As the thing stood now, cheating operated a forfeiture of
charter or license: this penalty removed, cheating would be universal.
"What would become of the hospital?" the tax-payer asked. "God knows,
our taxes are onerous enough now, and to add to these the eighty
thousand dollars now paid by the gamblers--why, the people would not
stand it, and this great and glorious charity would be destroyed."
To all of these arguments Larry was deaf; his constituents expected it
of him; the Christian Church demanded it. They were responsible to
Heaven for this great sin. The pious prayers of the good sisters of the
holy Methodist Church, as well as those of the Baptist, had at last
reached the ears of the Almighty, and he, Larry, felt himself the
instrument in His hands to put down the _d----d infernal sons of
b----_, who were robbing the innocent and unsuspecting.
There was no use of urging arguments of this sort to him: if the
Charity Hospital fell, _let_ her fall, and if the indigent afflicted
could not find relief elsewhere, why, they must die--they had to die
anyhow at some time, and he didn't see much use in their living,
anyhow; and as for the taxes, he was not much concerned about that: he
had but little to be taxed, and his constituents had less.
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