Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1895-10-25

and then after that, that we develop
his feetness and his grandeur and his
majesty and his strength.
But what shall I say of the effort be-
ing made in this day on large scale to
make this splendid creature of God, this
divinely honored being, an instrument
OF atrocious evil? | make no indiscrim-
mate assault against the turf. I be-
lieye in the turf if it can be conducted
on right principles and with no betting
There is no more harm in offering a
prize for the swiftest racer than there
is harm al an agricultural fair in Offer
ing prize to the farmer who has the
| best wheat, or to the fruit who
has the largest pear, or to the machin-
list who presents the best n-thresher,
OF in school offering a 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. Rewards for all kinds of we'll
doing. Heaven itself is called prize:
THE prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus" So what is right in one
| direction is right in another direction
And without the prizes the horses
fleetness and beauty and strength will
never be fully developed. If it cost
1000 or $1,000 or $4,000, and the re-
suit be achieved, it is cheap. But the
sin begins where the betting begins,
for that is gambling, or the effort to
get that for which you give no equiva-
lent, and gambling, whether on large
scale or small scale, ought to be de-
nounced of men as it will be accursed
of God. II you have won fifty cents or
| $4,000 as wager, you had better get
rid of it. Get rid of it right away. Give
it to some one who has lost in a bet,
or give it to some great reformatory in
| stitution, or If you do not like that. go
down to the river and pitch 1t off the
docks You cannot afford to keep 1t.
1t will burn hole in your purse, it
will burn hole in your estate, and you
will lose all that, perhaps ten thou
sand times more-perhaps you will lose
all. Gambling blasts a man or it blasts
his children. Generally both and all.
What spectacle when at Saratoga,
or at Long Branch, or at Brighton Beach,
or at Sheepshead Bay, the horses start,
and in a flash fifty or hundred thou
sand dollars change hands! Multitudes
ruined by losing the bet, others worse
ruined by gaining the bet; for If man
lose in a bet at horse race, he may
be discouraged and quit, but if he win
the bet he is very apt to go straight on
| to hell.
An intimate friend, Journalist, who
in the line of his profession investi-
gated this evil, tells me that there are
three different kinds of betting at horse
races, and they are about equally lep-
rous: by auction pools" by French
mutuals," by what is called "bookmak-
ing'-all gambling. all bad, all rotten
with iniquity. There is one word that
needs to be written on the brow of
every poolseller as he sits deducting
| his or 5 per cent, and slyly ringing
up more tickets than were sold on
| the winning horse-a word to be writ
ten also on the brow of every book
| keeper who at extra inducement
scratches horse off of the race, and on
the brow of every jockey who slackens
pace that, according to agreement, an
other may win, and written over every
| judges stand, and written on every
board of the surrounding fences. That
Lawyers bet Judges of courts bet.
Members of the legislature bet. Mem
/ bers of congress bet. Professors of re-
| ligion bet. Teachers and superintend-
ents of Sunday schools. am told, bet.
Do you not realize the fact that there
| is mighty effort on all sides to-day to
get money without earning it? That is
the curse of all the cities: it is the
curse of America-the effort to get
money without earning it, and as other
| forms of stealing are not respectable,
they go into these gambling practices.
| | preach this sermon on square, old
| fashioned honesty. l have said moth
| ing against the horse, have said moth
ing against the turf. have said every
thing against their prostitution. Young
men, you go into straightforward in
dustries and you will have larger per-
manent success than you can ever get
by wager; but you get in with some
Of the whisky, rum-blotched crew
which / see going down on the bOule-
wards, though l never bet, will risk
this wager, five million to nothing, you
will be debauched and damned. Guilt
vate the horse, own him If you can af-
| ford to own him, test all the speed he
has, If he have any speed in him: but
be careful which way you drive. You
cannot always tell what direction a
man is driving in by the way his horses
head. In my boyhood, we rode three
miles every Sabbath morning to the
country church. We were drawn by
two fine horses. My father drove. He
knew them, and they knew him. They
were friends. Sometimes they loved to
go rapidly, and he did not interfere
with their happiness. He had all of us
in the wagon with him He drove to the
country church. The fact is, that for
eighty-two years he drove in the same
direction. The roam span that ! speak
Of was long ago unhitched, and the driv-
| er mt nm his whin in the wagon hOuSe