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A DOWNWARD PATH.
*
-• ’ f ±1 •••' ~
dr. TALMAGE POINTS OUT THE ENO
OF THE GAMBLER.
A Powerful Indictment of th. Evil. In
volved la Game, of ■ Chaao. Chnrch
w.ate. Doaounced—Bettlas BmoIU la
Moral M Welliaa Financial Low.
[Copyright, 18P8. Press Arao
'TVabhingtOH, April 3.—The spirit of
rd in this sermon Is arraigned by Dr.
Talmage, and the downward path of the
gamester is plainly pointed out; text,
Acts 1, 19, “Aoeldama—that Is to say, the
field of blood.”
The money that Judas gave for surren
dering Christ was used to purchase a
graveyard. As the money was blood mon
ey, the ground bought by It was called in
the Syriac tongue Aceldama, meaning
“the field of blood.” Well, there Is one
word I want to write today over every
race course where wagers are staked and
every poolroom and every gambling saloon
and every table, public or private, where
men and women bet for sums of money,
large or small, and that Is a word Incar
nadined with the life of Innumerable vic
tims—Aoeldama.
The gambling spirit, which is at all
> times a stupendous evil, ever and anon
sweeps over the country like an epidemic,
prostrating uncounted thousands. Thero
has never been a worse attack than that
from which all the villages, towns and
. oities are now suffering.
While among my hearersand readers are
those who have passed on into the after
noon of life and the shadows are lengthen
ing and the sky crimsons with the glow
of the setting sun, a large numbernf them
are in early life, and the morning is com
ing down out of the clear sky upon them,
and the bright air is redolent with spring,
blossoms, and the stream of life, gleaming
and glancing, rushes on between flowery
«banks, making music as It goes. Some of
you are engaged in mercantile concerns as
clerks and bookkeepers, and your
life ireto be passed in ijhe 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 pro
fessional life, and grand opportunities are
before you—nay, some of you already have
buckled on the armor. But, whatever your
age and calling, the subject of gambling,
About which I speak today, Is pertinent.
A Worldwide SVil. *
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 pat
ronize the society. He said: "No; I can
have no interest in such an organization.
lam in nowise affected by the evil.” At
that very time his son, who was his part
ner in business, was one of the heaviest
players in a famous gambling establish
ment. Another refused his patronage on
the same ground, not knowing that his
first bookkeeper, though receiving a salary
of only 14,000, was losing from <SO to 1100
per night. The president of a railroad
company refused to patronize the institu
tion, Baying," That society is good for the
defense of merchants, but we railroad peo
ple are not injured by this evil” not
knowing that at that very time two of his
conductors were spending three nights of
each week at faro tables in New Yofk.
Directly or indirectly this evil strikes at
the whole world.
Gambling is the risking of something
more or less valuable in the hope of win
ning more than you hazard. The instru
ments gaming may differ, but the prin
ciple is me same. The shuffling and deal
ing cards, however full of temptation, is not
gambling unless stakes are put up, while
on the other hand gambling may be car
ried on without cards or dice or billiards
or a tenpin alley. The man who bets on
horses, on elections, on battles, the man
.who deals in “fancy” stocks or conducts a
business which hazards extra capital or
goes into transactions without foundation,
but dependent upon what men Call*‘luck,”
is a gambler.
Whatever you expect to get from your
neighbor without offering an equivalent in
money or time or skill is either the product
of theft or gaming. Lottery tickets and
lottery policies come into the same cate
gory. Bazaars for the founding of hospi
tals, schools and churches, conducted on
the raffling system, come under the same
denomination. Do not, therefore, associ
ate gambling necessarily with any instru
' ment or game or time or place or think
the principle depends upon whether you
play for a glass of wine or 100 shares of
railroad stock. Whether you patronize
auction pools, French mutuals or book
making,, whether you employ faro or bil
liards, rondo and keno, cards or bagatelle,
the very idea of the thing is dishonest, for
It professes to bestow upon you a good for
which you give no equivalent.
