and his family for their kindness." He manifested no religious penitence
to the last. He died an unbeliever.
* * * * *
In conclusion, I would say to those who have perused this work, so full
of strange and startling incidents, let not their mysterious and dark
character cause you to doubt of their truth. Recollect that there are
strange events in the life of every man, many of which he cannot fathom;
and were the whole circumstances of your own life disclosed, it is not
impossible that many of them would exceed belief. Horrible as is the
picture of depravity here exhibited, the half has not been told, nor
would I reveal one iota more than I deemed necessary to awaken the
public attention to a sense of their danger, and a corresponding sense
of their duty. Reader, you may be standing upon the edge of a precipice,
though you know it not. Fathers, your sons may frequent these haunts of
vice, and be entangled in the snares of the destroyer. Wives, mothers,
sisters, daughters, lend us your aid to save those you love from
destruction. You need not be ignorant, that around you are hundreds of
individuals who live in affluence upon the spoils of their industry. It
is not gamblers that support gaming. If the merchant, and lawyer, and
tradesman, and the man of fortune did not supply them with the material,
their profession would die. In all my works I have shown how gambling
lends to, and is connected with, all other crimes; and I beseech you, as
you love your families, yourselves, and our common country, that you
lend your aid and influence to abate this evil. This vast conspiracy
against your lives and fortunes, which I have here developed, is no
chimera. Its workings are everywhere felt, though the machinery is
unseen. I have no object but your good in making this disclosure; and
should it meet the eye, as I have no doubt it will, of some one not a
stranger to its crimes, I beseech him to consider his ways. Why should
he live a curse to the earth--a destroyer of his kind--a blot upon
creation--a dishonour to his Maker? Heaven and earth are equally ready
to receive the returning prodigal. The only danger--the only disgrace is
to continue where you are. In behalf of our Maker, in behalf of
humanity, in behalf of all that is noble and virtuous, I beseech you to
TURN, _why will ye die_?
DEBATE ON GAMBLING,
BETWEEN
MR. FREEMAN THE AVOWED GAMBLER, AND MR. GREEN, THE REFORMED GAMBLER;
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