Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1871-10-14
FAST HORSES AND FAST MEN.

We hhtNt Dttn bShctt, III view Vi WIldU we
have ut divers times said in reference to ra-
cling ut fairs, whether we were opposed to
trials of speed there or elsewhere. We reply
that we are not. 1t is quite ms proper to test
the speed of horses exhibited at fair as to
test the strength of oxen. What we object
to is neither fast horses nor premiums for
the speed, MS well ms the other qualities of
that noble beast. We go for the develop
ment of every useful quality in horses as well
as in all domestic animals. What we object to
is that so noble and useful an animal as the
horse should be degraded into an implement
of gambling, and thus made denoralizing
agent in the community.
Horace Greeley says there are only two
ways for poor man to acquire property the
first is by honest industry, and the second by
stealing. Now we hold that this is sacred
know We do not call money-making
that comes from betting on the speed of horses,
the turning of cards, or the throwing of
dice, honest industry. Consequently we do
not desire, nor should any good citizen desire,
to see it tolerated, much less encouraged,
aided and abetted. The desire to make
money without work leads to the great bulk
of the crimes committed in the country. We
do not want to see our agricultural societies,
which were organized to promote knowledge
and virtue, diverted under whatever specious
pretext, to the encouragement of spirit that
is already too prevalent, and which society
is bound by every consideration, both benev-
client and selfish to repress. Further than
this, and more especially belonging to our
province us an advocate of agricultural prog
ress, we believe that the cultivation of speed,
at the expense of other valuable qualities Of
horse, is an injury rather than benefit.
Except as II mere implement of gambling,
there is not, and there would not be, any very
large demand for very fast horses. 1t is the
race-course mainly that makes demand for
horses that can trot mile in less than three
minutes, and such horses are very seldom
used for any useful purpose. If man has
one, he takes him out to exercise, but he is
chary of allowing him to do any real work.
few wealthy men with passion for horses
would indeed call for and pay for the fastest
that the country produces, but that demand
alone, unsupported by the constant call of the
race-course, would amount to little.
AS mere amusement, ASSOCIATED from
gambling, we see no necessary harm in
horse-racing. But, in the present state of
society it cannot be practiced without being
made means of vice, and in the vast ma
jority of cases it is practced for no other OBJ
ject.
If we allow or encourage any kind of gam
bling whatever, we must not object to any
other form of robbery. The swinding in
business, the defalcations in the public SER
vice, the plundering of men like Tweed,
Hall and the other Tammany thieves, and so
on down to burglary and pocket-picking, are
all sprouts from the same root, manifestations
of II desire and determination to live luxu-
riousy, without labor, off of the proceeds of
other peoples industry.
A horse that will road eight or nine miles
I'm hour is fast enough for all practical uses