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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34743-h.zip b/34743-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5837b2d --- /dev/null +++ b/34743-h.zip diff --git a/34743-h/34743-h.htm b/34743-h/34743-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e5e561 --- /dev/null +++ b/34743-h/34743-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1857 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Gamblers And Gambling, by Henry Ward Beecher + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + .pblockquot{margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gamblers and Gambling, by Henry Ward Beecher + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Gamblers and Gambling + +Author: Henry Ward Beecher + +Release Date: December 24, 2010 [EBook #34743] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Hunter Monroe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 320px;"> +<img src="images/cover.png" width="320" height="509" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 320px;"> +<img src="images/frontispiece.png" width="320" height="391" alt="HENRY WARD BEECHER." title="HENRY WARD BEECHER." /> +<span class="caption">HENRY WARD BEECHER.</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>Gamblers and<br /> +Gambling</h1> + + +<h2> By Rev. Henry</h2> +<h2> Ward</h2> +<h2> Beecher</h2> + +<p class="center"> Philadelphia<br /> + Henry Altemus</p> + +<p class="center"> Copyrighted, 1896, by <span class="smcap">Henry Altemus</span>.</p> + +<p class="center"> Henry Altemus, Manufacturer,</p> +<p class="center"> Philadelphia.</p> + + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 320px;"> +<img src="images/tpage.png" width="320" height="485" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1> GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING</h1> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his +garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part, and also +his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top +throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend +it, but cast lots far it, whose it shall be. These things +therefore the soldiers did.</p></div> + + +<p>I have condensed into one account the +separate parts of this gambling transaction +as narrated by each evangelist. +How marked in every age is a Gambler's +character! The enraged priesthood of +ferocious sects taunted Christ's dying +agonies; the bewildered multitude, accustomed +to cruelty, could shout; but no +earthly creature, but a Gambler, could be so +lost to <i>all</i> feeling as to sit down coolly +under a dying man to wrangle for his garments, +and arbitrate their avaricious differences +by casting dice for his tunic, with +hands spotted with his spattered blood, +warm and yet undried upon them. The +descendants of these patriarchs of gambling,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> +however, have taught us that there is nothing +possible to hell, uncongenial to these, +its elect saints. In this lecture it is my +disagreeable task to lead your steps down +the dark path to their cruel haunts, there to +exhibit their infernal passions, their awful +ruin, and their ghastly memorials. In this +house of darkness, amid fierce faces gleaming +with the fire of fiercer hearts, amid oaths +and groans and fiendish orgies, ending in +murders and strewn with sweltering +corpses,—do not mistake, and suppose +yourself in Hell,—you are only in its precincts +and vestibule.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Gambling is the staking or winning of +property upon mere hazard. The husbandman +renders produce for his gains; the +mechanic renders the product of labor and +skill for his gains; the gambler renders for +his gain the sleights of useless skill, or +more often, downright cheating. Betting +is gambling; there is no honest equivalent +to its gains. Dealings in fancy-stocks are +oftentimes sheer gambling, with all its +worst evils. Profits so earned are no better +than the profits of dice, cards, or hazard. +When skill returns for its earnings a useful +service, as knowledge, beneficial amuse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span>ments, +or profitable labor, it is honest commerce. +The skill of a pilot in threading a +narrow channel, the skill of a lawyer in +threading a still more intricate one, are as +substantial equivalents for a price received, +as if they were merchant goods or agricultural +products. But all gains of <i>mere</i> skill +which result in no real benefit, are gambling +gains.</p> + +<p>Gaming, as it springs from a principle of +our nature, has, in some form, probably +existed in every age. We trace it in +remote periods and among the most barbarous +people. It loses none of its fascinations +among a civilized people. On the +contrary, the habit of fierce stimulants, the +jaded appetite of luxury, and the satiety of +wealth, seem to invite the master-excitant. +Our land, not apt to be behind in good or +evil, is full of gambling in all its forms—the +gambling of commerce, the gambling of +bets and wagers, and the gambling of games +of hazard. There is gambling in refined +circles, and in the lowest; among the members +of our national government, and of our +state governments. Thief gambles with +thief, in jail; the judge who sent them +there, the lawyer who prosecuted, and the +lawyer who defended them, often gamble +too. This vice, once almost universally +prevalent among the Western bar, and still<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> +too frequently disgracing its members, is, +however, we are happy to believe, decreasing. +In many circuits, not long ago, and +in some now, the judge, the jury, and the +bar, shuffled cards by night, and law by +day—dealing out money and justice alike. +The clatter of dice and cards disturbs your +slumber on the boat, and rings drowsily +from the upper rooms of the hotel. This +vice pervades the city, extends over every +line of travel, and infests the most moral +districts. The secreted lamp dimly lights +the apprentices to their game; with unsuspected +disobedience, boys creep out of their +beds to it; it goes on in the store close by +the till; it haunts the shop. The scoundrel +in his lair, the scholar in his room; the +pirate on his ship, gay women at parties; +loafers on the street-corner, public functionaries +in their offices; the beggar under the +hedge, the rascal in prison, and some professors +of religion in the somnolent hours +of the Sabbath,—waste their energies by +the ruinous excitement of the game. +Besides these players, there are troops of +professional gamblers, troops of hangers-on, +troops of youth to be <i>drawn</i> in. An inexperienced +eye would detect in our peaceful +towns no signs of this vulture-flock;—so in +a sunny day, when all cheerful birds are +singing merrily, not a buzzard can be seen;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +but let a carcass drop, and they will push +forth their gaunt heads from their gloomy +roosts, and come flapping from the dark +woods to speck the air, and dot the ground +with their numbers.</p> + +<p>The universal prevalence of this vice is a +reason for parental vigilance; and a reason +of remonstrance from the citizen, the parent, +the minister of the gospel, the patriot, and +the press. I propose to trace its opening, +describe its subjects, and detail its effects.</p> + +<p>A young man, proud of freedom, anxious +to exert his manhood, has tumbled his +Bible, and sober books, and letters of counsel, +into a dark closet. He has learned +various accomplishments, to flirt, to boast, +to swear, to fight, to drink. He has let +every one of these chains be put around +him, upon the solemn promise of Satan that +he would take them off whenever he +wished. Hearing of the artistic feats of +eminent gamblers, he emulates them. So, +he ponders the game. He teaches what he +has learned to his shopmates, and feels +himself their master. As yet he has never +played for stakes. It begins thus: Peeping +into a book-store, he watches till the sober +customers go out; then slips in, and with +assumed boldness, not concealing his +shame, he asks for cards, buys them, and +hastens out. The first game is to pay for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> +the cards. After the relish of playing for a +stake, no game can satisfy them <i>without</i> a +stake. A few nuts are staked; then a bottle +of wine; an oyster-supper. At last they +can venture a sixpence in <i>actual money</i>—just +for the amusement of it. I need go +no further—whoever wishes to do anything +with the lad, can do it now. If properly +plied, and gradually led, he will go to any +length, and stop only at the gallows. Do +you doubt it? let us trace him a year or +two further on.</p> + +<p>With his father's blessing, and his +mother's tears, the young man departs +from home. He has received his patrimony, +and embarks for life and independence. +Upon his journey he rests at a city; +visits the "school of morals;" lingers in +more suspicious places; is seen by a +sharper; and makes his acquaintance. The +knave sits by him at dinner; gives him the +news of the place, and a world of advice; +cautions him against sharpers; inquires if +he has money, and charges him to keep it +secret; offers himself to make with him the +rounds of the town, and secure him from +imposition. At length, that he may see all, +he is taken to a gaming-house, but, with +apparent kindness, warned not to play. +He stands by to see the various fortunes of +the game; some, forever losing; some,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> +touch what number they will, gaining piles +of gold. Looking in thirst where wine is +free. A glass is taken; another of a better +kind; next the best the landlord has, and +two glasses of that. A change comes over +the youth; his exhilaration raises his +courage, and lulls his caution. Gambling +<i>seen</i>, seems a different thing from gambling +<i>painted</i> by a pious father! Just then his +friend remarks that one might easily double +his money by a few ventures, but that it +was, perhaps, prudent not to risk. Only +this was needed to fire his mind. What! +only prudence between me and gain? +Then that shall not be long! He stakes; +he wins. Stakes again; wins again. +Glorious! I am the lucky man that is to +break the bank! He stakes, and wins +again. His pulse races; his face burns; his +blood is up, and fear gone. He loses; loses +again; loses all his winnings; loses more. +But fortune turns again; he wins anew. He +has now lost all self-command. Gains excite +him, and losses excite him more. He +doubles his stakes; then trebles them—and +all is swept. He rushes on, puts up his +whole purse, and loses the whole! Then +he would borrow; no man will lend. He +is desperate, he will fight at a word. He is +led to the street, and thrust out. The cool +breeze which blows upon his fevered cheek,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> +wafts the slow and solemn stroke of the +clock,—one,—two,—three,—four; <i>four of +the morning</i>! Quick work of ruin!—an innocent +man destroyed in a night! He +staggers to his hotel, remembers as he +enters it, that he has not even enough to +pay his bill. It now flashes upon him that +his friend, who never had left him for an +hour before, had stayed behind where his +money is, and, doubtless, is laughing over +his spoils. His blood boils with rage. But +at length comes up the remembrance of +home; a parent's training and counsels for +more than twenty years, destroyed in a +night! "Good God! what a wretch I have +been! I am not fit to live. I cannot go +home. I am a stranger here. Oh! that I +were dead! Oh! that I had died before I +knew this guilt, and were lying where my +sister lies! Oh God! Oh God! my head +will burst with agony!" He stalks his +lonely room with an agony which only the +young heart knows in its first horrible +awakening to remorse—when it looks despair +full in the face, and feels its hideous +incantations tempting him to suicide. Subdued +at length by agony, cowed and weakened +by distress, he is sought again by +those who plucked him. Cunning to subvert +inexperience, to raise the evil passions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +and to allay the good, they make him their +pliant tool.</p> + +<p>Farewell, young man! I see thy steps +turned to that haunt again! I see hope +lighting thy face; but it is a lurid light, and +never came from heaven. Stop before that +threshold!—turn, and bid farewell to +home!—farewell to innocence!—farewell to +venerable father and aged mother!—the next +step shall part thee from them all forever. +And now henceforth be a mate to thieves, +a brother to corruption. Thou hast made +a league with death, and unto death shalt +thou go.