The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-08-06

The centaur Of olden times, part horse
and part man, seems 70 be- suggestion
OF the fact that the horse is something
more than beast.
Job sets forth his strength, his beau
ty, his majesty, the painting OF his nos
trils, the paving Of his hoof, and his
enthusiasm for the battle. What Rosa
iBonheur did for the 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 every kingly
procession, and into every great occa-
sion and into every triumph. It is very
evident that Job and David and Isaiah
and Ezekiel and Jeremiah and John
were very fond Of the horse He came
into much Of their imagery. A red horse
that meant war; black horse-that
meant famine; pale horse-that meant
death; a white horse--that meant VIC
tory.
AS the Bible makes favorite OF the
horse, the patriarch, and the prophet,
and the evangelist, and the apostle,
stroking his sleek hide, and patting his
rounded neck, and tenderly lifting his
exquisitely formed hoof, and listening
with thrill to the champ Of his bit, SO
all great natures in all ages have spoken
OF him in encomiastic terms. Virgil
in his Georges almost seems to plagia-
rize from the description Of job. 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 dis
mounting at Waterloo; and when old
Copenhagen died, his master ordered q
military salute fred over his grave.
John Howard showed that he did not
exhaust all his sympathies in pitying
the human race. for when sick he writes
home: "Has my old chaise horse be-
come sick or spoiled?"
But we do not think that the speed OF
the horse should be cultured at the ex-
pense 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, and itiscalled Sum
mer meeting" almost suggestive OF pos
tive religious exercises. And 1t is
called an agricultural Fair" sugges-
tive of everything that is improving in
the are Of farming. But under these de-
ceptive titles are the same cheating and
the same betting, the same drunkenness
and the same vagabondaSe and the same
denominations that were to be found
under tho old horse racing system.
never knew q man yet who could
give himself to the pleasures Of the turf
for long reach Of time, and not be
battered in morals. They hook up their
spanking team, and put on their sport
ing cap, and light their cigar, and take
the reins and dash down the road TO per-
dition. 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
mingiing with jockeys, and gamblers,
and libertines, and foul-mouthed men
and fashy women. The bartender
stirs up the brandy smash. The bets
run high. The greenhorns, supposing
all is fair, put in their money soon
enough 10 lose it, Three weeks before
the race takes place the struggle is de-
cided, and the men in the secret know
on which steed to bet their money. The
two mon on the horses riding around
long before arranged who shall beat.
Leaning from the stand or from the
carriage are men and women soabsorbed
in the struggle OF bone and muscle and
1 mettie that they make a grand harvest
for tho pickpockets, who carry of the
pocketbooks and portemonnaies Men
looking on see only two horses with
two riders flying around the ring; but
there Is many q man on that stand
whose honor and domestic happiness
and fortune-white name, white foot,
white hank-are in the ring, racing
with inebriety, and with fraud, and
with profanity, and with ruin-black
neck, black foot, black flank. Neck
and neck they go in the moral EPSON.
All, my friends, have nothing TO dc
with horse racing designations this sum
mer. Long ago the English Govern
mont got through looking TO the turf
for the dragoon and light cavalry horse.
They found the turf depreciates the
stock, and it is yet worse for men
Thomas Hughes, the member Of Parlia
mont, and the author, known all the
world over, hearing that q new turf en-
terprise was being started In this coun
try, wrote letter, In which he said
.Heayen help you, then, for Of all ths
csnkers OF our old civilization thar
A 3 nothing in this country apprcreh
/ ipg inpnblhbhipg mean nness in rzscalitj
hoidink u hdsd high, 10 this 'belsddsS
institution Of the British turf" Another
famous sportsman writes: "How menJ
fine dsmainsg have been shAEsh fuonl
tkese hosts Of fkpacions shbfks during
Che iAst two hundred years; and unles'
the system 30 Uttered, how many mort
arc. doomed 70 faIl into the same gulf'
The Duke u Hamilton, through hii
hofssSSciug prociiSties intbree year
got through his entire fortune OF ssbs,
90, ana I xaiFssy that some of you ar,
being pndermined by II. With the bull
hghts Of Spain and the bear-baitings O
the pit may the Lord God annihilats
the infamous and accursed horse-racinf
Of England and America. I low q
:, II 70 further and speak of anothel
temptation that hovers over the water
ing places, and this Is the temptation Y
sacrifice physical strength. The mod
ern Bethesda was meant 10 recuperatl