The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1890-08-15

you be surrounded by guffaw and
'saturnalia Keep holy the Sabbath,
though they denomce you as a
bigoted Puritan Stand off from the
institutions which propose to initiate on
this side of the water the iniquities OF
olden-time Baden-Baden. Let your
moral and your immoral health keep
pace with your physical recuperation,
and remember that all the waters of
lHathorne and sulphur and chalybeate
Springs can not do you somuch good as
the mineral, healing, perennial food
that breaks from the "Rock Of Ages, )"
This may be your last summer. If So,
make it a fit vestibule of Heaven.
Another temptation around nearly
all our watering-pl places is the horse-
racing business. We all admire the
horse. There needs to be redistribu!
ton Of coronets among the brute crea-
ton. For ages the lion has been called
the king Of beasts. knock off its corr
onet and put the crown upon the HORSE
in every way nobler, whether in shape
or spirit Of sagacity or Intelligence, on
affection or usefulness. He is semi1
human, and knows how to reason on a
small scale. The centaur of olden times
part horse and part man, seems to be a
suggestion of the fact that the horse is
something more than beast
Job sets forth his strength, his beauty,
his majesty, the painting of his nostril,
the paving Of his hoof and his enthusi
asm for the battle. What Rosa Bon
heur did for the cattle, and what Land
seer did for the dog, Job, with might
Ter pencil, does for the horse. Eighty
eight times does the Bible speak of
him. He comes into every kingly pro-
cession, and into every great occasion
and into every triumph. 1t 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; 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, sc
all great natures in all ages have spo.
ken of him in ecomiastic terms. Virgil
in his Georges almost seems to pla-
giarize 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 dismount
ing at Waterloo; and when old Copen-
hagen died, his master ordered a mill.
tary salute fred over his grave, John
Howard showed that he did not eX
haust all his sympaties in plying 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 o.
the horse should be cultured at the ex
pense of human degradation. Horse
races, in olden times, where under the
ban of Christian people, and in our day
the same institution has come up under
fictitious names, and it is called 8
Summer Meeting" almost suggestive
to positive religious exercises. And i
is called agricultural Fair" sug
gestive of every thing that is improving
in the art of farming. But under these
deceptive titles are tho same cheating
and the same betting, the same drunk
enness and the same vagabondage an(
the same denominations that were to bC
ound under the old horse-racing sys
tenn.
never knew man yet who coul(
give himself to the pleasures of the tur
for long reach Of time and not be bat
tered in morals. They hook up thei
spanking team, and put on their sport
ing cap, and light their cigar, and take
the reins, and dash down the road t.
perdition The great day at Saratoga
Long Branch, and Cape May, and near
ly all the other watering places, is thu
day of the races. The hotels arr
thronged, nearly every kind of equip
age is taken up at an al
most fabulous price, and Their,
are many respectable peopl,
mingling with jockeys, and the gam
blers, and libertines, and foul-moutheC
men and fashy women. The bartender
stirs up the brandy smash. The bet
run high. The greenhorns, supposinl
all is fair, put in their money sool
enough to lose it. Three weeks befor,
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 men on the horses riding
around long before arranged who shall
beat.
Another temptation lowering arount
the watering place is to the formation
of hasty and lifelong alliance. Th,
watering places are responsible TO
more of the domestic infelicities of this