</p> + +<p>Let us here pause, to draw the likeness +of a few who stand conspicuous in that +vulgar crowd of gamblers, with which hereafter +he will consort. The first is a taciturn, +quiet man. No one knows when he comes +into town, or when he leaves. No man +hears of his gaining; for he never boasts, +nor reports his luck. He spends little for +parade; his money seems to go and come +only through the game. He reads none, +converses none, is neither a glutton nor a +hard drinker; he sports few ornaments, and +wears plain clothing. Upon the whole, he +seems a gentlemanly man; and sober citizens +say, "his only fault is gambling." +What then is this "<i>only fault</i>?" In his +heart he has the most intense and consum<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>ing +lust of play. He is quiet because +every passion is absorbed in one; and that +one burning at the highest flame. He +thinks of nothing else, cares only for this. +All other things, even the hottest lusts of +other men, are too cool to be temptations +to him; so much deeper is the style of his +passions. He will sit upon his chair, and +no man shall see him move for hours, except +to play his cards. He sees none come +in, none go out. Death might groan on +one side of the room, and marriage might +sport on the other,—he would know neither. +Every created influence is shut out; +one thing only moves him—the <i>game</i>; and +that leaves not one pulse of excitability +unaroused, but stirs his soul to the very +dregs.</p> + +<p>Very different is the roistering gamester. +He bears a jolly face, a glistening eye +something watery through watching and +drink. His fingers are manacled in rings; +his bosom grows with pearls and diamonds. +He learns the time which he wastes from a +watch full gorgeously carved, (and not +with the most modest scenes,) and slung +around his neck by a ponderous golden +chain. There is not so splendid a fellow to +be seen sweeping through the streets. The +landlord makes him welcome—he will bear +a full bill. The tailor smiles like May—he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> +will buy half his shop. Other places bid +him welcome—he will bear large stealings.</p> + +<p>Like the Judge, he makes his circuit, but +not for justice; like the Preacher, he has +his appointments, but not for instruction. +His circuits are the race-courses, the crowded +capital, days of general convocation, +conventions, and mass-gatherings. He will +flame on the race-track, bet his thousands, +and beat the ring at swearing, oaths vernacular, +imported, simple, or compound. The +drinking-booth smokes when he draws in +his welcome suit. Did you see him only +by day, flaming in apparel, jovial and free-hearted +at the Restaurateur or Hotel, you +would think him a Prince let loose—a cross +between Prince Hal and Falstaff.</p> + +<p>But night is his day. These are mere exercises, +and brief prefaces to his real accomplishments. +He is a good fellow, who +dares play deeper; he is wild indeed, who +seems wilder; and he is keen indeed, who +is sharper than he is, after all this show of +frankness. No one is quicker, slyer, and +more alert at a game. He can shuffle the +pack till an honest man would as soon +think of looking for a particular drop of +water in the ocean, as for a particular card +in any particular place. Perhaps <i>he</i> is ignorant +which is at the top and which at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> +bottom! At any rate, watch him closely, +or you will get a lean hand and he a fat +one. A plain man would think him a +wizard or the devil. When he touches a +pack they seem <i>alive</i>, and acting to his +<i>will</i> rather than his <i>touch</i>. He deals them +like lightning, they rain like snow-flakes, +sometimes one, sometimes two, if need be +four or five together, and his hand hardly +moved. If he loses, very well, he laughs; +if he gains, he only laughs a little more. +Full of stories, full of songs, full of wit, +full of roistering spirit—yet do not trespass +too much upon his good nature with insult! +All this outside is only the spotted hide +which covers the tiger. He who provokes +this man, shall see what lightning can +break out of a summer-seeming cloud!</p> + +<p>These do not fairly represent the race of +gamblers,—conveying too favorable an +impression. There is one, often met on +Steamboats, travelling solely to gamble. +He has the servants, or steward, or some +partner, in league with him, to fleece every +unwary player whom he inveigles to a game. +He deals falsely; heats his dupe to madness +by drink, drinking none himself; watches +the signal of his accomplice telegraphing +his opponent's hand; at a stray look, he +will slip your money off and steal it. To +cover false playing, or to get rid of paying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +losses, he will lie fiercely, and swear uproariously, +and break up the play to fight +with knife or pistol—first scraping the table +of every penny. When the passengers are +asleep, he surveys the luggage, to see what +may be worth stealing; he pulls a watch +from under the pillow of one sleeper; fumbles +in the pockets of another; and gathers +booty throughout the cabin. Leaving the +boat before morning, he appears at some +village hotel, a magnificent gentleman, a +polished traveller, or even a distinguished +nobleman!</p> + +<p>There is another gambler, cowardly, sleek, +stealthy, humble, mousing, and mean—a +simple blood-sucker. For money, he will be +a tool to other gamblers; steal for them, +and from them; he plays the jackal, and +searches victims for them, humbly satisfied +to pick the bones afterward. Thus, (to employ +his own language,) he <i>ropes in</i> the inexperienced +young, flatters them, teaches +them, inflames their passions, purveys to +their appetites, cheats them, debauches them, +draws them down to his own level, and then +lords it over them in malignant meanness. +Himself impure, he plunges others into lasciviousness; +and with a train of reeking +satellites, he revolves a few years in the orbit +of the game, the brothel, and the doctor's +shop; then sinks and dies: the world is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +purer, and good men thank God that he is +gone.</p> + +<p>Besides these, time would fail me to +describe the ineffable dignity of a gambling +judge; the cautious, phlegmatic lawyer, +gambling from sheer avarice; the broken-down +and cast-away politician, seeking in +the game the needed excitement, and a +fair field for all the base tricks he once +played off as a patriot; the pert, sharp, +keen, jockey-gambler; the soaked, obese, +plethoric, wheezing, bacchanal; and a crowd +of ignoble worthies, wearing all the badges +and titles of vice, throughout its base +peerage.</p> + +<p>A detail of the evils of gambling should +be preceded by an illustration of that constitution +of mind out of which they mainly +spring—I mean its <small>EXCITABILITY</small>. The +body is not stored with a fixed amount of +strength, nor the mind with a uniform +measure of excitement; but both are +capable, by stimulation, of expansion of +strength or feeling, almost without limit. +Experience shows, that within certain +bounds, excitement is healthful and necessary, +but beyond this limit, exhausting and +destructive. Men are allowed to choose +between moderate but long-continued excitement, +and intense but short-lived excitement. +Too generally they prefer the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> +latter. To gain this intense thrill, a thousand +methods are tried. The inebriate obtains +it by drink and drugs; the politician, +by the keen interest of the civil campaign; +the young by amusements which violently +inflame and gratify their appetites. When +once this higher flavor of stimulus has been +tasted, all that is less becomes vapid and +disgustful. A sailor tries to live on shore; +a few weeks suffice. To be sure, there is +no hardship, or cold, or suffering; but +neither is there the strong excitement of +the ocean, the gale, the storm, and the +world of strange sights. The politician +perceives that his private affairs are deranged, +his family neglected, his character +aspersed, his feelings exacerbated. When +men hear him confess that his career is a +hideous waking dream, the race vexatious, +and the end vanity, they wonder that he +clings to it; but <i>he</i> knows that nothing but +the fiery wine which he has tasted will rouse +up that intense excitement, now become +necessary to his happiness. For this +reason, great men often cling to public +office with all its envy, jealousy, care, toil, +hates, competitions, and unrequited fidelity; +for these very disgusts, and the perpetual +struggle, strike a deeper chord of excitement +than is possible to the gentler touches +of home, friendship and love. Here too is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> +the key to the real evil of promiscuous +novel-reading, to the habit of reverie and +mental romancing. None of life's common +duties can excite to such wild pleasure as +these; and they must be continued, or the +mind reacts into the lethargy of fatigue and +<i>ennui</i>. It is upon this principle that men +love <i>pain</i>; suffering is painful to a spectator; +but in tragedies, at public executions, +at pugilistic combats, at cock-fightings, +horse-races, bear-baitings, bull-fights, gladiatorial +shows, it excites a jaded mind as +nothing else can. A tyrant torments for +the same reason that a girl reads her tear-bedewed +romance, or an inebriate drinks +his dram. No longer susceptible even to +inordinate stimuli, actual moans, and +shrieks, and the writhing of utter agony, +just suffice to excite his worn-out sense, +and inspire, probably, less emotion than +ordinary men have in listening to a tragedy +or reading a bloody novel.</p> + +<p>Gambling is founded upon the very +worst perversion of this powerful element +of our nature. It heats every part of the +mind like an oven. The faculties which +produce calculation, pride of skill, of +superiority, love of gain, hope, fear, jealousy, +hatred, are absorbed in the game, +and exhilarated, or exacerbated by victory +or defeat. These passions are, doubtless,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +excited in men by the daily occurrences of +life; but then they are transient, and counteracted +by a thousand grades of emotion, +which rise and fall like the undulations of +the sea. But in gambling there is no intermission, +no counteraction. The whole +mind is excited to the utmost, and concentrated +at its extreme point of excitation +for hours and days, with the additional +waste of sleepless nights, profuse drinking, +and other congenial immoralities. Every +other pursuit becomes tasteless; for no +ordinary duty has in it a stimulus which +can scorch a mind which now refuses to +burn without blazing, or to feel an interest +which is not intoxication. The victim of +excitement is like a mariner who ventures +into the edge of a whirlpool for a motion +more exhilarating than plain sailing. He +is unalarmed during the first few gyrations, +for escape is easy. But each turn sweeps +him further in; the power augments, the +speed becomes terrific as he rushes toward +the vortex; all escape now hopeless. A +noble ship went in; it is spit out in broken +fragments, splintered spars, crushed masts, +and cast up for many a rood along the +shore. The specific evils of gambling +may now be almost imagined.</p> + +<p>I. It diseases the mind, unfitting it for the +duties of life. Gamblers are seldom indus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>trious +men in any useful vocation. A +gambling mechanic finds his labor less +relishful as his passion for play increases. +He grows unsteady, neglects his work, +becomes unfaithful to promises; what he +performs he slights. Little jobs seem little +enough; he desires immense contracts, +whose uncertainty has much the excitement +of gambling—and for the best of reasons; +and in the pursuit of great and sudden +profits, by wild schemes, he stumbles over +into ruin, leaving all who employed or +trusted him in the rubbish of his speculations.</p> + +<p>A gambling lawyer, neglecting the drudgery +of his profession, will court its exciting +duties. To explore authorities, compare +reasons, digest, and write,—this is tiresome. +But to advocate, to engage in fiery contests +with keen opponents, this is nearly as good +as gambling. Many a ruined client has +cursed the law, and cursed a stupid jury, +and cursed everybody for his irretrievable +loss, except his lawyer, who gambled all +night when he should have prepared the +case, and came half asleep and debauched +into court in the morning to lose a good +case mismanaged, and snatched from his +gambling hands by the art of sober opponents.</p> + +<p>A gambling student, if such a thing can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> +be, withdraws from thoughtful authors to +the brilliant and spicy; from the pure +among these, to the sharp and ribald; from +all <i>reading</i> about depraved life, to <i>seeing</i>; +from sight to experience. Gambling vitiates +the imagination, corrupts the tastes, destroys +the industry—for no man will drudge for +cents, who gambles for dollars by the hundred; +or practise a piddling economy, +while, with almost equal indifference, he +makes or loses five hundred in a night.</p> + +<p>II. For a like reason, it destroys all +domestic habits and affections. Home is a +prison to an inveterate gambler; there is no +air there that he can breathe. For a moment +he may sport with his children, and +smile upon his wife; but his heart, its +strong passions, are not there. A little +branch-rill may flow through the family, +but the deep river of his affections flows +away from home. On the issue of a game, +Tacitus narrates that the ancient Germans +would stake their property, their wives, their +children, and themselves. What less than +this is it, when a man will stake that property +which is to give his family bread, and +that honor which gives them place and rank +in society?</p> + +<p>When <i>playing</i> becomes desperate <i>gambling</i>, +the heart is a hearth where all the fires +of gentle feelings have smouldered to ashes;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> +and a thorough-paced gamester could rattle +dice in a charnel-house, and wrangle for his +stakes amid murder and pocket gold dripping +with the blood of his own kindred.