lishments. Within ten years the House of Commons of England has
adjourned on "Derby Day" to go out to bet on the races; and in the
best circles of society in this country to-day are many hundreds of
professedly respectable men who are acknowledged gamblers.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in this land are every day being won
and lost through sheer gambling. Says a traveller through the West--"I
have travelled a thousand miles at a time upon the Western waters
and seen gambling at every waking moment from the commencement to the
termination of the journey." The South-west of this country reeks with
this abomination. In New Orleans every third or fourth house in many
of the streets is a gaming place, and it may be truthfully averred
that each and all of our cities are cursed with this evil.
In themselves most of the games employed in gambling are without harm.
Billiard-tables are as harmless as tea-tables, and a pack of cards as
a pack of letter envelopes, unless stakes be put up. But by their use
for gambling purposes they have become significant of an infinity
of wretchedness. In New York city there are said to be six thousand
houses devoted to this sin; in Philadelphia about four thousand; in
Cincinnati about one thousand; at Washington the amount of gaming is
beyond calculation. There have been seasons when, by night, Senators,
Representatives, and Ministers of Foreign Governments were found
engaged in this practice.
Men wishing to gamble will find places just suited to their capacity,
not only in the underground oyster-cellar, or at the table back of the
curtain, covered with greasy cards, or in the steamboat smoking cabin,
where the bloated wretch with rings in his ears deals out his pack,
and winks in the unsuspecting traveller,--providing free drinks all
around,--but in gilded parlors and amid gorgeous surroundings.
This sin works ruin, first, by unhealthful stimulants. Excitement is
pleasurable. Under every sky, and in every age, men have sought it.
The Chinaman gets it by smoking his opium; the Persian by chewing
hashish; the trapper in a buffalo hunt; the sailor in a squall; the
inebriate in the bottle, and the avaricious at the gaming-table.
We must at times have excitement. A thousand voices in our nature
demand it. It is right. It is healthful. It is inspiriting. It is a
desire God-given. But anything that first gratifies this appetite and
hurls it back in a terrific reaction is deplorable and wick
|