He paused for a little while, and then said, in a quiet, business way,

"In seeking a remedy for the condition of society found here, we must
let common sense and a knowledge of human nature go hand in hand with
Christian charity. To ignore any of these is to make failure certain. If
the whisky-and policy-shops were all closed, the task would be easy. In
a single month the transformation would be marvelous. But we cannot hope
for this, at least not for a long time to come--not until politics and
whisky are divorced, and not until associations of bad men cease to
be strong enough in our courts to set law and justice at defiance. Our
work, then, must be in the face of these baleful influences."

"Is the evil of lottery-policies so great that you class it with the
curse of rum?" asked Mr. Dinneford.

"It is more concealed, but as all-pervading and almost as disastrous in
its effects. The policy-shops draw from the people, especially the poor
and ignorant, hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. There is no
more chance of thrift for one who indulges in this sort of gambling than
there is for one who indulges in drink. The vice in either case drags
its subject down to want, and in most cases to crime. I could point you
to women virtuous a year ago, but who now live abandoned lives; and they
would tell you, if you would question them, that their way downward
was through the policy-shops. To get the means of securing a hoped-for
prize--of getting a hundred or two hundred dollars for every single
one risked, and so rising above want or meeting some desperate
exigency--virtue was sacrificed in an evil moment."

"The whisky-shops brutalize, benumb and debase or madden with cruel and
murderous passions; the policy-shops, more seductive and fascinating in
their allurements, lead on to as deep a gulf of moral ruin and hopeless
depravity. I have seen the poor garments of a dying child sold at a
pawn-shop for a mere trifle by its infatuated mother, and the money
thrown away in this kind of gambling. Women sell or pawn their clothing,
often sending their little children to dispose of these articles, while
they remain half clad at home to await the daily drawings and receive
the prize they fondly hope to obtain, but which rarely, if ever, comes.

"Children learn early to indulge this vice, and lie and steal in order
to obtain money to gratify it. You would be amazed to see the scores of
little boys and girls, white and black, wh