</p> + +<p>III. Gambling is the parent and companion +of every vice which pollutes the +heart, or injures society.</p> + +<p>It is a practice so disallowed among +Christians, and so excluded by mere moralists, +and so hateful to industrious and thriving +men, that those who practise it are shut +up to themselves; unlike lawful pursuits, it +is not modified or restrained by collision +with others. Gamblers herd with gamblers. +They tempt and provoke each other to all +evil, without affording one restraint, and +without providing the counterbalance of a +single virtuous impulse. They are like +snakes coiling among snakes, poison and +poisoning; like plague-patients, infected and +diffusing infection; each sick and all contagious. +It is impossible to put bad men +together and not have them grow worse. +The herding of convicts promiscuously, +produced such a fermentation of depravity, +that, long ago, legislators forbade it. When +criminals, out of jail, herd together by +choice, the same corrupt nature will doom +them to growing loathsomeness, because of +increasing wickedness.</p> + +<p>IV. It is a provocative of thirst. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> +bottle is almost as needful as the card, the +ball, or the dice. Some are seduced to +drink; some drink for imitation, at first, and +fashion. When super-excitements, at intervals, +subside, their victim cannot bear the +deathlike gloom of the reaction; and, by +drugs or liquor, wind up their system to the +glowing point again. Therefore, drinking is +the invariable concomitant of the theatre, +circus, race-course, gaming-table, and of all +amusements which powerfully excite all but +the moral feelings. When the double fires +of dice and brandy blaze under a man, he +will soon be consumed. If men are found +who do not drink, they are the more noticeable +because exceptions.</p> + +<p>V. It is, even in its fairest form, the almost +inevitable <i>cause of dishonesty</i>. Robbers have +robbers' honor; thieves have thieves' law; +and pirates conform to pirates' regulations. +But where is there a gambler's code? One +law there is, and this is not universal, <i>pay +your gambling debts</i>. But on the wide question, +<i>how is it fair to win</i>—what law is +there? What will shut a man out from a +gambler's club? May he not discover his +opponent's hand by fraud? May not a concealed +thread, pulling the significant <i>one</i>;—<i>one, +two</i>; or <i>one, two, three</i>; or the sign of +a bribed servant or waiter, inform him, and +yet his standing be fair? May he not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +cheat in shuffling, and yet be in full orders +and canonical? May he not cheat in dealing, +and yet be a welcome gambler?—may +he not steal the money from your pile by +laying his hands upon it, just as any other +thief would, and yet be an approved +gambler? May not the whole code be +stated thus: <i>Pay what you lose, get what +you can, and in any way you can!</i> I am told, +perhaps, that there are honest gamblers, +gentlemanly gamblers. Certainly; there +are always ripe apples before there are +rotten. Men always <i>begin</i> before they <i>end</i>; +there is always an approximation before +there is contact. Players will play truly till +they get used to playing untruly; will be +honest, till they cheat; will be honorable, +till they become base; and when you have +said all this, what does it amount to but this, +that men who <i>really</i> gamble, really cheat; +and that they only do not cheat, who are +not <i>yet</i> real gamblers? If this mends the +matter, let it be so amended. I have spoken +of gamesters only among themselves; this +is the least part of the evil; for who is concerned +when lions destroy bears, or wolves +devour wolf-cubs, or snakes sting vipers? +In respect to that department of gambling +which includes the <i>roping-in</i> of strangers, +young men, collecting-clerks, and unsuspecting +green-hands, and robbing them, I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> +no language strong enough to mark down +its turpitude, its infernal rapacity. After +hearing many of the scenes not unfamiliar +to every gambler, I think Satan might be +proud of their dealings, and look up to them +with that deferential respect, with which one +monster gazes upon a superior. There is +not even the expectation of honesty. Some +scullion-herald of iniquity decoys the unwary +wretch into the secret room; he is +tempted to drink; made confident by the +specious simplicity of the game; allowed to +win; and every bait and lure and blind is +employed—then he is plucked to the skin +by tricks which appear as fair as honesty itself. +The robber avows <i>his</i> deed, does it +openly; the gambler sneaks to the same +result under skulking pretences. There is +a frank way, and a mean way of doing a +wicked thing. The gambler takes the +meanest way of doing the dirtiest deed. +The victim's own partner is sucking his +blood; it is a league of sharpers, to get his +money at any rate; and the wickedness is +so unblushing and unmitigated, that it +gives, at last, an instance of what the deceitful +human heart, knavish as it is, is ashamed +to try to cover or conceal; but confesses with +helpless honesty, that it is fraud, cheating, +<i>stealing</i>, <i>robbery</i>,—and nothing else.</p> + +<p>If I walk the dark street, and a perish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>ing, +hungry wretch meets me and bears off +my purse with but a single dollar, the whole +town awakes; the officers are alert, the +myrmidons of the law scout, and hunt, and +bring in the trembling culprit to stow him +in the jail. But a worse thief may meet +me, decoy my steps, and by a greater dishonesty, +filch ten thousand dollars,—and +what then? The story spreads, the sharpers +move abroad unharmed, no one stirs. It is +the day's conversation; and like a sound it +rolls to the distance, and dies in an echo.</p> + +<p>Shall such astounding iniquities be vomited +out amidst us, and no man care? Do +we love our children, and yet let them walk +in a den of vipers? Shall we pretend to +virtue, and purity, and religion, and yet +make partners of our social life, men whose +heart has conceived such damnable deeds, +and whose hands have performed them? +Shall there be even in the eye of religion +no difference between the corrupter of youth +and their guardian? Are all the lines and +marks of morality so effaced, is the nerve +and courage of virtue so quailed by the +frequency and boldness of flagitious crimes, +that men, covered over with wickedness, +shall find their iniquity no obstacle to their +advancement among a Christian people.</p> + +<p>In almost every form of iniquity there is +some shade or trace of good. We have in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> +gambling a crime standing alone—dark, +malignant, uncompounded wickedness! It +seems in its full growth a monster without +a tender mercy, devouring its own offspring +without one feeling but appetite. A gamester, +as such, is the cool, calculating, essential +<i>spirit</i> of concentrated avaricious selfishness. +His intellect is a living thing, quickened +with double life for villany; his heart +is steel of fourfold temper. When a man +<i>begins</i> to gamble he is as a noble tree full +of sap, green with leaves, a shade to beasts, +and a covert to birds. When one <i>becomes</i> +a thorough gambler, he is like that tree +lightning-smitten, rotten in root, dry in +branch, and sapless; seasoned hard and +tough; nothing lives beneath it, nothing on +its branches, unless a hawk or a vulture +perches for a moment to whet its beak, and +fly screaming away for its prey.</p> + +<p>To every young man who indulges in the +least form of gambling, I raise a warning +voice! Under the specious name of <small>AMUSEMENT</small>, +you are laying the foundation of +gambling. Playing is the seed which comes +up gambling. It is the light wind which +brings up the storm. It is the white frost +which preludes the winter. You are mistaken, +however, in supposing that it is +harmless in its earliest beginnings. Its terrible +blight belongs, doubtless, to a later<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +stage; but its consumption of time, its +destruction of industry, its distaste for the +calmer pleasures of life, belong to the +very <i>beginning</i>. You will begin to play +with every generous feeling. Amusement +will be the plea. At the beginning the +game will excite enthusiasm, pride of skill, +the love of mastery, and the love of money. +The love of money, at first almost imperceptible, +at last will rule out all the rest,—like +Aaron's rod,—a serpent, swallowing +every other serpent. Generosity, enthusiasm, +pride and skill, love of mastery, will +be absorbed in one mighty feeling,—the +savage lust of lucre.</p> + +<p>There is a downward climax in this sin. +The opening and ending are fatally connected, +and drawn toward each other with +almost irresistible attraction. If gambling +is a vortex, playing is the outer ring of the +Maelstrom. The thousand pound stake, +the whole estate put up on a game—what +are these but the instruments of kindling +that tremendous excitement which a diseased +heart craves? What is the <i>amusement</i> +for which you play but the <i>excitement</i> +of the game? And for what but this does +the jaded gambler play? You differ from +him only in the degree of the same feeling. +Do not solace yourself that you shall +escape because others have; for they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +<i>stopped</i>, and <i>you go on</i>. Are you as safe as +they, when you are in the gulf-stream of +perdition, and they on the shore? But +have you ever asked, <i>how many</i> have +escaped? Not one in a thousand is left +unblighted! You have nine hundred and +ninety-nine chances <i>against</i> you, and one +for you; and will you go on? If a disease +should stalk through the town, devouring +whole families, and sparing not one in +five hundred, would you lie down under it +quietly because you have one chance in +five hundred? Had a scorpion stung you, +would it alleviate your pangs to reflect that +you had only one chance in one hundred? +Had you swallowed corrosive poison, +would it ease your convulsions to think +there was only one chance in fifty for you? +I do not call every man who plays a gambler, +but a gambler in <i>embryo</i>. Let me +trace your course from the amusement of +innocent playing to its almost inevitable +end.</p> + +<p><i>Scene first.</i> A genteel coffee-house,—whose +humane screen conceals a line of +grenadier bottles, and hides respectable +blushes from impertinent eyes. There is +a quiet little room opening out of the bar; +and here sit four jovial youths. The cards +are out, the wines are in. The fourth is a +reluctant hand; he does not love the drink,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +nor approve the game. He anticipates +and fears the result of both. Why is he +here? He is a whole-souled fellow, and +is afraid to seem ashamed of any fashionable +gaiety. He will sip his wine upon +the importunity of a friend newly come to +town, and is too polite to spoil that friend's +pleasure by refusing a part in the game. +They sit, shuffle, deal; the night wears +on, the clock telling no tale of passing +hours—the prudent liquor-fiend has made +it safely dumb. The night is getting old; +its dank air grows fresher; the east is +grey; the gaming and drinking and hilarious +laughter are over, and the youths +wending homeward. What says conscience? +No matter what it says; they +did not hear, and we will not. Whatever +was said, it was very shortly answered +thus: "This has not been gambling; all +were gentlemen; there was no cheating; +simply a convivial evening; no stakes +except the bills incident to the entertainment. +If anybody blames a young man +for a little innocent exhilaration on a special +occasion, he is a superstitious bigot; +let him croak!" Such a garnished game +is made the text to justify the whole +round of gambling, Let us, then, look at</p> + +<p><i>Scene the second.</i> In a room so silent that +there is no sound except the shrill cock<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> +crowing the morning, where the forgotten +candles burn dimly over the long and +lengthened wick, sit four men. Carved +marble could not be more motionless, save +their hands. Pale, watchful, though weary, +their eyes pierce the cards, or furtively read +each other's faces. Hours have passed +over them thus. At length they rise without +words; some, with a satisfaction which +only makes their faces brightly haggard, +scrape off the piles of money; others, dark, +sullen, silent, fierce, move away from their +lost money. The darkest and fiercest of +the four is that young friend who first sat +down to make out a game! He will never +sit so innocently again. What says he to +his conscience now? "I have a right to +gamble; I have a right to be damned too, +if I choose; whose business is it?"</p> + +<p><i>Scene the third.