The Curse of Centuries.
This crime is no newborn sprite, but a
haggard transgression that oomes stagger
ing 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 civilized
world denounce the system. Enactments
have been passed, but only partially en
forced, and at times not enforced at all
.-The men Interested in gaming bouses and
in jockey clubs wield such influence by
their numbers and affluence that the
judge, the jury and the polioeofficer must
be bold indeed who would array them
selves against these Infamous establish
ments. The house of commons of Eng
land actually adjourns on Derby day that
members may attend the races, and in the
best circles of society in this country today
are many hundreds of professedly respect
able men who are acknowledged gamblers.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in this
land are every day being won and lost
through sheer gambling. Says a traveler
through the west, “I have traveled 1,000
miles at a time upon the western waters
and seen gambling at every waking mo
ment from the commencement to ‘the
termination of the journey.” The south
west of this country reeks with this sin.
In some of those oities every third or
fourth house in many of the streets is a
gaming place, and it may bo truthfully
averred that each of our cities is cursed
With this evil.
Men wishing to gamble will find places
just suited to their capacity not only in
the underground oyster cellar or at the
t*We back of the curtain, covered with
greasy cards, or in the steamboat smok
*hg cabin, where the bloated wretch
with rings in his ears deals out his pack
and winks in the unsuspecting traveler,
providing free drinks all around, but in
gilded parlors and amid gorgeous sur
roundings. This sin works ruin first by
providing u'unheaithful stimulant. Ex
citement is pleasureable. Under every sky
„ -
and in every nge mon have sought it. We
must at times have excitement. A thou
sand vetoes in our nature demand it It
Is right. It is healthful. It is inspiriting.
&J».. » desire God given. But anything
that first gratifies this appetite and hurls
it back in a terrific reaction- is deplorable
and wicked. Look out for the agitation
that, like a rough musician, in bringing
out the tune plays so hard he breaks down
the Instrument. God never made a man
strong enough to endure the wear and tear
of gambling excitements.
The Rood to Rain.
A young man having suddenly inherit
ed a large property sits at the hazard ta
bles and takes up in a dice box the estate
won by a father’s lifetime's sweat and
shakes it and tosses it away. Intemper
ance coon stigmatizes its victim, kicking
him out, a slavering fool, into the ditch or
sending him, with the hic
cough, staggering up the street where bis
family lives. But gambling does not in
that way expose its victims. The gambler
may be eaten up by the gambier’s passjpn,
yet you only discover it by the greed in his
eyes, the hardness of his features, the
nervous restlessness, the threadbare coat
and his embarrassed business. Yet he is
on the road to ruin, and no preacher’s
voice or startling warning or wife’s en
treaty can make him stay for a moment
his headlong career.
The Infernal spell is on him, a giant is
aroused within, and though you bind him
with cables they would part like thread,
and though sou fasten him seven times
around with chains they would snap like
rusted wire, and though you piled up in
his path heaven high Bibles, tracts and
sermons and on the top, should set the
cross of the Son of God, over them all the
gambler would leap like a roe over the
rocks on his wuyto perdition. '.‘ Aceldama,
the field of blood I”
Again, this sin works ruin by killing
industry. A man used to reaping scores or
hundreds of dollars from the gaming table
will not be coirtent with slow work. He
will say, “ What is the use of trying to
make this <SO in my store when I can
make flvo times that in half an hour by
the dice?” You never knew a ’confirmed
gambler who was industrious. The men
given to this vice spend their time not ac
tively employed in the game in idleness or
intoxication or sleep or in corrupting new
victims. This sin has dulled the carpenter’s
saw and out the band of the factory wheel,
sunk the cargo, broken the teeth of the
farmer’s harrow and sent a strange light
ning to shatter the battery of the philoso
pher. The very first idea in gaming is at
war with all the industries of society.
