Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1870-08-06


our HoRsE FAIR.--Thursday and Friday
last the days for holding the Horse Fair In |
this place, by adjournment, came near being |
as unfavOrable as the time first assigned The |
elements were surcharged with water, ana
showers, more or less copious, bad iallen every |
day for nearly two weeks, and their regular
visitation had not been interrupted when the
29th and Goth came. The 2Sth, -Thursday-
was so wet as TO almost prevent anything be-
ing done in the way oftrotting. Friday morn
ing opened with a slight change The wind
hauled to the North West, and 1t was predict
ed that the spell was broken. Confidence,
however, was not so fully restored as to bring
out the people as fully as could be desired,
vet a good number found their way to the
grounds The track was in pretty good order
and the number Of horses from abroad was
large and of good quality of speed. The COM
petition was earnest and the interest absorb.
ing. The trotting, the running and the pacing
were all good and those present enjoyed the
occasion, as the best that ever came off in this
County. AS there were many horses from
abroad, with them came horse men and jock
les, and financial jockeying is said TO have
been carried on with considerable freedom.
As a consequence, the moral sense of some of
our people was shocked and scandalized-
Some have even given us to understand that
the whole thing called for the condemnation
of the press. A correspondent or two has Ia
ken that work in hand and the castigation IS
| sufficiently spirited and sharpe. We do not,
| however, find ourself wrought up TO any sud
| den degree Of enthusiasm, and therefore, per-
| haps not well prepared for the work. Though
not blind to the evils attending horse fairs, and
readily seeing enough in this direction for
valiant onslaught, under the banner of NOR
ality, we see SO many evils in other directions
quite as bad, that it seems like unwarrantable
discrimination, TO pitch into this Crying evils,
warning against welfare and purity, are so
numerous, that, like B OBJ Acres, our courage
oozes away. The work is ormidable-hercu-
lean, and our puny hand shrinks from begin
ming. The fact is, the whole world is selfish
grasping for lucre, and those above jockey
ing-who refuse to take an advantage, true
men and worthy of the precedence of casting
the first stone, are the exceptions to the gene
raj rule. OF course, with those who seem SO
earnest, we would like to see society-indi-
vidually as well as in the mass-raiscd to a
higher plan of morality, buthave not the heart
without considerable warming up, to begin the
work right here, and making the horse fair the
herd of swine to run the sins of the people in
to the depths of the sea. We are told that q
few hundred dollars changed hands-jOckeyed
from one to another. Well, we hear too Ot
much larger amounts extorted by some one OF
the many ways that by long practice has come
to be looked upon, if not legitimate, at least
hardly to be moved against, by word or deed
If the jockeying of a small sum from another.
pocket is a heinous offence, what degree OF ter
pitude should attach to an attack upon private
character, and the robbery of reputation? Ie
these things, and many others that could bt
named, are more or less common, and who
raises a voice against them? We do not, how
ever, propose to go into detail but simply
throw out suggestion or two to show tba
there is enough for all to do in reforming
society and we propose, if the work is to b.
; begun now il be made a more comprehensive
work than that which only pertains to hors
fairs.
Late in the afternoon shower came up, bu
the crowd were not driven from the ground
We learn that the receipts were not sufficien
to fully meet the expenses, and that the asso
citation will fall some one or two hundred dol
7 lars behind. The List Of premiums we civ
: in another place.