Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1817-10-31
ALEXANDRIA,:
FPJDgT. OCTOBER 81, 1917.
HORSE RACING.

lleve with some tTuIn, tHat WIG """'o''
of Saints days and holidays devoted to
idleness in Spain has been one OF the
causes Of the poverty, laziness and profit
gacy of the people of that countryside
ness being the root of evil and a source
of dissipation, degrading vices, and bad
habits. 1t may, however, be considered
rs less discreditable in that nation, as it
arises in them from sentiments and forms
Of piety according to their mode; in
which, however erroneous their tenets
may be, we have reason to believe they
are sincere.
But it may be doubted whether more
of the time which ought to be devoted to
useful labor is bestowed by the Spaniards
on their kaleadar Of Saints, than is
squandered by Americans upon their
pleasures, and not merely in total use!
lessness, but in actual riot, revelry, and
debauchery, under one Pretext or other;
whether in pretended compliment to
their nation or indulgence Of their pas
sions and evil habits. The last week, for
instance, was ia Washington and George
town wholly sacrificed to idleness-not
for the purposes Of harmless enjoyment,
but to swell the roar of boistcrous drum
ken revelry, to indulge in brutal intoxt
cation, profigacy, lewdness, and Profane-
ness,!to plumber or be stripped by that
fashionable mode of theft and robbery
called gambling, and to sacrifice all the
virtues Of the honest man and the citizen,
and all the duties Of domestic life-of IA
Their, husband, brother, neishbor, and
friend, to that deyeudng and ccntamiua-
ting idol Of their souls-the spirit OF
gaming. During that week most kinds
OF work were susPend1-the work shops
and stores were emPtied-the wharves
looked like the streets Of cities long de-
populated-not horse, cart, or negro
was to be hired for money. Where arc
they all gone ?" "Gonc, sir ! Why, to
the races to be surc.' 81 want two or
three cords of wood immediately have
not sufficient for days expenditure"
Your cannot get it till Monday
" Not till Monday! Why" Why,
sir, you know every one will be at the
races for this week" 1t was almost
true; for every one 'ras at the races e1-
cept the wise, the respectable, the viz
tuous, and the discreet. 1t used to be o.
therwise-the time was when the vie,
the respectable, the vrtuous, and the dis
Greet, thought it no disparagement to
give day or two in the year, provided
they had nothing better to dc, to the race
course; for the meeting was not then OF
the complexion it is now. 1t was what
its name intimated-a course where
horses ran races-not field for The ban
ditti of the dice box and <. o. table to
cong egate upon, like locu.ts, for the pur.
poses Of plundering the inconsidcrate,
poisoning the morals of our youth, and
preparing them for the sallows' if that OBJ
ject were attainable by any excess Of i'm
probity and vice. Speaking the other
day on the subject Of the races to a very
worthy gentleman OF Virginia, said to
him that could not conceive what inte-
rest any man Of common sense could take
in the decision OF the question whether
grey horse or a bay mare, neither OF
which belonged to him, could run the
fastest; to which he replied, that he had
been himself, at one time, extremely fond
of and interested in racing-thathe CEN
sidered the thing as very useful in a ma
tional view, as promoting the improve;
ment of the breed of horses, but that he
had been, of late, so disguised with the
abuse Of it, ard with the characters and
quality of those who frequen,ed the race
courses, that he could not bear to attend
them. Race courses now are desenera-
ted SO entirely into rendezvous of sharks,