Something For Nothing.
Any trpde or occupation that is of use is
ennobling. The street sweeper advances
the interests of society by the cleanliness
effected. The cat pays for the fragments it
eats by clearing the house of vermin. The
fly that takes the sweetness from the dregs
of the cup compensates by purifying the
air and keeping back the pestilence. But
the gambler gives not anything for that
which he takes. I recall that sentence. He
does make a return, but it is disgrace to
the man that he fleeces,- despair to his
heart, ruin to his business, anguish to his
wife, shame to bis children and eternal
wasting away to bis soul. He pays in tears
and blood and agony and darkness and
woe.
What dull work is plowing to tho farm
er when in the village saloon in one night
he makes and loses the value of a summer
harvest! Who will wpnt to sell tapes and
measure cut garments and
weigh sugar whenTn a night’s game he
makes and loses and makes again and
loses again the profits of a season?
John Borack was sent as a mercantile
agent from Bremen to England and this
country. After two years his employers
mistrusted that all was not right. He was
a defaulter f&r <87,000. It was found that
he had lost in Lombard street, London,
<29,000; in Fulton street, New York, <lO,-
000, and in New Orleans <3,000. He was
imprisoned, but afterward escaped and
went into the gambling profession. He
died in a lunatic asylum. This crime is
getting its lever under many a mercan
tile house in our cities, and before long
down will come the great establishment,
crushing reputation, home comfort and
immortal souls. How it diverts and sinks
capital may be inferred from some authen
tic statement before us. The ten gaming
houses that once were authorized in Paris
passed through the banks yearly 825,000,-
000 francs.
Source of Dishonesty.
Furthermore, this sin is the source of
dishonesty. The game ot hazard Itself is
often a cheat. How many tricks afid de
ceptlons in the dealing of the cards I The
opponent’s band is ofttimes found out by
fraud. Cards are marked so that they may
be designated from the back. Expert
gamesters have their accomplices, and one
wink may decide the game. The dice have
been found loaded with platina co that
doublets oomo up every time. These dice
are introduced by the gamblers unob
served by the honest men Who have come
into the play, and this accounts for the
fact that 99 out of 100 who giunble, how
ever wealthy when they began, at the end
are found to be poor, miserable, haggard
wretches, that would not now be allowed
to sit in the doorstep of the house that
they once owned.
In a gaming house in San Francisco a
young man having just come from the
mines deposited a large sum upon the ace
and won <22,000. But the tide turns. In
tense anxiety comes upon the countenances
of all. Slowly the cards went forth. Ev
ery eye is fixed. Not a sound is heard un
til the ace is revealed favorable to the
bank. There are shouts of “Foul! Foul I”
but the keepers at the tables produce their
pistols, and the uproar is sileuoed, and the
bank has won <95,000. Do you call this a
game of chance? There is no chance
about it.
Notice also the effect of this crime upon
domestic happiness. It has sent its ruth
less plowshare through hundreds of fam
ilies, until the wife cat in rags and the
daughters were disgraced, and the sons
grew up to the same infanious practices or
took a short cut to destruction across the
murderer's scaffold. Home has lost all
charms for the gambler. How tame are
the children’s caresses and a wife’s devo
tion to the gambler l How drearily the fire
burns on the domestic hearth I There
must be louder laughter and something to
win and something to lose, an excitement
to drive the heart faster, fillip the blood
and fire the imagination. No home, how
rer bright, can keep back the gamester.
The sweet call of love bounds back from
his iron soul, and all endearments are con
sumed in the fire of his passion. The fam
ily Bible will go after all other treasures
are lost, and if his crown in heaven were
put into his hand he would ery: "Here
goes—one more game, my boysl On this
one throw I stake my crown of heaven I”
Dest ro ye r of Youth. -
A young man in London on coming of
age received a fortune of <120,000, and
through gambling in three years was
thrown* ok his mother for support. An
■/ ’ .r
only son went to New Orleans. Ha was
rich, intellectual and elegant in manneHL
His parents gave i.im on his departure
from home their last ble- sing. The sharp
ers got hold of him. They flattered him.
