The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-02-24

we always ma that play, Wnen
followed with assiduity, engrOsses
the whole woman. She quickly
grows uneasy in her own family,
takes but little pleasure in all the
domestic innocent endearments of
life, and grows more fond of pam
than of her husband"
Addison quotes the testimony of a
husband:
When she returns to me, with
JOY in her face, it does NOT arise
from the sight of her husband, but
from the good luck she has had at
cards. On the contrary says he,
If she has been a loser | am doubly
a sufferer by it. She comes home out
of humOr, is angry with everybody,
displeased with all that | could do
or say, and in reality for no other
reason but because she has been
throwing away my estate.
What race of worthless, what
patriots, what heroes, must we ex-
pect from mothers of this make!"
A portentiOus phase of the recent
gambling craze is that it has invaded
the churches, not merely those that
tacitly allow everything that does
| nv iAie'HNC q PuDl1C SOcliIudlJ UuJ IuOSe
that have reputation for greater
vigilance. Clergymen, in their de-
nominatiOnal meetings and their in
! terdenominational fraternal clubs,
| deplOre the situation more wildly
| than anything herein portrayed. but
confess their inability to change the
situation. The wives and daughters
of not few Clergymen play bridge
without the least regard to the in
fiuence they exert. So strong is the
tide, the total restitution of reason
or true devotion, that many would
give up their religious connections
rather than their gambling. The
knowledge of this has certainly
sllenced some Clergymen. Some of
another spirit participate with the
Iadles, and propose that the winnings
be devoted to the Cause of God ;"
Some ladies of high degree" have
gone straight from the Holy Com
munion, on Sunday, to the bridge
party. The fever has spread to all
! the great denominations. In Metho-
dist churches there are sad cases of
utter recklessness.
II mothers become so crazed with
play naturally daughters will imi-
tate them.
One of the professors of Wesley
College a few months ago issued a
statement to the students in which
she says:
The bridge playing fever does not
abate, 1t threatens to become a fixed
form of relaxation in college, espe-
cially among women. The
roWdiest college boy, however, does
not probably spend so much time in
his relaxation as does the quiet but
constant bridge player in our Wesley
community"
TO convince our readers that moth
| ing herein reaches the full measure
OF the situation we inform them that
III chicago the police department
ana the Law and Order League have
joined hands in a crusade to prevent
society women from gambling. The
edlct applies to cinch, whist. and en-
chre parties, in which the trophies
are cut glass and chinaware, as well
as to bridge and poker parties in
winch high monetary stakes are the
prizes.
No gambling mother can effect
lVely instruct her children in morals,
10 pray to God, or cause them to
learn and feel what they should as
simulate. Nor can she efficiently
warn them against vice of any kind
FOR, even if they attempt to do it.
their dangerous example will coun-
terWelgh their formal counsels. There
IS an intOXication without wine. and
the gambling spirit prevades the
whole nature. In many a house wine
and tea seasoned with brandy add
to the charms of bridge whist par
ties, and the hostess has been known
to abstain that she may play surer. -
The religion of these who give
themselves up to such things NAV
not be hypocritical, for many are
thoughtless, but it must be formal
and useless.
The cOrrupting influence of the
gambling mother also reaches the
children indirectly, through the hus-
band. There are young christian
men who would gladly make theirs a
christian household But they are
deferred by the influence of their
wives, who are ambitious to give the
gayest of dinners and bridge parties
AhC0C ulOJuSISy SOul0 Oh JQGm pro-
tessedly christians, have given them
selves to pleasure and are swallowed
Up in its vortex
DungeOned in a prison in the mid
die west was young man chained
to an iron bed, awaiting the day of
execution. His mother, whom he
had not seen in years, came to the
, prison to take leave of him. To the
: horror of the chaplain and even of
the jailer he refused to have the
interview. She came to the door and
pleaded with him. So far as his
shackles would allow he turned his
back upon her eXclaiming:
Go away.
1T was you that put the wine to
my lips.
''It was you that taught me to
|, gamble
1T was drinking and gambling
that brought me here"
Abnormal indeed was +hic front