Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-08-07

of the fact 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
enthusiasm for the battle. What Rosa
Bonheur did for the cattle, and what
Landseer did for the dog, Job
WITH MTGHTIER PENCIL,
does for the horse. Eighty-eight times
does the Bible speak of him. He comes
into every kingly procession, and into
every great occasion aud into every fri
umph. 1t is very evident that Job and
David and Isaiah and Ezekiel and
jeremiah aud 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: n
pale horse-that meant death: a white
horse-that meant victory.
As the Bible makes favorite of the
horse, the patriarch and the prophet and
the evangelist and the apostle, strokinr
his sleek hide, and patting his rounded
neck and tenderly lifting his exauisiteIy
formed hoof and listening with n thrill to
the champ of his bit, so all great natures
in all ages have spoken of him in
encomicastic terms. Virgil ia his Georges
almost seems TO plagiarize from the
description of Job. The duke of Well
ingtou would not allow anyone irrever-
emily to touch his old war horse, Copen-
hagen, on whom he had ridden fifteen
hours without dismounting at Waterloo;
and when old Copenhagen died his
master ordered military salute to be
fired over his grave. John Howard
showed that he did not exhaust all his
sympathies in plying the human race,
for when sick he writes home: "Has
my old chaise-horse become sick or
spoiled2'
But we do not think that the speed OF
the horse should be cultured ut 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 ficti-
tious names, and it is called "Summer
Meeting, - almost suggestive of positive
religious exercises. And 1t is called
AN 'AGRICULT URAL FAIR
suggestive of everything that is Improv-
ing In the art of farming. But under
these deceptive titles are the same cheat
ing and the same betting, the same
drunkenness and the same vagabondage
and the same denominations that were to
be found under the old horse racing
system.
never knew a man yet who could
give himself TO the pleasures of the turf
for long reach of time. aud not be bat
tered in morals. They hook up their
spanking team, and put on their sport
ing-cap, and light their cigar. aud take
the reins aud dash down the road to per-
dition. The great day at Saratoga, and
Long Branch, and Cape May, and nearly
all of the other watering places is the
day of races. The hotels ara througed,
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 fiashy
women. The bartenders stir 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 sJeed to bet
their money. The two men on the
horses riding around long before ar
ranged who shall beat.
Leaning from the stand or from the
carriage are men and 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 pOrtemouuaies. Men
looking on see only two horses with two
riders flying around the ring; but there
is many Il man on that stand whose
HONOR AND DOMESTIC HAPPINESS
and foTtune-white name, white foot,
white tiank-are IN the ring racing with
inebriety, and with fraud, and with pro-
family, and with ruin-black neck, black
foot, black flank. Neck and neck they
60 in that moral EPSON.
All, my friends, have nothing to do
with horse-racing designations this sum-
mer. Long ago the English government
got through looking 10 the turf for the
dragon and light-cavalry horse. They
found the turf depreciates the stock, and
II is yet worse for men. Thomas Hughes,
the member of parliament and the
author, known the world over,
hearing that new turf Gu
terprise was being started in this
country, wrote u letter, in which he
said: "Heaven help you, then; for of
all the caukers of our old civilization
there Is nothing in this country approach
ing IN uublushing meanness, in rasrality
holding its head high, to this beIauded
institution of the British turf An
other famous sportsman writes: HHOw
many fine domains have been shared
among these hosts of rapacious sharks
during the last two hundred years; and
unless the system be altered, how many
more are doomed to fall into the same
guf!' The Duke of Hamilton, through
his horse-racing proclivities, in three
years got through his entire fortune of
$3.50 900, aud l will say that some of you
ure being undermined by it. With The
bull-tights of Spain and the bear bait
ings of the pit may the Lord God ami
bilute the infamous and accursed horse
racing of England and America.
90 further, and speak of another
temptation that hovers over the water
ing places: and this is the temptation to
sacrifice physical strength. The modern
Bethesda was meant to recuperate the
physical health; and yet how many come
from the wetering-pIaces, their health
absolutely destroyed!
NEW YORK AND BROOKLYN IDIOTS,
Boosting of having lmbibed twenty
glasses OF congress water before break
fast. Families accustomed TO going TO
bed at 10 o. CLOCK at night gossiping until
l or o clock in the morning. Dyspep-