They lured him to the gaming table and
let him win almost ersry time for a good
while and patted him on the back and
said,“First rate player.” But, fully in
their grasp, they fleeced him, and hie
<BO,OOO was lost. Last of all, he put up
his watch and lost that. Then he began
to think of his home, and of his old father
and mother, and wrote thus:
“My beloved parents, you will doubtldfe
feel a momentary joy at the reception of
this letter from the child of your bosom,
on whom you have lavished all the favors
of your declining years. But should a
feeling of joy for a moment spring up tn
your hearts when you should have re
ceived this from me, cherish it not I have
fallen deep, never to rise; Those gray
hairs that I should have honored and pro
tected I shall bring down in sorrow to the
grave. I will not curse my destroyer; but,
oh, my God, avenge the wrongs and impo
sitions practiced upon the unwary in away
that shall best please him I This, my dear
parents, is the last letter you will ever re
ceive from me. I humbly pray your for
giveness. It is my dying prayer. Long
before you will have received this from me
the cold grave will have closed upon sne
forever. Life to me is insupportable. I
cannot—nay, I will not—suffer the shame
of having ruined you. Forget and forgive
is -the dying prayer of your unfortunate
son.”'’
The old father came to the postoffloe,
got the letter and fell to the floor. They
thought he was dead at first, but they
brushed back the white hair from his brow
and fanned him. He had only fainted.
“Aoeldama, the field of blood!”
When things go wrong at n gaming ta
ble, they shont: “Foul! Foul!” Over all
the gaming tables of the world I cry out:
“Foul! Foul! Infinitely foul!”
Gambling In* Churches.
“Gift stores” are abundant throughout
the country. With a book or knife or sew
ing machine or coat or carriage there goes
a prize. At these stores people get some
thing thrown in with their purchase. It
may be a gold watch or a set of silver, a
ring or a farm. Sharp way to get off un
salable goods. It has filled the land with
fictitious articles anp covered up our pop
ulation with brass finger rings and de
spoiled the moral Sense of the community,
and is fast making us a nation of gam
blers.
The church of God has not seemed will
ing to allow the world to have all the ad
vantage of these games of chaiice. A
church bazaar opens, and toward the close
it is found that some of the more valuable
articles are unsalable. Forthwith the con
ductors of the enterprise conclude that
they will raffle for some of the valuable
articles, and under pretense of anxiety to
make their minister a present or please
sente popular member of the church fasci
nating persons are dispatched through the
room, pencil in band,, to “solicit shares,”
or perhaps eaeh draws for his own advan
tage, and scores of people go home with
their trophies, thinking that it is all right,
for Christian ladies did the embroidery
and Christian men did tho raffling, and
the proceeds went toward a new commun
ion set. But you may depend on ibthpt as
far as morality is concerned you might as
well have won by the crack of the billiard
ball or the turn of the dice box. Do you
wonder that churches built, lighted or
upholsted by such procreses as that come
to great financial ana spiritual decrepi
tude? The devil says, “I helped to build
that house of worship, and I have as much
right there as you have,” and for once tho
devil is right. Wo do not read that they
had a lottery for building the church at
Corinth or at Antioch or for getting up an
embroidered surplice for St. Paul. All
this I style ecclesiastical gambling. More
than one man who is destroyed qan say
that his first step on the wrong road was
when he won something at a church fair.
A Pernicious Custom.
