Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-10-21

develop his H0etnGsS ana his grandeur
and his majesty and his strength.
An Instrument of Evil.
Rut what shall I say of the effort
being made in this day on a large scale
to make this splendid creature of God,
this diyinely honored being, an instru-
ment cf atrocious evil? make no in
discriminate assault against the turf. [
believe in the turf if it can be conduct
ed on right principles and with no bet
ting. There is no more harm in Offering
a 71Tize for the swiftest racer than there
is harm at an agricultural fair in offer
ing q prize to the farmer who has the
best wheat, or to the fruit grower who
has the largest pear, or to the machinist
who presents the best corn thrasher, or
in a school Offering prize Of a copy Of
Shakespeare to the best reader, or in a
household giving a lump of sugar to
the best behaved youngster. Prizes by
all means, rewards by all means. That
is the way God develops the race. Re
wards for all kinds Of we'll doing. Heav-
en- itself is called a prize, ''the prize
Of the high calling of God in Christ Je-
sus' So what is right in one direction
out the prizes the horses fleetness and
beauty and strength will never be fully
developed If it cost 81, 600 or So, 600
or $4,000 and the result be achieved,
it is cheap. But the sin begins where
the betting begins, for that is gambling,
OF the effort to get that for which you
give no equivalent, and gambling,
whether OH large scale Or a small scale,
ought to be denounced Of men as it will
be accursed of God. If you have won so
cents or So, 900 as wager, you had bet
ter get rid Of it. Get rid Of it right
away. Give it to some one who lost in
a bet, Or give it to some great reforma-
tory institution, or if you do not like
that, go down to the river and pitch it
off the docks. You cannot afford to keep
it. 1t will burn hole in your purse, it
will burn hole in your estate, and you
will lose all that perhaps 1000 times
more-perhaps you will lose all. Gam
bling blasts man or it blasts his chill
dren, generally both and all.
"Bookmaking."
What a spectacle when at Saratoga,
or at Long Branch, or at Brighton
Beach, or at Sheepshead Bay, the horses
start, and in a flash $50, 900 or 500, 900
change hands Multitudes ruined by
losing the bet, others worse ruined by
gaining the bet; for if man lose in
bet at a horse race, he may be discOur-
aged and quit, but if he win the bet no
is very apt to go straight on to hell!
An intimate friend, journalist, who
in the line of his profession investigated
~. ~.
different kinds of betting at horse races,
and they are about equally leprOus-by
"auction pools, +" by French mutuals, -
by what is called "bookmaking' all
gambling, all bad all rotten with in
iquity. There is one word that needs to
be written on the brow of every poolsell-
er as he sits deducting his or per
cent, and slyly ringing up more tick
cts than were sold ON the winning horse
"a word to be written also on the brow
of every bOOkkeeper who at extra in
ducement scratches a horse off of the
race, and on the brow of every jockey
who slackens pace that, according to
agreement, another may win, and writ
ten over every judges stand, and writ
ten on every board of the surrounding
fences. That word is ''swindler 7" Yet
thousands bet. Lawyers bet. Judges OF
courts bet Members of the Legislature
bet Members of congress bet. Profess
ors of religion bet. Teachers and su-
perintendents of Sunday schools, | am
told, bet Ladies bet, not directly, but
through agents. Yesterday and every
day they bet, they gain, they lose; and
this summer, while the parasols swing,
and the hands clap, and the huZZas deaf
Ell. there will be multitude of people
cajOled and deceived and cheated, who
Will at the races go neck and neck, neck
and neck to perdition.
Cultivate the horse by all means,
drive him as fast as you desire, provid
ed you do not injure him or endanger
yourself or others, but be careful and
do not harness the horse to the chariot
of sin. Do not throw your jewels of
morality under the flying hoof. Do not
under the pretext of improving the horse
destroy man. Do not have your name
put down i'll the ever increasing cata-
logue of those who are ruined for both
worlds by the designations of the Amer
lean race course. They say that an hon
est race course is a straight" track, and
that a dishonest race course is ''crOOk-
ed'' track-that is the parlance abroad
but I tell you that every race track sur
rounded by betting men and betting
women and betting customs is a straight
track-I mean straight down! Christ
asked in one of his gospels, els not
man better than a .sheep?" I say, yes,
and he is better than all the steeds that
with 1athered TANKS ever shot around
the ring at a lace course. That is very
poor job by which man in order to get
a horse to come out full length ahead
of some other racer SO lanes his own
morals that he comes out whole length
behind in the race set before him.