Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-18
Theatre, Cards. Dance Greater Enemies to
Spiritual Life of Church Than Saloons
Says Sunday in Sermon on Amusements

gambler that didn't learn to play
that's dead sure.
BE not deceived, God is not
Knocked" In one year, from re-
ports from a newspaper, 10S peo-
pie were shot, 76 attempted sui
eide and "a committed suicide; 60
were murdered. two were driven
insane, so were ruined, and the
crimes committed to get money
were eight. There were SO forg-
cries. and 80 cases where people
holding positions of honor and
trust absconded $2,500,000 with
which to gamble. A fellow will do
anything to get money to gamble,
but not to buy bread with. Boys
flip pennies on the street and the
police will pinch" them, but thy
have got to keep out of these pri-
vate reserves that will call our
homes, where they sit around, my
friends, and gamble.
Cards are one of society's con-
! tributions that isAdragging people
down to perdition. think cards
and the dance are greater enemies
to the SPIRITUAL life of the church,
my friends, than the saloon.
You don't imagine for a minute
that l am in favor of the saloon. 7
hope. l think the church loses 10
times more members that backslide
through the dance than through the
Ssaloon. 1t is time that good citi-
zenship and good morals begin TO
cry out against some of these evils
that are getting hold of our
, homes and wives and, children
until Our women are beginning TO
be To- of whisky-soaked low
downs, until today they have got
places where they go to smoke
/ cigarettes and hit the booze. When
a woman will do that, that's all
care to knoW-don't tell me any
more.
God knows. pity them from the
depths Of my soul. / am not here
to condemn; I am here to try and
help you, and ! will fight with all
the power that God gives me to
| try and free you from these curses.
A few years ago hardly a decent
woman would be seen in public
! drinking; now there is hardly a
| place where you can't find them.
Twenty-Five years ago you couldn't
find a decent woman drinking or
smoking-now. go around to the
! hotels! They are not satisfied 30
! damn our men and debauch our
boys, the dirty, sinking whisky
business is damning and debauch-
4, ing our women.
Can Gamble With Anything.
Oh, gambling may be carried on
without cards. You can gamble on
billiards, pool; you can gamble
with the roulette wheel, Wheel of
fortune. horse-racing, baseball,
football, stocks. etc, but nine-tenths
of all the gambling is done with 4
pack of cards. AS far as that goes,
you can gamble on anything. l
know who is going to win out
you bet your life do!
1t is Observation-Disclosures are
hard to get-that ~ $4,000, 900
changes hands a day in gambling,
! $125, S00,000,000 a year! 1t kills
industry. The fellow that can win
$500 or a thousand a night, lie
won't work; he will spend his time
hanging around saloons and drink
Ing and spending his time in abso-
lutte idleness. II dulls the new,
stops the engine, puts out the fires
in the hold of the ship and in the
furnace of the great big factories,
and all over and away it is drift
ing on.
There is nothing so tame as to
ask anybody to play game Of
cards for fun that's learned TO
play with the sky limit, or even
penny-ante. You couldn't hold
them. So they had to have their
progressive euchre and whist and
all these things. Why, some
: church members have cards on
their tables as often as food.-oh,
surel
The dance had its origin among
! the ancient Egyptians,-let me give
you some history. That's as far
as we know anything about it, and
it was described as an invitation of
: their god.
Plato tells US that dancing was
never used by the Egyptians as 2
social amusement. The sexes
never mingled together,-never! II
was a religious ceremony to their
gods. Men and women danced TO
their gods as religious exercises