The gambling spirit has not stopped for
any indecency. There transpired in Mary
land a lottery in which people drew for
lots in a burying ground. • The modern
habit of betting about everything is pro
ductive of Immense mischief. The most
healthful and innocent amusements of
yachting and baseball playing have been
the occasion of putting up excited and ex
travagant wagers. That which to many
has been advantageous to body and mind
has been to others the means of financial
and moral loss. The custom is pernicious
in the extreme where scores of men in re
spectable life give themselves up to bet
ting, now on this boat, now on that; now
on this ball club, now on that. Betting
that once was chiefly the aecompanfipent
of the race course is fast becoming a na
tional habit, and in some circles any opin
ion advanced on finance or politics is ac
costed with the Interrogation, “How much
will you bet on that, sir?”
This custom may make no appeal to
slow, lethargic temperaments, but there
are in the country tens of thousands of
quick, nervous, sanguine, excitable tem
peraments, ready to be acted upon, and
their feet will soon take hold on death.
For some months and perhaps for years
they will linger in the more polite and ele
gant circle of gamesters, but after awhile
their pathway will come to the fatal
plunge.
Shall I sketch the history of the gam
bler? Lured by bad company, he finds his
way into a place where honest men ought
never to go. He sits down to his first
game, but only for pastime and the desire
of being thought sociable. The players
deal out the cards. They unconsciously
play into satan’s hands, who takes all the
tricks and both the players’ souls for
trumps, he being a sharper al any game.
A slight stake is put up, just to add inter
est to the play. Game after game is played.
Larger stakes and still larger. They begin
to move nervously on their chairs. Their
brows lower and eyes flash, until now they
whd win and they who lose, fired alike
with passion, sit with set jays, and oom
pressed lips, and clinched fists, and eyes
like fireballs that seem starting from their
sockets, to see the final turn before it
OQmes. If losing, pale with envy and
tremulous with unuttered oaths cast back
redfaot upon the heart, or winning, with
hysteric laugh—“Ha, hai I have it!”
Lost Game and Soul.
A few years have passed, and he is only
the wreck of a man. Seating himself at
the game ere he throws the first card, he
stakes the last relic of bis wife—the mar
riage ring which sealed the solemn vows
between them. The game is lost, and,
staggering back in exhaustion, he dreams.
The bright hopre of the past mock his
agony, and in his dreams fiends with eyes
of fire, and tongues of flame circle about
him with joined hands, to dance and sing
their orgies with hellish chorus, chanting
“Hail brother!” kissing his clammy fore
head until their loathsome locks, flowing
with serpents. grawLtoto his bosom and
sink their tefiarprahgs and suck up his
lifeblood and, coiling around his heart,
pinch it with ehills and shudders unutter-
Take warning! You are no stronger
than tens of thousands who have by thia
practice been overthrown. No young man
in our cities can escape being tempted.
Beware of the first bogfaninge! Thifroedla
a down grade, and every instant increases
the momentum. Launch not upon this
treacherous sea. Splint bulks strew the
beach. Everlasting storms howl up and
down, tossing unwary craft into the Hell
Gate. I speak of what I have seen with
my own eyes. To a gambler’s deathbed
there oomes no hope. He will probably die
alone. His former associates come not
nigh his dwelling. When the hour oomes,
his miserable soul will go out of a miser
able life into a miserable eternity. As his
poor remains pass tho house where he was
ruined old oom panions may look'out for a
moment and say “Thero goes the old car
osas dead at last,” but they will not get
up from the table. Lot him down into his
grave. Plant no tree to cast its shade**
thero, for the long, deep* eternal gloom
that settles there is shadow enough. Plant
no forgetmenots or eglantines around the
spot, for flowers were not made to grow
on such a blasted heath.' Visit it not in
the sunshine, for that would be mockery,
but in the dismal night, when no stars
were out and the spirit of darkness oomo
down, horsed on the wind, then visit the
grave of the gambler.
Cuba Lott to Spian.
Spain cannot hope long to retain
Cuba, even if there should be no rup-
the United States The ire
land will be incapable for years’to
come of furnishing any considerable
revenue to anybody, while a foreign
war in Spain’s bankrupt condition will
mean ruin and revolutions Prudence
counsels Spain to maintain peace at
almost any cost But pii-'e forbids.