</i> Years have passed on. +He has seen youth ruined, at first with expostulation, +then with only silent regret, +then consenting to take part of the spoils; +and finally, he has himself decoyed, duped, +and stripped them without mercy. Go +with me into that dilapidated house, not far +from the landing, at New Orleans. Look +into that dirty room. Around a broken +table, sitting upon boxes, kegs, or rickety +chairs, see a filthy crew dealing cards +smouched with tobacco, grease and liquor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +One has a pirate-face burnished and burnt +with brandy; a shock of grizzly, matted +hair, half covering his villain eyes, which +glare out like a wild beast's from a thicket. +Close by him wheezes a white-faced, dropsical +wretch, vermin-covered, and stenchful. +A scoundrel-Spaniard, and a burly negro, +(the jolliest of the four,) complete the group. +They have spectators—drunken sailors, and +ogling, thieving, drinking women, who +should have died long ago, when all that +was womanly died. Here hour draws on +hour, sometimes with brutal laughter, sometimes +with threat, and oath, and uproar. +The last few stolen dollars lost, and temper +too, each charges each with cheating, and +high words ensue, and blows; and the +whole gang burst out the door, beating, +biting, scratching, and rolling over and over +in the dirt and dust. The worst, the fiercest, +the drunkest, of the four, is our friend who +began by making up the game!</p> + +<p><i>Scene the fourth.</i> Upon this bright day, +stand with me, if you would be sick of humanity, +and look over that multitude of +men kindly gathered to see a murderer +hung! At last, a guarded cart drags on a +thrice-guarded wretch. At the gallows' +ladder his courage fails. His coward-feet +refuse to ascend; dragged up, he is supported +by bustling officials; his brain reels,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +his eye swims, while the meek minister +utters a final prayer by his leaden ear. The +prayer is said, the noose is fixed, the signal +is given; a shudder runs through the crowd +as he swings free. After a moment, his +convulsed limbs stretch down, and hang +heavily and still; and he who began to +gamble to make up a game, and ended +with stabbing an enraged victim whom he +had fleeced, has here played his last game,—himself +the stake!</p> + +<p>I feel impelled, in closing, to call the attention +of all sober citizens to some potent +influences which are exerted in favor of +gambling.</p> + +<p>In our civil economy we have Legislators +to devise and enact wholesome laws; +Lawyers to counsel and aid those who need +the laws' relief; and Judges to determine +and administer the laws. If Legislators, +Lawyers, and Judges are gamblers, with +what hope do we warn off the young from +this deadly fascination, against such authoritative +examples of high public functionaries? +With what eminent fitness does that +Judge press the bench, who in private commits +the vices which officially he is set to +condemn! With what singular terrors does +he frown on a convicted gambler with +whom he played last night, and will play +again to-night! How wisely should the fine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +be light which the sprightly criminal will +win and pay out of the Judge's own pocket!</p> + +<p>With the name of <span class="smcap">Judge</span> is associated +ideas of immaculate purity, sober piety, and +fearless, favorless justice. Let it then be +counted a dark crime for a recreant official +so far to forget his reverend place, and +noble office, as to run the gantlet of filthy +vices, and make the word <i>Judge</i>, to suggest +an incontinent trifler, who smites with his +mouth, and smirks with his eye; who holds +the rod to strike the criminal, and smites +only the law to make a gap for criminals to +pass through! If God loves this land, may +he save it from truckling, drinking, swearing, +gambling, vicious Judges!<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The general eminent integrity of the Bench is unquestionable—and +no remarks in the text are to be construed as an oblique aspersion +of the profession. But the purer our Judges generally, +the more shameless is it that some will not abandon either their +vices or their office.</p></div> + +<p>With such Judges I must associate corrupt +<span class="smcap">Legislators</span>, whose bawling patriotism +leaks out in all the sinks of infamy at the +Capital. These living exemplars of vice, +pass still-born laws against vice. Are such +men sent to the Capital only to practise debauchery? +Laborious seedsmen—they +gather every germ of evil; and laborious +sowers—at home they strew them far and +wide! It is a burning shame, a high outrage, +that public men, by corrupting the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>young with the example of manifold vices, +should pay back their constituents for their +honors!</p> + +<p>Our land has little to fear from abroad, +and much from within. We can bear foreign +aggression, scarcity, the revulsions of +commerce, plagues, and pestilences; but we +cannot bear vicious Judges, corrupt Courts, +gambling Legislators, and a vicious, corrupt, +and gambling constituency. Let us not be +deceived! The decay of civil institutions +begins at the core. The outside wears all +the lovely hues of ripeness, when the inside +is rotting. Decline does not begin in bold +and startling acts; but, as in autumnal +leaves, in rich and glowing colors. Over +diseased vitals, consumptive laws wear the +hectic blush, a brilliant eye, and transparent +skin. Could the public sentiment declare +that <small>PERSONAL MORALITY</small> is the first element +of patriotism; that corrupt Legislators are +the most pernicious of criminals; that the +Judge who lets the villain off, is the villain's +patron; that tolerance of crime is intolerance +of virtue,—our nation might defy all +enemies and live forever!</p> + +<p>And now, my young friends, I beseech +you to let alone this evil before it be meddled +with. You are safe from vice when +you avoid even its appearance; and only +then. The first steps to wickedness are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> +imperceptible. We do not wonder at the +inexperience of Adam; but it is wonderful +that six thousand years' repetition of the +same arts, and the same uniform disaster, +should have taught men nothing! that +generation after generation should perish, +and the wreck be no warning!</p> + +<p>The mariner searches his chart for hidden +rocks, stands off from perilous shoals, +and steers wide of reefs on which hang +shattered morsels of wrecked ships, and +runs in upon dangerous shores with the ship +manned, the wheel in hand, and the lead +constantly sounding. But the mariner upon +life's sea, carries no chart of other men's +voyages, drives before every wind that will +speed him, draws upon horrid shores with +slumbering crew, or heads in upon roaring +reefs as though he would not perish where +thousands have perished before him.</p> + +<p>Hell is populated with the victims of +"<i>harmless amusements</i>." Will man never +learn that the way to hell is through the +valley of <small>DECEIT</small>? The power of Satan to +<i>hold</i> his victims is nothing to that mastery +of art by which he first <i>gains</i> them. When +he approaches to charm us, it is not as a +grim fiend, gleaming from a lurid cloud, but +as an angel of light radiant with innocence. +His words fall like dew upon the flower; +as musical as the crystal-drop warbling from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> +a fountain. Beguiled by his art, he leads +you to the enchanted ground. Oh! how it +glows with every refulgent hue of heaven! +Afar off he marks the dismal gulf of vice +and crime; its smoke of torment slowly +rising, and rising forever! and he himself +cunningly warns you of its dread disaster, +for the very purpose of blinding and drawing +you thither. He leads you to captivity +through all the bowers of lulling magic. +He plants your foot on odorous flowers; +he fans your cheek with balmy breath; he +overhangs your head with rosy clouds; he +fills your ear with distant, drowsy music, +charming every sense to rest. Oh ye! who +have thought the way to hell was bleak and +frozen as Norway, parched and barren as +Sahara, strewed like Golgotha with bones +and skulls reeking with stench like the vale +of Gehenna,—witness your mistake! The +way to hell is gorgeous! It is a highway, +cast up; no lion is there, no ominous bird +to hoot a warning, no echoings of the wailing-pit, +no lurid gleams of distant fires, or +moaning sounds of hidden woe! Paradise +is imitated to build you a way to death; the +flowers of heaven are stolen and poisoned; +the sweet plant of knowledge is here; the +pure white flower of religion; seeming virtue +and the charming tints of innocence are +scattered all along like native herbage. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +enchanted victim travels on. Standing afar +behind, and from a silver-trumpet, a heavenly +messenger sends down the wind a solemn +warning: <span class="smcap">There is a way which seemeth +right to man, but the end thereof +is death.</span> And again, with louder blast: +<span class="smcap">The wise man foreseeth the evil; fools +pass on and are punished.</span> Startled for a +moment, the victim pauses; gazes round +upon the flowery scene, and whispers, <i>Is it +not harmless?</i>—"<i>Harmless</i>," responds a +serpent from the grass!—"<i>Harmless</i>," echo +the sighing winds!—"<i>Harmless</i>," re-echo a +hundred airy tongues! If now a gale from +heaven might only sweep the clouds away +through which the victim gazes; oh! if God +would break that potent power which chains +the blasts of hell, and let the sulphur-stench +roll up the vale, how would the vision +change!—the road become a track of dead +men's bones!—the heavens a lowering +storm!—the balmy breezes, distant wailings—and +all those balsam-shrubs that lied to +his senses, sweat drops of blood upon their +poison-boughs!</p> + +<p>Ye who are meddling with the edges of +vice, ye are on this road!—and utterly +duped by its enchantments! Your eye has +already lost its honest glance, your taste +has lost its purity, your heart throbs with +poison! The leprosy is all over you, its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +blotches and eruptions cover you. Your +feet stand on slippery places, whence in due +time they shall slide, if you refuse the +warning which I raise. They shall +slide from heaven, never to be visited +by a gambler; slide down to that +fiery abyss below you, out of which none +ever come. Then, when the last card is +cast, and the game over, and you lost; +then, when the echo of your fall shall ring +through hell,—in malignant triumph, shall +the Arch-Gambler, who cunningly played +for your soul, have his prey! Too late you +shall look back upon life as a <small>MIGHTY GAME</small>, +in which you were the stake, and Satan the +winner!</p> + + +<hr style="width: 100%;" /> + + + +<div class="bbox"> +<h2>ALTEMUS'</h2> +<h2>ETERNAL LIFE SERIES.</h2> + +<div class="pblockquot"> +<p><i>Selections from the writings of well-known religious authors' works, +beautifully printed and daintily bound in leatherette with original +designs in silver and ink.</i></p> + +<h3><i>PRICE, 25 CENTS PER VOLUME.</i></h3> + + +<p>ETERNAL LIFE, by Professor Henry Drummond. +<br /> +LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY, by Rev. Andrew Murray. +<br /> +GOD'S WORD AND GOD'S WORK, by Martin Luther. +<br /> +FAITH, by Thomas Arnold. +<br /> +THE CREATION STORY, by Honorable William E. Gladstone. +<br /> +THE MESSAGE OF COMFORT, by Rt. Rev. Ashton Oxenden. +<br /> +THE MESSAGE OF PEACE, by Rev. R. W. Church. +<br /> +THE LORD'S PRAYER AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, by Dean Stanley. +<br /> +THE MEMOIRS OF JESUS, by Rev. Robert F. Horton. +<br /> +HYMNS OF PRAISE AND GLADNESS, by Elisabeth R. Scovil. +<br /> +DIFFICULTIES, by Hannah Whitall Smith. +<br /> +GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. +<br /> +HAVE FAITH IN GOD, by Rev. Andrew Murray. +<br /> +TWELVE CAUSES OF DISHONESTY, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. +<br /> +THE CHRIST IN WHOM CHRISTIANS BELIEVE, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. +<br /> +IN MY NAME, by Rev. Andrew Murray. +<br /> +SIX WARNINGS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. +<br /> +THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN BUSINESSMAN, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. +<br /> +POPULAR AMUSEMENTS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. +<br /> +TRUE LIBERTY, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. +<br /> +INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. +<br /> +THE BEAUTY OF A LIFE OF SERVICE, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. +<br /> +THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD, by Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D. +<br /> +THOUGHT AND ACTION, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. +<br /> +THE HEAVENLY VISION, by Rev. F. B. Meyer. +<br /> +MORNING STRENGTH, by Elisabeth R. Scovil. +<br /> +FOR THE QUIET HOUR, by Edith V. Bradt. +<br /> +EVENING COMFORT, by Elizabeth R. Scovil. +<br /> +WORDS OF HELP FOR CHRISTIAN GIRLS, by Rev. F. B. Meyer +<br /> +HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE, by Rev. Dwight L. Moody. +<br /> +EXPECTATION CORNER, by E. S. Elliot. +<br /> +JESSICA'S FIRST PRAYER, by Hesba Stretton.</p> + +<h3>HENRY ALTEMUS.</h3> + +<h4><i>507, 509, 511, 513 Cherry Street, Philadelphia.</i></h4> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h2>ALTEMUS'</h2> +<h2>BELLES-LETTRES SERIES.</h2> + +<div class="pblockquot"> +<p><i>A collection of Essays and Addresses by eminent English and American +Authors, beautifully printed and daintily bound in leatherette, with +original designs in silver.