The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-07-30

the same drunkenness and the same vaga-
bondage and the same denominations that
were to be found under the old horse-rac-
ing system. / never knew q man yet who
could give himself to the pleasures of the
turf for q long reach of time and not be
battered in morals. They hook up their
spanking team and put on their sporting
cap and light their cigar and take the
reins and dash down the road toperdition.
The great day at Saratoga and Long
Branch and Cape May and nearly all the
other watering places is the day of the
races. The hotels are thronged; nearly
every kind of equipage is taken up at an
almost fabulous price; and there are many
respectable people mingling With jockeys
and gamblers and libertines and foul
mouthed men and flashy women. The bar
tender stirs up the brandy smash. The
bets run high. The greenhorns, supposing
| all is fair, put in their money, soon
enough to lose it. Three weeks before the
race takes place the struggle is decided,
and the men in the secret know on which
| steed to bet their money. The two men on
the horses riding around long before ar
ranged who should beat. Leaning from
| Women so absorbed in the struggle of bone
and muscle and mettle that they make a
| grand harvest for the pickpockets, who
carry off the pocket-books and portmon-
naies. Men looking on see only two horses
| with two riders flying around the ring;
but there is many a man on that stand
whose honor and domestic happiness and
| fortune-white name, white foot, white
fiank-are in the ring, racing with inc
briefly, and with fraud, and with profanity,
| and with ruin-black neck, black foot,
black flank. Neck and neck they go in
that moral EPSON. White horse of honor;
black horse of ruin. Death says: 81 will
bet on the black horse" Spectator says:
81 will bet ON the white horse" The
white horse of honor little way ahead.
The black horse of ruin, Satan mounted all
the time, gaining on him. Spectator breath
less. Put on the lash. Dig in the spurs.
| There! They are past the stand. Sure.
Just as / expected it. The black horse of
ruin has won the race and all the galleries
of darkness cry "Huzza huzza" and
the devils come in to pick up their
wagers. All, my friends, have nothing to
do with horse-racing designations this
summer. Long ago the English Govern
ment got through looking to the turf for
the dragon and light cavalry horse. They
found the turf deprec ates the stock; and
| it is yet worse for men. Thomas Hughes,
the member of Parliament, and the author
known all the world over, hearing that a
new turf enterprise was being started in
this country, wrote letter, in which he
| said: Heaven help you, then; for of all
the cankers of our old civilization there is
nothing in this country approaching in
unblushing meanness, in rascality holding
its head high to this belauded institution
of the British turf" Another famous
sportsman writes: "How many fine do
mains have been shared among these
hosts OF rapacious sharks during the last
two hundred years! And, unless the sys-
tenn be altered, how many more are
doomed to fall into the same gulfv' The
Duke of Hamilton, through his horse
racing proclivities, in three years got
| through his entire fortune of 10000; and
! will say that some of you are being un-
dermined by it. With the bull-fghts of
Spain and the bear baitings of the pit,
! may the Lord God annihilate the infamous
and accursed horse-racing of England and
America!
PRESERVE YOUR PHYSICAL STRENGTH.
go further, and speak of another
temptation that hovers over the watering
places, and this is the temptation to sac
rifice physical strength. The modern Be-
thesda was intended to recuperate the
physical health, and yet how many come
from the watering places, their health ab-
solutely destroyed! New York and Brook
| lyn idiots boasting of having imbibed
twenty glasses of Congress water before
breakfast; families accustomed to going to
bed at ten O'Clock at night gossiping until
one or two O'Clock in the morning; dyspep-
| tics, usually very cautious about their
health, mingling ice-ereams and lemons
and lobster salads and cocoanuts until the
gastric juices lift up all their voices of
lamentation and protest; delicate women
and brainless young men chassezing them
selves into vertigo aud catalepsy; thou
sands of men and women coming back
from our watering places in the
autumn with the foundations laid for
ailments that will last them all their life
long. You know as well as do that this
Is the simple truth.
FERTILE IN DOMESTIC INFELIcrrIEs.
Another temptation lowering around
the watering-place is to the formation of
hasty and lifelong alliances. The water
ing-places are responsible for more of the
domestic infelicities of this country than
all other things combined. Society is SO
artificial there that no sure Judgment of
character can be formed. Those who
form companionships amid such circum-
stances go into lottery where there are
twenty blanks to one prize. In the severe
tug of life you want more than glitter and
splash. Lite is not ballroom. where the
music decides the step and bow and
prance, and graceful swing of long trail
can make up for strong common sense.
You might as well go among the gayIy-
painted yachts of a summer regatta to
find war vessels as to go among the light
spray of the summer watering place to
find character that can stand the test of
the great struggle of human life. All. in
the battle of life you want stronger
weapon than a lace fan or erouuet NAL.
letl The load of life is so heavy that in
order to draw it you want team stronger
than one made up of a masculine grass