The consequences will be most serk
ons.—New Orleans Picayune
To Cara Constipation Forever.
Take Cascarets Candy Cathartic. 10c or 25c.
U C. C. C. fail to cure, drezgista refund money.
ANNOUNCEMENTS,
Tor County Commissioner.
To the Voters of Spalding County: I
hereby announce myself a candidate for
re-election to the office of County Commis
sioner of Spalding county, subject to the
democratic primary to be held on June 28,
1898. My record in the past is my pledge
for future faithfulness.
D. I. PATRICK.
For Bepressntatiye-
‘Editob Call: Please announce my
name as a candidate for Representative
from Spalding county, subject to the action
ot the democratic party. I shall be pleased
to receive the support of all the voters,and
if elected will endeavor to represent the
interests of the whole county.
J. B. Bell.
For Tax Collector-
I respectfully announce to the citizens
of Spalding county that I am a candidate
for re-election to the office of Tax Collec
tor of this county, subject, to the choice of
the democratic primary, and shall be
grateful for all votes given me.
' T. R. NUTT.
For County Treasurer.
To the Voters of Spalding County: I
announce myself a candidate for re-elec
tion for the office of County Treasurer,
subject to democratic primary, and if elect
ed promise to be as faithful in the per
formance of my duties in the fhture as I
have been in the past. -
J. C. BROOKS.
For Tax Bsoelvsr.
I respectfully announce myself as a can
didate for re-eifttion to the office of‘Fax
Receiver of Spalding county .subject to the
tuition of primary, if one is held.
8. M. M’CO WELL.
Tor Sheriff.
I .respectfully inform my friends—the
people of Spalding county—l am a
candidate for the office of Sheriff, subject
to the verdict of a primary, if one is held
Tour support will be thankfully received
and duly appreciated. .
M. J. PATRICK, i
For Sheriff.
I am a candidate for the democratic
nomination for Sheriff, and earnestly ask
the support of all my friends and the pub
lic. If nominated and elected, it shall be
my endeavor to fulfill the duties of the of
fice 28 faithfully as m the past.
M. F. MORRIS.
a.
* k <£ov**i£***w !
WAR MAY SOON
BE DECLARED
in popular favor between Spring broilers,
Spring lamb, and Spring veal for an appe
tizing dinner. Whichever your fancy
dictates you will find fresh and delicious,
Os excellent flavor and prime quality.
We are receiving them fresh every day.
J. R. SHEDD.
— .—w
• ; ' ■
AN OPEN LETTER
To MOTHERS.
WE ARE ASSERTING IN THE COURTS OUR RIGHT TO THE
EXCLUSIVE USE OF THE WORD T ARTORT A” AND
“PITCHER’S CASTOBIA,’’ AS our trade mark.
7, DR. SAMUEL PITCHER, qf Hyannis, Massachusetts,
wu the origmaior qf “PITCHER'S CASTORIA,” the same
that has borne and does now
bear the facsimile signature qf wrapper.
This is the original ** PITCHER’S CASTORIA, ’ whidMs
used in the homes qf the Mothers of America for over thirty
years. LOOK CAREFULLY at the wrapper and see that it is
‘ the kind you have always bought on the
and has the signature?6} wrap- 1
per. No one has authority from me to use my name ex
cept The Centaur Company qf which Chas. H. Fletcher is
March 8,1897.
Do Not Be Deceived.
Do not endanger the life of your child by accepting
a cheap substitute which some druggist may offer yo
(because he makes a few more pennies on it), the in
gredients of which even he does not know.
“The Kind You Have Always Bought”
BEARS THE FAC-SIMILE SIGNATURE G’F
4 /7
Insist on Having
The Kind That Never Failed You.
--- ■
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