The Daily Advertiser

OBSERVATIONS on GAMBLING.

There are some species of vice the practice of which, some peculiar circumstances being considered, may not be deemed unpardonable; gambling, however, cannot be considered in the light aforementioned, it is a vice of so odious and dangerous a nature, that it demands the reprobation of every honest principled man, every lover of peace and good order, and every well wisher to the happiness of society. Gambling is indeed so detrimental to morals, so destructive to regularity and sobriety, that the hand of government ought to be stretched forth to check in its progress so alarming an evil. Proper persons ought to be appointed whose business it should be strictly to inspect the houses of all such as were noted for keeping billiard tables, or who countenanced gambling in their dwellings; and all who should be found of such a stamp, ought to have severe penalties inflicted on them for their conduct, as well as those who should be found in the practice of gambling under their roofs. Such a measure as this, would be attended with consequences the most salutary, as it would not only tend in a very considerable degree to cramp the growth of that encroaching and pernicious vice, but perhaps be the means of wresting many from the devouring jaws of temporary, if not of endless perdition.

Gambling is the cause of many other evils. as the most vile transactions which take place in a community, often owe their origin to it; drunkenness, blasphemy, robbery, a deprivation of the senses, and suicide, are often the horrid result of pursuing the practice of gambling; add to this, the loss of property, the loss of reputation, and sometimes the entailment of misery and wretchedness on a family and tender offspring. Where is the heart that does not shudder at the view of such scenes, and recoil at the idea of engaging in a pursuit that so obviously leads on to infamy and ruin?

If any can be found (and that there can, ocular demonstration frequently evinces) so lost to all the nobler feelings of human nature, as to divest themselves of all reflection, and run on headlong to their own destruction, shun them, ye that revere honesty, and walk in the paths of steadiness and virtue; view them as the outcasts of society, the very spawn of vice and insanity; let them herd by themselves, till misery brings them to a sense of their guilt, and turns them from the road of error to the track of sincere reformation.

There are many, who undoubtedly think there can be no harm in playing a game of cards for a bowl of punch or a few coppers: if the matter went no farther, perhaps the fault would not be considered very great; but when a person gets an itch for gambling, though for a sum very trifling at first, he soon engages for higher sums, and goes on in the pursuit till an empty purse, and loss of credit, puts a stop to his career. The gambler is a stranger both to rest of body and mind; he is obliged to drive sleep from his eyes, and slumber from his eye-lids.

It is to be feared, that too many of the youth of the metropolis devote a greater part of the time which should be employed to better purposes, to the detestable practice of gaming; thus quitting the soft couch of ease, neglecting the refreshment of sleep, they fly with hasty and unthinking steps to those dreadful haunts,

"Where midnight vices their fell orgies keep;
And guilty revels scare the phantom sleep;
Where dissipation wears the name of bliss;
And virtue's banished with ignoble hiss;
Where honour's hooted, merit is despised:
And truth and glory's rudely sacrificed."

The support of a republican government, like ours, depends materially on the virtue of the people; morality ought therefore to be strictly attended to, and vice of every kind receive the disapprobation of individuals and the government.

European customs are gradually gaining ground in America; imported vices are almost as numerous as imported gewgaws, and our youth seem as eager to stain their internals with the coloring of foreign foibles, as they do their externals with foreign frippery; and if some check is not put to the progress of vice, especially the vice of gambling, riots, tumults, robberies, &c. &c. will soon become as frequent in this country as in Europe; soon will it be no surprising thing to hear that a man, who, just before night, was possessed of a competency to support himself and family, the next morning is reduced to beggary and wretchedness, by gambling—and the youth, who but a day or two before, was engaged in a successful line of business, blow out his brains in consequence of ill luck at the gaming table. These are melancholy subjects to reflect upon, but it is not more than what may be expected if the prevalence of gambling and other vices are not put a stop to by the interposition of government.

The appellation of a gambler, is only a politer name for a pick-pocket, for gambling is but seldom practised without cheating. An honest gambler is a phenomenon rarely to be met with.

I shall close these observations by addressing myself in a few words to those who make it their business to follow the practice of gambling.

Ye tools of depravity, corruption and lust, what happiness can you promise yourselves from offering up the most precious moments of your lives at the shrine of vice, and wasting the hours in attending to the calls of lust and infamy, even if success should sometimes crown your endeavors to fleece an unfortunate wretch of all his property?

"Can gold calm passion, or make reason shine?"
Obtain'd, like your's at vice's detested shrine:
Wretched from those misfortunes mark'd her own
And, worse—from those from whom reflection's flown;
Whom vicious thoughts one moment led astray,
And who to arts have fell a wretched prey.

Can you enjoy real satisfaction from tasting that cup which, though at first to your palate may be sweet, is filled by the misfortunes of others? Can you take delight in applying that property which was the hope of a family, or the foundation of the future prospects of a youth, and which by base arts you may have fleeced from them, to the gratification of your lustful appetites and desires? Can you behold, even if surrounded with the glitter of your ill-gotten wealth, a whole family plunged into the extremes of poverty and misery, and know yourselves to be the cause, and your souls not shrink with inward horror at the thought? Or how can you support the reflection of a youth's rushing into the borders of an eternal world, by an act of suicide, and feel yourselves to be the occasion of it: Are not your own crimes of a hue sufficiently black, without having the guilt of others heaped on your heads?—Besides, the property acquired by gambling rests on a very precarious basis; it will not do for a gambler to quit the field after he has filled his pockets with the spoils of others, he must continue the practice, honor (a gambler's honor!—Good God!) obliges him to do it, and, perhaps in a few evenings instead of being in affluence, he is pennyless.—An empty purse is the devil's; and an empty purse and a guilty conscience must surely be hell with a witness. Woe be to him to whose lot it shall fall to be in such a situation.

Reflect on your conduct, ye gamblers, ye base harpies and nuisances of society! The hour of reflection must come, sooner or later, and happy will it be for you if it comes not too late, if it comes in season to warn you of your danger, and has sufficient influence to induce you to quit the fascinating
charms of guilty and momentary pleasures, and to withstand the alluring baits of vice, to listen to the benign dictates of virtue, whose precepts if followed, are calculated to give us that happiness which shall be lasting, those pleasures which shall never fade those joys which each revolving day shall brighten, and which will not terminate with the moments of time. But should the hour of reflection come too late, what a train of misery will it bring with it! When health has withdrawn from your borders, and baleful disease has touched you with her wand, it will not be the season for repentance; guilt of conscience and unceasing misery must be your portion here, and when the curtain shall be drawn, which shall hide from your view those pleasures which have been the cause of your wretchedness here, if you should open your eyes in a future state to happiness, it will be more than you can possibly expect, and a blessing far superior to your merits. —

Malf. Gaz.