</i></p> + +<h3><i>PRICE, 25 CENTS PER VOLUME.</i></h3> + +<p>INDEPENDENCE DAY, by Rev. Edward E. Hale. +<br /> +THE SCHOLAR IN POLITICS, by Hon. Richard Olney. +<br /> +THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS, by Edward W. Bok. +<br /> +THE YOUNG MAN AND THE CHURCH, by Edward W. Bok. +<br /> +THE SPOILS SYSTEM, by Hon. Carl Schurz. +<br /> +CONVERSATION, by Thomas De Quincey. +<br /> +SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, by Matthew Arnold. +<br /> +WORK, by John Ruskin. +<br /> +NATURE AND ART, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. +<br /> +THE USE AND MISUSE OF BOOKS, by Frederic Harrison. +<br /> +THE MONROE DOCTRINE: ITS ORIGIN, MEANING AND APPLICATION, by Prof. John +Bach McMaster (University of Pennsylvania). +<br /> +THE DESTINY OF MAN, by Sir John Lubbock. +<br /> +LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. +<br /> +RIP VAN WINKLE, by Washington Irving. +<br /> +ART, POETRY AND MUSIC, by Sir John Lubbock. +<br /> +THE CHOICE OF BOOKS, by Sir John Lubbock. +<br /> +MANNERS, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. +<br /> +CHARACTER, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. +<br /> +THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, by Washington Irving. +<br /> +THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE, by Sir John Lubbock. +<br /> +SELF RELIANCE, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. +<br /> +THE DUTY OF HAPPINESS, by Sir John Lubbock. +<br /> +SPIRITUAL LAWS, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. +<br /> +OLD CHRISTMAS, by Washington Irving. +<br /> +HEALTH, WEALTH AND THE BLESSING OF FRIENDS, by Sir John Lubbock. +<br /> +INTELLECT, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. +<br /> +WHY AMERICANS DISLIKE ENGLAND, by Prof. Geo. B. Adams (Yale). +<br /> +THE HIGHER EDUCATION AS A TRAINING FOR BUSINESS, by Prof. Harry Pratt +Judson (University of Chicago). +<br /> +MISS TOOSEY'S MISSION. +<br /> +LADDIE. +<br /> +J. COLE, by Emma Gellibrand.</p> + +<h3>HENRY ALTEMUS,</h3> +<h4><i>507, 509, 511, 513 Cherry Street, Philadelphia.</i></h4> +</div> +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Gamblers and Gambling, by Henry Ward Beecher + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING *** + +***** This file should be named 34743-h.htm or 34743-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/4/34743/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Hunter Monroe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Gamblers and Gambling + +Author: Henry Ward Beecher + +Release Date: December 24, 2010 [EBook #34743] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING *** + + + + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Hunter Monroe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: HENRY WARD BEECHER.] + + + Gamblers and + Gambling + + By Rev. Henry + Ward + Beecher + + Philadelphia + Henry Altemus + + + Copyrighted, 1896, by HENRY ALTEMUS. + + HENRY ALTEMUS, MANUFACTURER, + PHILADELPHIA. + + + + + GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING + + Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his + garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part, and also + his coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top + throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend + it, but cast lots far it, whose it shall be. These things + therefore the soldiers did. + + +I have condensed into one account the separate parts of this gambling +transaction as narrated by each evangelist. How marked in every age is a +Gambler's character! The enraged priesthood of ferocious sects taunted +Christ's dying agonies; the bewildered multitude, accustomed to cruelty, +could shout; but no earthly creature, but a Gambler, could be so lost to +_all_ feeling as to sit down coolly under a dying man to wrangle for his +garments, and arbitrate their avaricious differences by casting dice for +his tunic, with hands spotted with his spattered blood, warm and yet +undried upon them. The descendants of these patriarchs of gambling, +however, have taught us that there is nothing possible to hell, +uncongenial to these, its elect saints. In this lecture it is my +disagreeable task to lead your steps down the dark path to their cruel +haunts, there to exhibit their infernal passions, their awful ruin, and +their ghastly memorials. In this house of darkness, amid fierce faces +gleaming with the fire of fiercer hearts, amid oaths and groans and +fiendish orgies, ending in murders and strewn with sweltering +corpses,--do not mistake, and suppose yourself in Hell,--you are only +in its precincts and vestibule. + + * * * * * + +Gambling is the staking or winning of property upon mere hazard. The +husbandman renders produce for his gains; the mechanic renders the +product of labor and skill for his gains; the gambler renders for his +gain the sleights of useless skill, or more often, downright cheating. +Betting is gambling; there is no honest equivalent to its gains. +Dealings in fancy-stocks are oftentimes sheer gambling, with all its +worst evils. Profits so earned are no better than the profits of dice, +cards, or hazard. When skill returns for its earnings a useful service, +as knowledge, beneficial amusements, or profitable labor, it is honest +commerce. The skill of a pilot in threading a narrow channel, the skill +of a lawyer in threading a still more intricate one, are as substantial +equivalents for a price received, as if they were merchant goods or +agricultural products. But all gains of _mere_ skill which result in no +real benefit, are gambling gains. + +Gaming, as it springs from a principle of our nature, has, in some form, +probably existed in every age. We trace it in remote periods and among +the most barbarous people. It loses none of its fascinations among a +civilized people. On the contrary, the habit of fierce stimulants, the +jaded appetite of luxury, and the satiety of wealth, seem to invite the +master-excitant. Our land, not apt to be behind in good or evil, is full +of gambling in all its forms--the gambling of commerce, the gambling of +bets and wagers, and the gambling of games of hazard. There is gambling +in refined circles, and in the lowest; among the members of our national +government, and of our state governments. Thief gambles with thief, in +jail; the judge who sent them there, the lawyer who prosecuted, and the +lawyer who defended them, often gamble too. This vice, once almost +universally prevalent among the Western bar, and still too frequently +disgracing its members, is, however, we are happy to believe, +decreasing. In many circuits, not long ago, and in some now, the judge, +the jury, and the bar, shuffled cards by night, and law by day--dealing +out money and justice alike. The clatter of dice and cards disturbs your +slumber on the boat, and rings drowsily from the upper rooms of the +hotel. This vice pervades the city, extends over every line of travel, +and infests the most moral districts. The secreted lamp dimly lights the +apprentices to their game; with unsuspected disobedience, boys creep out +of their beds to it; it goes on in the store close by the till; it +haunts the shop. The scoundrel in his lair, the scholar in his room; the +pirate on his ship, gay women at parties; loafers on the street-corner, +public functionaries in their offices; the beggar under the hedge, the +rascal in prison, and some professors of religion in the somnolent hours +of the Sabbath,--waste their energies by the ruinous excitement of the +game. Besides these players, there are troops of professional gamblers, +troops of hangers-on, troops of youth to be _drawn_ in. An inexperienced +eye would detect in our peaceful towns no signs of this +vulture-flock;--so in a sunny day, when all cheerful birds are singing +merrily, not a buzzard can be seen; but let a carcass drop, and they +will push forth their gaunt heads from their gloomy roosts, and come +flapping from the dark woods to speck the air, and dot the ground with +their numbers. + +The universal prevalence of this vice is a reason for parental +vigilance; and a reason of remonstrance from the citizen, the parent, +the minister of the gospel, the patriot, and the press. I propose to +trace its opening, describe its subjects, and detail its effects. + +A young man, proud of freedom, anxious to exert his manhood, has tumbled +his Bible, and sober books, and letters of counsel, into a dark closet. +He has learned various accomplishments, to flirt, to boast, to swear, to +fight, to drink. He has let every one of these chains be put around him, +upon the solemn promise of Satan that he would take them off whenever he +wished. Hearing of the artistic feats of eminent gamblers, he emulates +them. So, he ponders the game. He teaches what he has learned to his +shopmates, and feels himself their master. As yet he has never played +for stakes. It begins thus: Peeping into a book-store, he watches till +the sober customers go out; then slips in, and with assumed boldness, +not concealing his shame, he asks for cards, buys them, and hastens out. +The first game is to pay for the cards. After the relish of playing for +a stake, no game can satisfy them _without_ a stake. A few nuts are +staked; then a bottle of wine; an oyster-supper. At last they can +venture a sixpence in _actual money_--just for the amusement of it. I +need go no further--whoever wishes to do anything with the lad, can do +it now. If properly plied, and gradually led, he will go to any length, +and stop only at the gallows. Do you doubt it? let us trace him a year +or two further on. + +With his father's blessing, and his mother's tears, the young man +departs from home. He has received his patrimony, and embarks for life +and independence. Upon his journey he rests at a city; visits the +"school of morals;" lingers in more suspicious places; is seen by a +sharper; and makes his acquaintance. The knave sits by him at dinner; +gives him the news of the place, and a world of advice; cautions him +against sharpers; inquires if he has money, and charges him to keep it +secret; offers himself to make with him the rounds of the town, and +secure him from imposition. At length, that he may see all, he is taken +to a gaming-house, but, with apparent kindness, warned not to play. He +stands by to see the various fortunes of the game; some, forever losing; +some, touch what number they will, gaining piles of gold. Looking in +thirst where wine is free. A glass is taken; another of a better kind; +next the best the landlord has, and two glasses of that. A change comes +over the youth; his exhilaration raises his courage, and lulls his +caution. Gambling _seen_, seems a different thing from gambling +_painted_ by a pious father! Just then his friend remarks that one might +easily double his money by a few ventures, but that it was, perhaps, +prudent not to risk. Only this was needed to fire his mind. What! only +prudence between me and gain? Then that shall not be long! He stakes; he +wins. Stakes again; wins again. Glorious! I am the lucky man that is to +break the bank! He stakes, and wins again. His pulse races; his face +burns; his blood is up, and fear gone. He loses; loses again; loses all +his winnings; loses more. But fortune turns again; he wins anew. He has +now lost all self-command. Gains excite him, and losses excite him more. +He doubles his stakes; then trebles them--and all is swept. He rushes +on, puts up his whole purse, and loses the whole! Then he would borrow; +no man will lend. He is desperate, he will fight at a word. He is led to +the street, and thrust out. The cool breeze which blows upon +his fevered cheek, wafts the slow and solemn stroke of the +clock,--one,--two,--three,--four; _four of the morning_! Quick work of +ruin!--an innocent man destroyed in a night! He staggers to his hotel, +remembers as he enters it, that he has not even enough to pay his bill. +It now flashes upon him that his friend, who never had left him for an +hour before, had stayed behind where his money is, and, doubtless, is +laughing over his spoils. His blood boils with rage. But at length comes +up the remembrance of home; a parent's training and counsels for more +than twenty years, destroyed in a night! "Good God! what a wretch I have +been! I am not fit to live. I cannot go home. I am a stranger here. Oh! +that I were dead! Oh! that I had died before I knew this guilt, and were +lying where my sister lies! Oh God! Oh God! my head will burst with +agony!" He stalks his lonely room with an agony which only the young +heart knows in its first horrible awakening to remorse--when it looks +despair full in the face, and feels its hideous incantations tempting +him to suicide. Subdued at length by agony, cowed and weakened by +distress, he is sought again by those who plucked him. Cunning to +subvert inexperience, to raise the evil passions, and to allay the +good, they make him their pliant tool. + +Farewell, young man! I see thy steps turned to that haunt again! I see +hope lighting thy face; but it is a lurid light, and never came from +heaven. Stop before that threshold!--turn, and bid farewell to +home!--farewell to innocence!--farewell to venerable father and aged +mother!