St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-07-11

trot. Quick tempests, quick llghtnlngs,
quick streams; why not quick horses?
| But we do not think that the beauty or
speed of the horse should be cultured at
the expense of human degradation. Horse
races in olden times were under the ban OF
| Christian people, and in our day the same
| institution has come up under fictitious
names.ss And it is called Summer meet
ing" almost suggestive of positive relig-
| ious exercises. And it is called an "agri-
| cultural fair" suggestive of every thing
at this improving in the art of farming.
But under these deceptive titles are the
same cheating and the same betting and
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 man yet who
could give himself to the pleasures of the
| turf for a 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 to perdition.
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
| the stand or the carriage are men and
| women so absorbed in the struggle of bone
| and muscle and mettle that they make
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 man on that stand
whose honor and domestic happiness and
fortune-white name, white foot, white
fanfare in the ring, racing with ine-
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: i will
bet on the black horse" Spectator says:
81 will bet on the white horse" The
white horse of honor a 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 "Huzzai huzzaw 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 depreciates 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
it's 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 gulf" The
Duke of Hamilton, through his horse
racing proclivities, in three years got
through his entire fortune of 10000; and
r
derInined by it. With the buIl-fights of
Spain and the bear aitings of the pit,
may the Lord God annihilate the infamous
and accursed horse racing of England and
/ America!
PRESERVE YOUR PHYSICAL STRENGTH.
I 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
Ign 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-creams 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