cards
on one page the gains and on the
other the losses, and there are many
pages. IN other days many OF ma
tional reputation went from the halls
of congress and the senate chamber
to spend the night in notorious gam
bling saloons. One of the ablest men
of the centuries, Charles Fox, got
ready for his speech against "The
Petition of the Clergy" by spending
% hours at the gambling table. Irv-
ing's life of Oliver Goldsmith says
that the great poet lost $50, all his
earnings, in short tour to see the
world. Gibbon, the author of "The
Decline and Fall of the Roman EN-
pire," came to his own decline and
fall through gaming practices and
in a letter in 1776 said: Il have un-
done myself, and it is to no purpose
! to conceal from you my abominable
madness and folly. / have never lost
so much in five days as | have to-
night, and | am in debt to the house
for the whole"
One act of fraud told of in big head
! lines in the morning papers rightfully
arouses the nations wrath. 1t is the
j interest of every good man and good
woman who reads of the crime to have
! it exposed and punished. Let it go un-
scathed, and you put premium on
fraud, you depress public morals, you
induce those who are on the fence be-
tween right and wrong to get down on
the wrong side, and you put the busi-
ness of the world on a down grade.
The constabulary and penitentiary
must do their work. But while the
merciless and the goddess cry: "Good
for him!" 81 am glad he is within the
prison doors!" be it your work to find
out if that man is worth saving and
what were the causes of his moral
overthrow. Perhaps he started, in
business life under tricky firm, who
gave him wrong notions of business
integrity; perhaps there was combi-
nation of circumstances almost un
paralleled for temptation; perhaps
there were alleviations; perhaps he
was born wrong and never got over it;
perhaps he did not realize what he was
doing, and if you are merciful man
you will think of other perhapses
which, though they may not excuse,
will extenuate. Perhaps he has al
ready repented and is washed in the
blood of the Lamb, and is as sure of
Heaven as you are. What an opportu-
. nifty you have for obeying my text.
You were angry at the misdemanor,
but you are hopeful for the recovery
of the recalcitrant. Blessed all prison
reformers! Blessed are those gov
ernors and presidents who are glad
when they have a chance to pardon!
Blessed the forgiving father who well
comes home the prodigal! Blessed
the dying thief whom the Lord took
with Him to glory, saying: 'This day
shalt thou be with Me in Paradise!''
, There is another evil that we ought
to abhor, while we try to help the
victim, and that is infidelity. 1t
, snatches the life preserver from the
, man afioat and affords not so much
as a spar or a plank as substitute. II
,, would eXtinguish the only light that
= has ever been kindled for the troubled
and the lost. Let the spirit of inf
= deity take hold of neighborhood
and in that town the marriage rela
. ton is a farce and good morals give
= place to all styles of immorals. Let il
. | ~ ar~fh
there will be no virtue left in all the
l. worlds circumference. All the sin!
rebuked in the Ten Commandment!
would be dominant. The torch tha
q shall kindle the confiagration of th'
. earth in its last catastrophe will no
do as much damage as would infdel
8 ity and agnosticism, if they got tn
Ii chance. Be angry with such theorie
l. of unbe1ief and hatred of God. Neve
u laugh at the witticisms of those VIII
IS would belittle the Bible with thei
Il iocularity Quote to them the fou
IL lines of Whittier:
And weary seekers of the best
le We come back laden with our quest
To find that all the sages said
,e Is in the book our mothers read.
II Have lightning in your eye and
70 flush in your cheek and frown o
l. your brow for bastard that woul
1t blot out the sun and moon and star
,r of Christianity and leave all things i
er an arctic night, the cold equal to tn
c. darkness. You do well to be angr.
u but how about those who have bee
le flung of scepticism, and that is nor
in millions than you will ever know {
I'd until the judgment day reveals ever,
OF thing. All, here comes your opport7
il nifty for gentleness, kindness an
to sympathy. The probability is that
e. you had been piled with the same il
tn fluences as this unbeliever the1
n, would not be a Bible in all yol
rs house from cellar to attic. Perhal
ay he was in some important transactie
On swindled by member of the churt
in whose taking of the sacrament was
sacrilege. Perhaps he read agnost