The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-10-09

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 cor
onet and put the crown upon the horse,
in every way nobler, whether in shape
or spirit of sagacity or intelligence, or
affection or usefulness. He is semi
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 a 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 a thrill to the champ of his bit, so
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 fired 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
| AlOiAOs LAS III Olu CudIS0-uOfSC DS~
come sick or spoiled?"
But we do not think that the speed of
the horse should be cultured at the ex-
peHse 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 a
|
to positive religious exercises. And it
is called agricultural Fair" sug-
gestive of every thing that is improving
in the art of farming. But under these
deceptive titles are the same cheating
and the same betting, the same drunk
enness and the same vagabondage and
the same denominations that were to be
ound under the old horse-racing sys-
TEN.
L never knew a man yet who could
give himself to the pleasures of the turf
for long reach of time and not be bat
tered 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
perdition. The great day at Saratoga,
Long Branch, and Cape May, and near
~ all the other watering places, is the
day of the races. The hotels are
thronged, nearly every kind of equip
age is taken up at an al
most fabulous price, and there
are many respectable people
mlngling with jockeys, and the gam
blers, and hbertines. and foul-mouthed
men and fiashy women. The bartender
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 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 sha II
beat.
l go further and speak of another
temptation that hovers over the water
1ng-places; and this is the temptation
to sacrifice physical strength. The
modern Bethesda was meant to recu-
perate the physical strength; and yet
how many come from the watering
places, their health absolutely de-
stroyed! New York and Brooklyn idiots
boasting of having imbibed twenty
glasses of Congress water before break
fast Families accustomed to going to
bed at ten o'clock at night, gossiping
until one or two o'clock in the morning.
Dyspeptics usually very cautious about
their health mingling ice-creams and
lemons and lobster salads and cocoa
nuts, until the gastric juices lift up
all their voices of lamentation and
protest. Delicate women and brain
less young men chassezing themselves
into vertigo and ca talepsy. Thousands
of menand 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 we'll as I do that this is the
simple truth.
{ Another temptation lowering arou nd
the watering-place is to the formati ion
of hasty and lifelong alliance. The
watering-places are responsible for
more Of the domestic infelicities of this
country than all the other things COM
| bined. Society is so artificial +boro ~,