--the next step shall part thee from them all forever. And now +henceforth be a mate to thieves, a brother to corruption. Thou hast made +a league with death, and unto death shalt thou go. + +Let us here pause, to draw the likeness of a few who stand conspicuous +in that vulgar crowd of gamblers, with which hereafter he will consort. +The first is a taciturn, quiet man. No one knows when he comes into +town, or when he leaves. No man hears of his gaining; for he never +boasts, nor reports his luck. He spends little for parade; his money +seems to go and come only through the game. He reads none, converses +none, is neither a glutton nor a hard drinker; he sports few ornaments, +and wears plain clothing. Upon the whole, he seems a gentlemanly man; +and sober citizens say, "his only fault is gambling." What then is this +"_only fault_?" In his heart he has the most intense and consuming lust +of play. He is quiet because every passion is absorbed in one; and that +one burning at the highest flame. He thinks of nothing else, cares only +for this. All other things, even the hottest lusts of other men, are too +cool to be temptations to him; so much deeper is the style of his +passions. He will sit upon his chair, and no man shall see him move for +hours, except to play his cards. He sees none come in, none go out. +Death might groan on one side of the room, and marriage might sport on +the other,--he would know neither. Every created influence is shut out; +one thing only moves him--the _game_; and that leaves not one pulse of +excitability unaroused, but stirs his soul to the very dregs. + +Very different is the roistering gamester. He bears a jolly face, a +glistening eye something watery through watching and drink. His fingers +are manacled in rings; his bosom grows with pearls and diamonds. He +learns the time which he wastes from a watch full gorgeously carved, +(and not with the most modest scenes,) and slung around his neck by a +ponderous golden chain. There is not so splendid a fellow to be seen +sweeping through the streets. The landlord makes him welcome--he will +bear a full bill. The tailor smiles like May--he will buy half his +shop. Other places bid him welcome--he will bear large stealings. + +Like the Judge, he makes his circuit, but not for justice; like the +Preacher, he has his appointments, but not for instruction. His circuits +are the race-courses, the crowded capital, days of general convocation, +conventions, and mass-gatherings. He will flame on the race-track, bet +his thousands, and beat the ring at swearing, oaths vernacular, +imported, simple, or compound. The drinking-booth smokes when he draws +in his welcome suit. Did you see him only by day, flaming in apparel, +jovial and free-hearted at the Restaurateur or Hotel, you would think +him a Prince let loose--a cross between Prince Hal and Falstaff. + +But night is his day. These are mere exercises, and brief prefaces to +his real accomplishments. He is a good fellow, who dares play deeper; he +is wild indeed, who seems wilder; and he is keen indeed, who is sharper +than he is, after all this show of frankness. No one is quicker, slyer, +and more alert at a game. He can shuffle the pack till an honest man +would as soon think of looking for a particular drop of water in the +ocean, as for a particular card in any particular place. Perhaps _he_ is +ignorant which is at the top and which at the bottom! At any rate, +watch him closely, or you will get a lean hand and he a fat one. A plain +man would think him a wizard or the devil. When he touches a pack they +seem _alive_, and acting to his _will_ rather than his _touch_. He deals +them like lightning, they rain like snow-flakes, sometimes one, +sometimes two, if need be four or five together, and his hand hardly +moved. If he loses, very well, he laughs; if he gains, he only laughs a +little more. Full of stories, full of songs, full of wit, full of +roistering spirit--yet do not trespass too much upon his good nature +with insult! All this outside is only the spotted hide which covers the +tiger. He who provokes this man, shall see what lightning can break out +of a summer-seeming cloud! + +These do not fairly represent the race of gamblers,--conveying too +favorable an impression. There is one, often met on Steamboats, +travelling solely to gamble. He has the servants, or steward, or some +partner, in league with him, to fleece every unwary player whom he +inveigles to a game. He deals falsely; heats his dupe to madness by +drink, drinking none himself; watches the signal of his accomplice +telegraphing his opponent's hand; at a stray look, he will slip your +money off and steal it. To cover false playing, or to get rid of paying +losses, he will lie fiercely, and swear uproariously, and break up the +play to fight with knife or pistol--first scraping the table of every +penny. When the passengers are asleep, he surveys the luggage, to see +what may be worth stealing; he pulls a watch from under the pillow of +one sleeper; fumbles in the pockets of another; and gathers booty +throughout the cabin. Leaving the boat before morning, he appears at +some village hotel, a magnificent gentleman, a polished traveller, or +even a distinguished nobleman! + +There is another gambler, cowardly, sleek, stealthy, humble, mousing, +and mean--a simple blood-sucker. For money, he will be a tool to other +gamblers; steal for them, and from them; he plays the jackal, and +searches victims for them, humbly satisfied to pick the bones afterward. +Thus, (to employ his own language,) he _ropes in_ the inexperienced +young, flatters them, teaches them, inflames their passions, purveys to +their appetites, cheats them, debauches them, draws them down to his own +level, and then lords it over them in malignant meanness. Himself +impure, he plunges others into lasciviousness; and with a train of +reeking satellites, he revolves a few years in the orbit of the game, +the brothel, and the doctor's shop; then sinks and dies: the world is +purer, and good men thank God that he is gone. + +Besides these, time would fail me to describe the ineffable dignity of a +gambling judge; the cautious, phlegmatic lawyer, gambling from sheer +avarice; the broken-down and cast-away politician, seeking in the game +the needed excitement, and a fair field for all the base tricks he once +played off as a patriot; the pert, sharp, keen, jockey-gambler; the +soaked, obese, plethoric, wheezing, bacchanal; and a crowd of ignoble +worthies, wearing all the badges and titles of vice, throughout its base +peerage. + +A detail of the evils of gambling should be preceded by an illustration +of that constitution of mind out of which they mainly spring--I mean its +EXCITABILITY. The body is not stored with a fixed amount of strength, +nor the mind with a uniform measure of excitement; but both are capable, +by stimulation, of expansion of strength or feeling, almost without +limit. Experience shows, that within certain bounds, excitement is +healthful and necessary, but beyond this limit, exhausting and +destructive. Men are allowed to choose between moderate but +long-continued excitement, and intense but short-lived excitement. Too +generally they prefer the latter. To gain this intense thrill, a +thousand methods are tried. The inebriate obtains it by drink and drugs; +the politician, by the keen interest of the civil campaign; the young by +amusements which violently inflame and gratify their appetites. When +once this higher flavor of stimulus has been tasted, all that is less +becomes vapid and disgustful. A sailor tries to live on shore; a few +weeks suffice. To be sure, there is no hardship, or cold, or suffering; +but neither is there the strong excitement of the ocean, the gale, the +storm, and the world of strange sights. The politician perceives that +his private affairs are deranged, his family neglected, his character +aspersed, his feelings exacerbated. When men hear him confess that his +career is a hideous waking dream, the race vexatious, and the end +vanity, they wonder that he clings to it; but _he_ knows that nothing +but the fiery wine which he has tasted will rouse up that intense +excitement, now become necessary to his happiness. For this reason, +great men often cling to public office with all its envy, jealousy, +care, toil, hates, competitions, and unrequited fidelity; for these very +disgusts, and the perpetual struggle, strike a deeper chord of +excitement than is possible to the gentler touches of home, friendship +and love. Here too is the key to the real evil of promiscuous +novel-reading, to the habit of reverie and mental romancing. None of +life's common duties can excite to such wild pleasure as these; and they +must be continued, or the mind reacts into the lethargy of fatigue and +_ennui_. It is upon this principle that men love _pain_; suffering is +painful to a spectator; but in tragedies, at public executions, at +pugilistic combats, at cock-fightings, horse-races, bear-baitings, +bull-fights, gladiatorial shows, it excites a jaded mind as nothing else +can. A tyrant torments for the same reason that a girl reads her +tear-bedewed romance, or an inebriate drinks his dram. No longer +susceptible even to inordinate stimuli, actual moans, and shrieks, and +the writhing of utter agony, just suffice to excite his worn-out sense, +and inspire, probably, less emotion than ordinary men have in listening +to a tragedy or reading a bloody novel. + +Gambling is founded upon the very worst perversion of this powerful +element of our nature. It heats every part of the mind like an oven. The +faculties which produce calculation, pride of skill, of superiority, +love of gain, hope, fear, jealousy, hatred, are absorbed in the game, +and exhilarated, or exacerbated by victory or defeat. These passions +are, doubtless, excited in men by the daily occurrences of life; but +then they are transient, and counteracted by a thousand grades of +emotion, which rise and fall like the undulations of the sea. But in +gambling there is no intermission, no counteraction. The whole mind is +excited to the utmost, and concentrated at its extreme point of +excitation for hours and days, with the additional waste of sleepless +nights, profuse drinking, and other congenial immoralities. Every other +pursuit becomes tasteless; for no ordinary duty has in it a stimulus +which can scorch a mind which now refuses to burn without blazing, or to +feel an interest which is not intoxication. The victim of excitement is +like a mariner who ventures into the edge of a whirlpool for a motion +more exhilarating than plain sailing. He is unalarmed during the first +few gyrations, for escape is easy. But each turn sweeps him further in; +the power augments, the speed becomes terrific as he rushes toward the +vortex; all escape now hopeless. A noble ship went in; it is spit out in +broken fragments, splintered spars, crushed masts, and cast up for many +a rood along the shore. The specific evils of gambling may now be almost +imagined. + +I. It diseases the mind, unfitting it for the duties of life. Gamblers +are seldom industrious men in any useful vocation. A gambling mechanic +finds his labor less relishful as his passion for play increases. He +grows unsteady, neglects his work, becomes unfaithful to promises; what +he performs he slights. Little jobs seem little enough; he desires +immense contracts, whose uncertainty has much the excitement of +gambling--and for the best of reasons; and in the pursuit of great and +sudden profits, by wild schemes, he stumbles over into ruin, leaving all +who employed or trusted him in the rubbish of his speculations. + +A gambling lawyer, neglecting the drudgery of his profession, will court +its exciting duties. To explore authorities, compare reasons, digest, +and write,--this is tiresome. But to advocate, to engage in fiery +contests with keen opponents, this is nearly as good as gambling. Many a +ruined client has cursed the law, and cursed a stupid jury, and cursed +everybody for his irretrievable loss, except his lawyer, who gambled all +night when he should have prepared the case, and came half asleep and +debauched into court in the morning to lose a good case mismanaged, and +snatched from his gambling hands by the art of sober opponents. + +A gambling student, if such a thing can be, withdraws from thoughtful +authors to the brilliant and spicy; from the pure among these, to the +sharp and ribald; from all _reading_ about depraved life, to _seeing_; +from sight to experience. Gambling vitiates the imagination, corrupts +the tastes, destroys the industry--for no man will drudge for cents, who +gambles for dollars by the hundred; or practise a piddling economy, +while, with almost equal indifference, he makes or loses five hundred in +a night. + +II. For a like reason, it destroys all domestic habits and affections. +Home is a prison to an inveterate gambler; there is no air there that he +can breathe. For a moment he may sport with his children, and smile upon +his wife; but his heart, its strong passions, are not there. A little +branch-rill may flow through the family, but the deep river of his +affections flows away from home. On the issue of a game, Tacitus +narrates that the ancient Germans would stake their property, their +wives, their children, and themselves. What less than this is it, when a +man will stake that property which is to give his family bread, and that +honor which gives them place and rank in society? + +When _playing_ becomes desperate _gambling_, the heart is a hearth where +all the fires of gentle feelings have smouldered to ashes; and a +thorough-paced gamester could rattle dice in a charnel-house, and +wrangle for his stakes amid murder and pocket gold dripping with the +blood of his own kindred. + +III. Gambling is the parent and companion of every vice