Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1882-06-20
TALMAGE ON THE HORSE.
ENCOURAGING THE DEVELOPMENT OF
SPEED On THE TRACK.

Tho sln Beginning When the Betting Be-
gins-The Horse Not to be Improved
a. the Exponse Of the Man
Tricks OF the Track.
Mr.. Talmagc, at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle Sunday morning, neighed and whin
MED, curvetted and pranced in admiration
of the docility, the affection, the intelli-
gence and the fectness of the horse and
snorted, and paved, and champed over
the perversion of these noble qualities to
the practice of gambling on race courses.
"At this season of the year." said he,
'n,when their come long columns of intelli-
gence from the race course, and multitudes
are aocking to the watering places to wit.
ness equine competition, and when there
is lively discussion in all households
about the right and wrong of such exhibi-
tions Of mettle, and when there is heresy
abroad that the cultivation of horse fleet
ness is an iniquity instead Of commend
able virtue at such a time sermon is
demanded Of every minister who would like
to defend the public morals Oh the one
hand, ard who is not willing to see an un-
righteous abridgement of innocent amuse-
meDt On the other. In this discussion
shall follow no sermonic precedent, but
will give independently what l consider
the Christian and common sense view Of
this potent, al,-absorbing, and agitating
question of the turf.
For years the lion has been called the
king of beasts. knock off this crown
and put it upon the horse-in every way
the nObler, whether in shape, or spirit, or
sagacity, or affection, or usefulness. lie
is semi human, and knows how to reason
on small scale. The Centaur of olden
times, part man and part horse, seems to
have been a suggestion of the fact that
the horse is something more than a beast
Job says in the text Hast thou given
the horse strength? Hath thou clothed
his neck with thunder? lie paweth in
the valley, and rcjoiceth in his strength :;
he gOcth on to meet the armed men. He
saith among among the trumpcts, IIa, ha !.
and he smelleth the battle afar off, the
thunder of the captains and the shouting.
What Rosa Bonheur did for. cattle, and
what Landseer did for the dog. Job with
mightier pencil did for the horse. Eighty
eight times does the Bible speak of him.
He comes into almost every kingly process
sion, into every great occasion, and into
every great triumph. He comes into the
imagery of job, and David, and Isaiah,
and Ezekiel, and jeremiah, and .'ohn !;
red horse meant war 4 black
horse meant famine : a pale horse
meant death white horse meant
victory. st. John represents Christ as
going forth from conquest to conquest
seated on white horse. The Bible
makes us hear the clicking of the hoofs
on the golden pavement. l should not
wonder if the horse so banged and bruised
and beaten and outraged on earth, had
some other place where his wrongs are
rightcd. The Bible makes CavOritc OF
the hOrse-the patriarch and the prophet
and the evangelist stroking his silky hide,
pattiEg his rounded neck, tcnderly lifting
his exquisitely formed hoof, and listening
with u thrill to the champ of his bit. The
Duke of Wellington would not allow any
one irreverently to touch his old war
horse Copenhagen, on whom he had ridden
fifteen hours without dismounting at
Waterloo. When Copenhagen died his
master ordered military salute fired over
his grave. John Howard, Walter Scott,
Edmund Burke, all speak in admiration of
the horse. Roland Hill, the great Eng
lish preacher, was caricaturcd because in
hls iamily prayer he supplicateL for the
recovery of sick horse. But when the
horse got we'll, contrary to the prophecies
OF farrlers, the prayer did not seem so
much of All :lbsurdity.
But what shall ] say about the NAL.
treatment of this wonderful creature of
God? man who owned 1000 horses,
some say 4O, 600, wrote in the Bible "A
righteous man regardeth the life of his
beast Sir Henry Lawrence's care of the
horse was beautiful and Christian. He
says, expect | shall miss Conrad, be-
cause have taken so much care of him.'
do not believe in the trausmigratiOn of
souls, but when see men who cut and
bruisc and whack and whale and strike
and maui and outrage and insult the
horse. that beautiful servant of the human
race, it seems to me that it would be only
fair that each cu!prit should pass into
some poor, miserable brute to be beaten
and whacked and cruelty treated, and
frozen and Overdrivcn, an everlasting
stage horse, an eternal traveller on a tow
path. 1t ought to be understood that if
man Overdrives horse, or feeds him
when hot, Or recklessly drives 4 nail into
the quick of his hoOf, or whips him to see
him prancc, or SO shoes him that his fet-
locks drop blood, or puts collar on a
raw neck, or unnecessarily clutches his
tongue with a twisted bit, or cuts off his
hair until he has no defense against the
cold, or numerically abbrcviatcs his
natural defense against inscctilc an
noyance, he should be made him
self to pull and let his horse ride.
But whatever can DO done for the de-
velopmcGt of his swiftness and his strength
and his majesty ought to be done. am
glad that large books have been written to
show how he can be best managed. how
his ailments can be cured and what his
are. 1t would be 4 shame if in |
this age of the world, when the florist |
has turned the thin flower of tho wood |
into gorgeous rose, and the pomologist |
has changed the acrid and natural fruit of !
The ancients into the very poetry of pear |
and peach and plum and grape, and the |
creatures of old time barnya-ds |
have become the Dcvonshirc and the Alder |
ney aud the short horn, that the horse,
grander than them all, should get no advant
age from our science, our civilization, or |
our Christianity. GroOmed to the highest |
point of soft brilliance, his flowing name il
billow of beauty, his arched neck in utmost
rythm of curve, the harness in graceful
draping, driven to the furthest end of ex-
cellence, blanketed in comfortable style,
this long tried and faithful servant of the
human race deserves all kindness, all care,
all reward of succuleut forage and soft
litter and paradisiacal pasture field. There
s no more virtue in driving slow than in
Irving fast. any more than a freight
rain going ten miles an hour than an ex
press going fifty. There is delusion
yOing abroad in the world that a thing