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Show GAMBLING. The Fascinating but Ruinous Game a Curse to All Who Follow in Its Wake. (Written for The Intermountain Catholic.) What a fascination gambling holds over people nowadays, and what a ruination it is for them in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred. It is undoubtedly un-doubtedly one of the great evils of our time, and holds almost as terrible a sway as the drink evil. In the majority of cases those two evils run hand in hatjd. and drink, if it does not accompany gambling gam-bling in its beginning, will infallibly follow that deplorable passion sooner or later. The gambler having staked his all on the. cards, dice or race course, and having lost the hard earnings of a lifetime, perhaps, falls info that sad state of despair, de-spair, that state in which he does not care a pin what happens to him. He takes to the bottle, he frequents the beer saloons, and there tries to drown the thought of his losses. It would not be so horrible, hor-rible, if the gambler brought only ruin to himself, him-self, but alas! there -is in the majority of cases a wife and little children, whose prospects in life are blasted, the peace and holy quietness of their home is destroyed, and social and moral ruin stares them in the face. Gambling is a terrible passion. It Jiolds its victims with a much more firm hold than drink. Many men have been cured of the drink habit, there is some hope for them, but I have never heard of a gambler who once that passion siezed him was able to shake it off. Friends may advise him, entreat him, by all he . holds dear to -give it up, but the gambling devil is stronger than they.and that devil whispers so insidiously into hjs victim's ear, "My dear fellow, you lost last time, it "was such a near thing, try again, double your stakes ;-il's a dead certainty.'' The money is piled down and, the dead certainty never comes off. This passion of 'gambling exists in terrible degree 'aiiiorig'fall clatjSes;"' especially tliorUhlg"clas"ses." "They must have their bit on every civance game that turns up." Look at England. Gambling exists ex-ists to such an extent there that, the legislators are at their wits' end to find a means to check an evil which is the social and moral ruination of the country. Take your stand on the streets of any town there on the day of a big race, say the St. Leger Derby or Cambridgeshire. The cry is, "What is going to win today ? Mr. So and So has 25 pounds on such a horse. He got the tip from those in the know. I put my 5 shillings on and John So and So gave me his shilling to put on. Yes! the banker ha his 2.' pounds on. the clerk his sovereign, and the working class their . shillings shil-lings or their 2 or 1 shilling. The women are just as bad as the men, sometimes worse, for they go so far as to pawn their husband's clothing and their children's in- order that they may have money to bet. What is true of England is true of almost al-most every other country. Take America, see the amount of dollars that is foolishly gambled away. What a pile of dollars hangs upon the result of the election that took place last week, not to speak of the enormous amount of dollars that is gambled, away over t-ards, dice and the race course. Look at France and Italy and the gambling hell of Monte Carlo. What a story could be written about that latter place. It would be one long sad tale of ruined lives, broken hearts and dishonored graves. In those magnificent halls, the ball goes whirling around and upon every whirl fortunes depend. de-pend. Watch the set, earnest faces of the gamblers gamb-lers there, especially those magnificiently dressed women. They sit thei-e, their very souls consumed by that awful passion. They have no place in their hearts for him they call husband, .or those little children that call them mother. So, all other love has departed from their hearts once the love of gambling entered there, and the shrill, sharp cry of the croupier, "Make your play, ladies," is the only thing that moves those hearts now. All! will men and women who visit there never learn a lesson les-son from that silent graveyard perched above the blue Mediterranean? There sleep many a noble man and woman, who but for gambling would have a great future, men and women who would be an adornment to society, but alas! there they sleep their last long sleep this November's day, with nothing to mark their last resting place, no epitaph epi-taph above their remains, except the cold words of the care, taker, who points out to you with a shrug of his shoulders in a matter of form voice, a suicide's sui-cide's grave. But men and women, never learn the lesson which that silent graveyard preaches. Every day and every train brings its coterie of gamblers to that gambling hell, and every day around that tahle fortunes are lost, noble futures blasted and I homes ruined beyond hope of redemption. Yes, today gambling holds sway, in the lordly halls, the merchant home and the humble, cot. despite the-warning the-warning voice of experience which cries aloud from the housetop, 'Tie who gambles is lost:" The wise men. the successful men of the world, never, gamble gam-ble in any shape r or form. They look upon gambling gamb-ling as the height of folly. . Some of the wealthiest race owners of England never put one shilling on their horse even when the race seems a certainty for them. They will tell you it is sheer madness to do so. The greatest trainer of the present century. cen-tury. Juhn Porter (the veteran trainer of Kings-clere Kings-clere he is named), never during his career put one i single penny on a horse, and there is not a classic event in England but the Tiorses trained by him have won. In his day he has seen the' curse that gambling was to many a fine noble young fellow, and I have not the slightest doubt but that he will tell you "That he who gambles will assuredly come to the ground." Take up the daily papers of the world. How many cases will you see there of the """ 1H1II1IU in J -iiUJiiu ilPJ-UMIlim .in. a i..hmiihiimjh.i iu.iiiih . . . I failure of big companies whom men thotight so secure. What is the cause of their failure gambling. gamb-ling. How many eases of bank managers, clerks in every department, shopkeepers who when arraigned before the judges on a charge of falsification or accounts will plead as an excuse gambling ruined me. Prisons, poorhouses. are full of those unfortunate unfor-tunate people who once allured by the devil of gambling staked their all, the earnings of a lifetime life-time upon the throw of a dice or on the chance of a horse winning and lost. Drink followed and oh! sad end. Men and women of the world of every sect and class and especially you young boys and girls beginning life, let no one cajole you into thinking that you will make a fortune by gambling, gamb-ling, you will lose one right enough if you cultivate a passion for gambling, and this i as sure as the sun is above you. If anyone ever tells you with a friendly pat on the shoulder, "You can put your pile on such and. such a horse or game, it's a dead, a castiron certainty," just say to him, "(Jet along, darn you. I want none of your certainties, the certainty that I have got my money afe is enough for me. and by Jingo, I'm going to keep it." To bet is but the height of folly, and to plunge is rank madness and as straight a road to ruin as ever was fashioned. The poet, speaking about the silence that reigns sometimes in the human heart, expresses it beautifully beauti-fully thus : "Far away on the ocean are billows That never shall break on the beach. In the depth of the heart is a silence That never shall burst into speech." So deep down in the ruined gambler's heart is a misery and a sorrow that never can vent itself fully in words, and it is only the fringe of that misery mis-ery and sorrow that is manifested to us. but the sight even of that fringe should be enough to keep us ever from that accursed evil. |