which pollutes +the heart, or injures society. + +It is a practice so disallowed among Christians, and so excluded by mere +moralists, and so hateful to industrious and thriving men, that those +who practise it are shut up to themselves; unlike lawful pursuits, it is +not modified or restrained by collision with others. Gamblers herd with +gamblers. They tempt and provoke each other to all evil, without +affording one restraint, and without providing the counterbalance of a +single virtuous impulse. They are like snakes coiling among snakes, +poison and poisoning; like plague-patients, infected and diffusing +infection; each sick and all contagious. It is impossible to put bad men +together and not have them grow worse. The herding of convicts +promiscuously, produced such a fermentation of depravity, that, long +ago, legislators forbade it. When criminals, out of jail, herd together +by choice, the same corrupt nature will doom them to growing +loathsomeness, because of increasing wickedness. + +IV. It is a provocative of thirst. The bottle is almost as needful as +the card, the ball, or the dice. Some are seduced to drink; some drink +for imitation, at first, and fashion. When super-excitements, at +intervals, subside, their victim cannot bear the deathlike gloom of the +reaction; and, by drugs or liquor, wind up their system to the glowing +point again. Therefore, drinking is the invariable concomitant of the +theatre, circus, race-course, gaming-table, and of all amusements which +powerfully excite all but the moral feelings. When the double fires of +dice and brandy blaze under a man, he will soon be consumed. If men are +found who do not drink, they are the more noticeable because exceptions. + +V. It is, even in its fairest form, the almost inevitable _cause of +dishonesty_. Robbers have robbers' honor; thieves have thieves' law; and +pirates conform to pirates' regulations. But where is there a gambler's +code? One law there is, and this is not universal, _pay your gambling +debts_. But on the wide question, _how is it fair to win_--what law is +there? What will shut a man out from a gambler's club? May he not +discover his opponent's hand by fraud? May not a concealed thread, +pulling the significant _one_;--_one, two_; or _one, two, three_; or the +sign of a bribed servant or waiter, inform him, and yet his standing be +fair? May he not cheat in shuffling, and yet be in full orders and +canonical? May he not cheat in dealing, and yet be a welcome +gambler?--may he not steal the money from your pile by laying his hands +upon it, just as any other thief would, and yet be an approved gambler? +May not the whole code be stated thus: _Pay what you lose, get what you +can, and in any way you can!_ I am told, perhaps, that there are honest +gamblers, gentlemanly gamblers. Certainly; there are always ripe apples +before there are rotten. Men always _begin_ before they _end_; there is +always an approximation before there is contact. Players will play truly +till they get used to playing untruly; will be honest, till they cheat; +will be honorable, till they become base; and when you have said all +this, what does it amount to but this, that men who _really_ gamble, +really cheat; and that they only do not cheat, who are not _yet_ real +gamblers? If this mends the matter, let it be so amended. I have spoken +of gamesters only among themselves; this is the least part of the evil; +for who is concerned when lions destroy bears, or wolves devour +wolf-cubs, or snakes sting vipers? In respect to that department of +gambling which includes the _roping-in_ of strangers, young men, +collecting-clerks, and unsuspecting green-hands, and robbing them, I +have no language strong enough to mark down its turpitude, its infernal +rapacity. After hearing many of the scenes not unfamiliar to every +gambler, I think Satan might be proud of their dealings, and look up to +them with that deferential respect, with which one monster gazes upon a +superior. There is not even the expectation of honesty. Some +scullion-herald of iniquity decoys the unwary wretch into the secret +room; he is tempted to drink; made confident by the specious simplicity +of the game; allowed to win; and every bait and lure and blind is +employed--then he is plucked to the skin by tricks which appear as fair +as honesty itself. The robber avows _his_ deed, does it openly; the +gambler sneaks to the same result under skulking pretences. There is a +frank way, and a mean way of doing a wicked thing. The gambler takes the +meanest way of doing the dirtiest deed. The victim's own partner is +sucking his blood; it is a league of sharpers, to get his money at any +rate; and the wickedness is so unblushing and unmitigated, that it +gives, at last, an instance of what the deceitful human heart, knavish +as it is, is ashamed to try to cover or conceal; but confesses with +helpless honesty, that it is fraud, cheating, _stealing_, +_robbery_,--and nothing else. + +If I walk the dark street, and a perishing, hungry wretch meets me and +bears off my purse with but a single dollar, the whole town awakes; the +officers are alert, the myrmidons of the law scout, and hunt, and bring +in the trembling culprit to stow him in the jail. But a worse thief may +meet me, decoy my steps, and by a greater dishonesty, filch ten thousand +dollars,--and what then? The story spreads, the sharpers move abroad +unharmed, no one stirs. It is the day's conversation; and like a sound +it rolls to the distance, and dies in an echo. + +Shall such astounding iniquities be vomited out amidst us, and no man +care? Do we love our children, and yet let them walk in a den of vipers? +Shall we pretend to virtue, and purity, and religion, and yet make +partners of our social life, men whose heart has conceived such damnable +deeds, and whose hands have performed them? Shall there be even in the +eye of religion no difference between the corrupter of youth and their +guardian? Are all the lines and marks of morality so effaced, is the +nerve and courage of virtue so quailed by the frequency and boldness of +flagitious crimes, that men, covered over with wickedness, shall find +their iniquity no obstacle to their advancement among a Christian +people. + +In almost every form of iniquity there is some shade or trace of good. +We have in gambling a crime standing alone--dark, malignant, +uncompounded wickedness! It seems in its full growth a monster without a +tender mercy, devouring its own offspring without one feeling but +appetite. A gamester, as such, is the cool, calculating, essential +_spirit_ of concentrated avaricious selfishness. His intellect is a +living thing, quickened with double life for villany; his heart is steel +of fourfold temper. When a man _begins_ to gamble he is as a noble tree +full of sap, green with leaves, a shade to beasts, and a covert to +birds. When one _becomes_ a thorough gambler, he is like that tree +lightning-smitten, rotten in root, dry in branch, and sapless; seasoned +hard and tough; nothing lives beneath it, nothing on its branches, +unless a hawk or a vulture perches for a moment to whet its beak, and +fly screaming away for its prey. + +To every young man who indulges in the least form of gambling, I raise a +warning voice! Under the specious name of AMUSEMENT, you are laying the +foundation of gambling. Playing is the seed which comes up gambling. It +is the light wind which brings up the storm. It is the white frost which +preludes the winter. You are mistaken, however, in supposing that it is +harmless in its earliest beginnings. Its terrible blight belongs, +doubtless, to a later stage; but its consumption of time, its +destruction of industry, its distaste for the calmer pleasures of life, +belong to the very _beginning_. You will begin to play with every +generous feeling. Amusement will be the plea. At the beginning the game +will excite enthusiasm, pride of skill, the love of mastery, and the +love of money. The love of money, at first almost imperceptible, at last +will rule out all the rest,--like Aaron's rod,--a serpent, swallowing +every other serpent. Generosity, enthusiasm, pride and skill, love of +mastery, will be absorbed in one mighty feeling,--the savage lust of +lucre. + +There is a downward climax in this sin. The opening and ending are +fatally connected, and drawn toward each other with almost irresistible +attraction. If gambling is a vortex, playing is the outer ring of the +Maelstrom. The thousand pound stake, the whole estate put up on a +game--what are these but the instruments of kindling that tremendous +excitement which a diseased heart craves? What is the _amusement_ for +which you play but the _excitement_ of the game? And for what but this +does the jaded gambler play? You differ from him only in the degree of +the same feeling. Do not solace yourself that you shall escape because +others have; for they _stopped_, and _you go on_. Are you as safe as +they, when you are in the gulf-stream of perdition, and they on the +shore? But have you ever asked, _how many_ have escaped? Not one in a +thousand is left unblighted! You have nine hundred and ninety-nine +chances _against_ you, and one for you; and will you go on? If a disease +should stalk through the town, devouring whole families, and sparing not +one in five hundred, would you lie down under it quietly because you +have one chance in five hundred? Had a scorpion stung you, would it +alleviate your pangs to reflect that you had only one chance in one +hundred? Had you swallowed corrosive poison, would it ease your +convulsions to think there was only one chance in fifty for you? I do +not call every man who plays a gambler, but a gambler in _embryo_. Let +me trace your course from the amusement of innocent playing to its +almost inevitable end. + +_Scene first._ A genteel coffee-house,--whose humane screen conceals a +line of grenadier bottles, and hides respectable blushes from +impertinent eyes. There is a quiet little room opening out of the bar; +and here sit four jovial youths. The cards are out, the wines are in. +The fourth is a reluctant hand; he does not love the drink, nor approve +the game. He anticipates and fears the result of both. Why is he here? +He is a whole-souled fellow, and is afraid to seem ashamed of any +fashionable gaiety. He will sip his wine upon the importunity of a +friend newly come to town, and is too polite to spoil that friend's +pleasure by refusing a part in the game. They sit, shuffle, deal; the +night wears on, the clock telling no tale of passing hours--the prudent +liquor-fiend has made it safely dumb. The night is getting old; its dank +air grows fresher; the east is grey; the gaming and drinking and +hilarious laughter are over, and the youths wending homeward. What says +conscience? No matter what it says; they did not hear, and we will not. +Whatever was said, it was very shortly answered thus: "This has not been +gambling; all were gentlemen; there was no cheating; simply a convivial +evening; no stakes except the bills incident to the entertainment. If +anybody blames a young man for a little innocent exhilaration on a +special occasion, he is a superstitious bigot; let him croak!" Such a +garnished game is made the text to justify the whole round of gambling, +Let us, then, look at + +_Scene the second._ In a room so silent that there is no sound except +the shrill cock crowing the morning, where the forgotten candles burn +dimly over the long and lengthened wick, sit four men. Carved marble +could not be more motionless, save their hands. Pale, watchful, though +weary, their eyes pierce the cards, or furtively read each other's +faces. Hours have passed over them thus. At length they rise without +words; some, with a satisfaction which only makes their faces brightly +haggard, scrape off the piles of money; others, dark, sullen, silent, +fierce, move away from their lost money. The darkest and fiercest of the +four is that young friend who first sat down to make out a game! He will +never sit so innocently again. What says he to his conscience now? "I +have a right to gamble; I have a right to be damned too, if I choose; +whose business is it?" + +_Scene the third._ Years have passed on. He has seen youth ruined, at +first with expostulation, then with only silent regret, then consenting +to take part of the spoils; and finally, he has himself decoyed, duped, +and stripped them without mercy. Go with me into that dilapidated house, +not far from the landing, at New Orleans. Look into that dirty room. +Around a broken table, sitting upon boxes, kegs, or rickety chairs, see +a filthy crew dealing cards smouched with tobacco, grease and liquor. +One has a pirate-face burnished and burnt with brandy; a shock of +grizzly, matted hair, half covering his villain eyes, which glare out +like a wild beast's from a thicket. Close by him wheezes a white-faced, +dropsical wretch, vermin-covered, and stenchful. A scoundrel-Spaniard, +and a burly negro, (the jolliest of the four,) complete the group. They +have spectators--drunken sailors, and ogling, thieving, drinking women, +who should have died long ago, when all that was womanly died. Here hour +draws on hour, sometimes with brutal laughter, sometimes with threat, +and oath, and uproar. The last few stolen dollars lost, and temper too, +each charges each with cheating, and high words ensue, and blows; and +the whole gang burst out the door, beating, biting, scratching, and +rolling over and over in the dirt and dust. The worst, the fiercest, the +drunkest, of the four, is our friend who began by making