Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/243

 This sin will assuredly be the ruin of this nation unless there is a speedy reformation.

—"Play usually begins late in the afternoon, and lasts half the night. At one end of a Chinese gambling-saloon is often an altar, and on it a figure of the god of luck. When tired of gambling the Siamese adjourn to the neighboring theatre, where they spend an hour or two watching the Lakons' theatrical performances, in which only girls, as a rule, take part."