up the game! + +_Scene the fourth._ Upon this bright day, stand with me, if you would be +sick of humanity, and look over that multitude of men kindly gathered to +see a murderer hung! At last, a guarded cart drags on a thrice-guarded +wretch. At the gallows' ladder his courage fails. His coward-feet refuse +to ascend; dragged up, he is supported by bustling officials; his brain +reels, his eye swims, while the meek minister utters a final prayer by +his leaden ear. The prayer is said, the noose is fixed, the signal is +given; a shudder runs through the crowd as he swings free. After a +moment, his convulsed limbs stretch down, and hang heavily and still; +and he who began to gamble to make up a game, and ended with stabbing an +enraged victim whom he had fleeced, has here played his last +game,--himself the stake! + +I feel impelled, in closing, to call the attention of all sober citizens +to some potent influences which are exerted in favor of gambling. + +In our civil economy we have Legislators to devise and enact wholesome +laws; Lawyers to counsel and aid those who need the laws' relief; and +Judges to determine and administer the laws. If Legislators, Lawyers, +and Judges are gamblers, with what hope do we warn off the young from +this deadly fascination, against such authoritative examples of high +public functionaries? With what eminent fitness does that Judge press +the bench, who in private commits the vices which officially he is set +to condemn! With what singular terrors does he frown on a convicted +gambler with whom he played last night, and will play again to-night! +How wisely should the fine be light which the sprightly criminal will +win and pay out of the Judge's own pocket! + +With the name of JUDGE is associated ideas of immaculate purity, sober +piety, and fearless, favorless justice. Let it then be counted a dark +crime for a recreant official so far to forget his reverend place, and +noble office, as to run the gantlet of filthy vices, and make the word +_Judge_, to suggest an incontinent trifler, who smites with his mouth, +and smirks with his eye; who holds the rod to strike the criminal, and +smites only the law to make a gap for criminals to pass through! If God +loves this land, may he save it from truckling, drinking, swearing, +gambling, vicious Judges![A] + + [A] The general eminent integrity of the Bench is unquestionable--and + no remarks in the text are to be construed as an oblique aspersion + of the profession. But the purer our Judges generally, the more + shameless is it that some will not abandon either their vices or + their office. + +With such Judges I must associate corrupt LEGISLATORS, whose bawling +patriotism leaks out in all the sinks of infamy at the Capital. These +living exemplars of vice, pass still-born laws against vice. Are such +men sent to the Capital only to practise debauchery? Laborious +seedsmen--they gather every germ of evil; and laborious sowers--at home +they strew them far and wide! It is a burning shame, a high outrage, +that public men, by corrupting the young with the example of manifold +vices, should pay back their constituents for their honors! + +Our land has little to fear from abroad, and much from within. We can +bear foreign aggression, scarcity, the revulsions of commerce, plagues, +and pestilences; but we cannot bear vicious Judges, corrupt Courts, +gambling Legislators, and a vicious, corrupt, and gambling constituency. +Let us not be deceived! The decay of civil institutions begins at the +core. The outside wears all the lovely hues of ripeness, when the inside +is rotting. Decline does not begin in bold and startling acts; but, as +in autumnal leaves, in rich and glowing colors. Over diseased vitals, +consumptive laws wear the hectic blush, a brilliant eye, and transparent +skin. Could the public sentiment declare that PERSONAL MORALITY is the +first element of patriotism; that corrupt Legislators are the most +pernicious of criminals; that the Judge who lets the villain off, is the +villain's patron; that tolerance of crime is intolerance of virtue,--our +nation might defy all enemies and live forever! + +And now, my young friends, I beseech you to let alone this evil before +it be meddled with. You are safe from vice when you avoid even its +appearance; and only then. The first steps to wickedness are +imperceptible. We do not wonder at the inexperience of Adam; but it is +wonderful that six thousand years' repetition of the same arts, and the +same uniform disaster, should have taught men nothing! that generation +after generation should perish, and the wreck be no warning! + +The mariner searches his chart for hidden rocks, stands off from +perilous shoals, and steers wide of reefs on which hang shattered +morsels of wrecked ships, and runs in upon dangerous shores with the +ship manned, the wheel in hand, and the lead constantly sounding. But +the mariner upon life's sea, carries no chart of other men's voyages, +drives before every wind that will speed him, draws upon horrid shores +with slumbering crew, or heads in upon roaring reefs as though he would +not perish where thousands have perished before him. + +Hell is populated with the victims of "_harmless amusements_." Will man +never learn that the way to hell is through the valley of DECEIT? The +power of Satan to _hold_ his victims is nothing to that mastery of art +by which he first _gains_ them. When he approaches to charm us, it is +not as a grim fiend, gleaming from a lurid cloud, but as an angel of +light radiant with innocence. His words fall like dew upon the flower; +as musical as the crystal-drop warbling from a fountain. Beguiled by +his art, he leads you to the enchanted ground. Oh! how it glows with +every refulgent hue of heaven! Afar off he marks the dismal gulf of vice +and crime; its smoke of torment slowly rising, and rising forever! and +he himself cunningly warns you of its dread disaster, for the very +purpose of blinding and drawing you thither. He leads you to captivity +through all the bowers of lulling magic. He plants your foot on odorous +flowers; he fans your cheek with balmy breath; he overhangs your head +with rosy clouds; he fills your ear with distant, drowsy music, charming +every sense to rest. Oh ye! who have thought the way to hell was bleak +and frozen as Norway, parched and barren as Sahara, strewed like +Golgotha with bones and skulls reeking with stench like the vale of +Gehenna,--witness your mistake! The way to hell is gorgeous! It is a +highway, cast up; no lion is there, no ominous bird to hoot a warning, +no echoings of the wailing-pit, no lurid gleams of distant fires, or +moaning sounds of hidden woe! Paradise is imitated to build you a way to +death; the flowers of heaven are stolen and poisoned; the sweet plant of +knowledge is here; the pure white flower of religion; seeming virtue and +the charming tints of innocence are scattered all along like native +herbage. The enchanted victim travels on. Standing afar behind, and +from a silver-trumpet, a heavenly messenger sends down the wind a solemn +warning: THERE IS A WAY WHICH SEEMETH RIGHT TO MAN, BUT THE END THEREOF +IS DEATH. And again, with louder blast: THE WISE MAN FORESEETH THE EVIL; +FOOLS PASS ON AND ARE PUNISHED. Startled for a moment, the victim +pauses; gazes round upon the flowery scene, and whispers, _Is it +not harmless?_--"_Harmless_," responds a serpent from the +grass!--"_Harmless_," echo the sighing winds!--"_Harmless_," re-echo a +hundred airy tongues! If now a gale from heaven might only sweep the +clouds away through which the victim gazes; oh! if God would break that +potent power which chains the blasts of hell, and let the sulphur-stench +roll up the vale, how would the vision change!--the road become a track +of dead men's bones!--the heavens a lowering storm!--the balmy breezes, +distant wailings--and all those balsam-shrubs that lied to his senses, +sweat drops of blood upon their poison-boughs! + +Ye who are meddling with the edges of vice, ye are on this road!--and +utterly duped by its enchantments! Your eye has already lost its honest +glance, your taste has lost its purity, your heart throbs with poison! +The leprosy is all over you, its blotches and eruptions cover you. Your +feet stand on slippery places, whence in due time they shall slide, if +you refuse the warning which I raise. They shall slide from heaven, +never to be visited by a gambler; slide down to that fiery abyss below +you, out of which none ever come. Then, when the last card is cast, and +the game over, and you lost; then, when the echo of your fall shall ring +through hell,--in malignant triumph, shall the Arch-Gambler, who +cunningly played for your soul, have his prey! Too late you shall look +back upon life as a MIGHTY GAME, in which you were the stake, and Satan +the winner! + + + + + ALTEMUS' + ETERNAL LIFE SERIES. + + +_Selections from the writings of well-known religious authors' works, +beautifully printed and daintily bound in leatherette with original +designs in silver and ink._ + + _PRICE, 25 CENTS PER VOLUME._ + + ETERNAL LIFE, by Professor Henry Drummond. + LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY, by Rev. Andrew Murray. + GOD'S WORD AND GOD'S WORK, by Martin Luther. + FAITH, by Thomas Arnold. + THE CREATION STORY, by Honorable William E. Gladstone. + THE MESSAGE OF COMFORT, by Rt. Rev. Ashton Oxenden. + THE MESSAGE OF PEACE, by Rev. R. W. Church. + THE LORD'S PRAYER AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, by Dean Stanley. + THE MEMOIRS OF JESUS, by Rev. Robert F. Horton. + HYMNS OF PRAISE AND GLADNESS, by Elisabeth R. Scovil. + DIFFICULTIES, by Hannah Whitall Smith. + GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. + HAVE FAITH IN GOD, by Rev. Andrew Murray. + TWELVE CAUSES OF DISHONESTY, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. + THE CHRIST IN WHOM CHRISTIANS BELIEVE, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. + IN MY NAME, by Rev. Andrew Murray. + SIX WARNINGS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. + THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN BUSINESSMAN, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. + POPULAR AMUSEMENTS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. + TRUE LIBERTY, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. + INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. + THE BEAUTY OF A LIFE OF SERVICE, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. + THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD, by Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D. + THOUGHT AND ACTION, by Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks. + THE HEAVENLY VISION, by Rev. F. B. Meyer. + MORNING STRENGTH, by Elisabeth R. Scovil. + FOR THE QUIET HOUR, by Edith V. Bradt. + EVENING COMFORT, by Elizabeth R. Scovil. + WORDS OF HELP FOR CHRISTIAN GIRLS, by Rev. F. B. Meyer + HOW TO STUDY THE BIBLE, by Rev. Dwight L. Moody. + EXPECTATION CORNER, by E. S. Elliot. + JESSICA'S FIRST PRAYER, by Hesba Stretton. + + HENRY ALTEMUS. + _507, 509, 511, 513 Cherry Street, Philadelphia._ + + + + + ALTEMUS' + BELLES-LETTRES SERIES. + + +_A collection of Essays and Addresses by eminent English and American +Authors, beautifully printed and daintily bound in leatherette, with +original designs in silver._ + + _PRICE, 25 CENTS PER VOLUME._ + + INDEPENDENCE DAY, by Rev. Edward E. Hale. + THE SCHOLAR IN POLITICS, by Hon. Richard Olney. + THE YOUNG MAN IN BUSINESS, by Edward W. Bok. + THE YOUNG MAN AND THE CHURCH, by Edward W. Bok. + THE SPOILS SYSTEM, by Hon. Carl Schurz. + CONVERSATION, by Thomas De Quincey. + SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, by Matthew Arnold. + WORK, by John Ruskin. + NATURE AND ART, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. + THE USE AND MISUSE OF BOOKS, by Frederic Harrison. + THE MONROE DOCTRINE: ITS ORIGIN, MEANING AND APPLICATION, by + Prof. John Bach McMaster (University of Pennsylvania). + THE DESTINY OF MAN, by Sir John Lubbock. + LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. + RIP VAN WINKLE, by Washington Irving. + ART, POETRY AND MUSIC, by Sir John Lubbock. + THE CHOICE OF BOOKS, by Sir John Lubbock. + MANNERS, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. + CHARACTER, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. + THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, by Washington Irving. + THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE, by Sir John Lubbock. + SELF RELIANCE, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. + THE DUTY OF HAPPINESS, by Sir John Lubbock. + SPIRITUAL LAWS, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. + OLD CHRISTMAS, by Washington Irving. + HEALTH, WEALTH AND THE BLESSING OF FRIENDS, by Sir John Lubbock. + INTELLECT, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. + WHY AMERICANS DISLIKE ENGLAND, by Prof. Geo. B. Adams (Yale). + THE HIGHER EDUCATION AS A TRAINING FOR BUSINESS, by Prof. Harry + Pratt Judson (University of Chicago). + MISS TOOSEY'S MISSION. + LADDIE. + J. COLE, by Emma Gellibrand. + + HENRY ALTEMUS, + _507, 509, 511, 513 Cherry Street, Philadelphia._ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Gamblers and Gambling, by Henry Ward Beecher + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAMBLERS AND GAMBLING *** + +***** This file should be named 34743.txt or 34743.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/7/4/34743/ + +Produced by Bryan Ness, Hunter Monroe and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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