Connecticut western news., 1895-10-24


 this evil, tells me that there are three different kinds of betting at horse races. and they are about equally leprous-b- "auction pools, by '' French mutuals, 1" by what is called "bookmaking'' gambling. all bad. all rotten with in- iquity. There is one word that needs to be written on the brow of every poolsell- CT as he sits deducting his or 5 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 ''swindlerr' 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 en, there will be multitude of people cajofed 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, proyid- 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 8 man. Do not have your name put down in the ever increasing cata logue of those who are ruined for both worlds by the dissipations of the Amer ican race course. They say, that an hon est race course is .1straight" track. and that a dishonest race course is Q "crook- ed'' track-that is the parlance abroad but tell you that every race track sur rounded by betting men and betting women and betting customs is straight track-I mean straight down! Christ asked in one of his gospels, .'Is not a man better than sheep?" say, yes, and he is better than all the steeds that with. lathered Hanks ever shot around the ring at race course. That Is very poor job by which man in order to get horse to come out full length ahead of some other racer so James his own morals that he comes out whole length behind in the race set before him.
 .., A Current Evil.
 Do you not realize the fact that there is mighty effort on all sides today 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 fash toned honesty. I have said nothing against the horse, I have said nothing against the turf. I have said everything against their prostitution. Young men, you go into straightforward Industries, and you will h.ve better livelihood and sou will have larger permanent success than you can ever get by a wager, but you get in with some of the whisky, rum blotched crew which sec going down on the bonlevards, though never bet, will risk this, wager, $5, 0oO, 900 to. nothing, you will be debauched and damned.
 Cultivate the horse, own him if you can afford 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 di- rection 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 82 years he drove in the same direction. The roan span that I speako was long ago .unhitched, and the driver put up his whip in the wagon house never again to take it down, but in those good old times I learned something that I never forgot-that man may admire a horse, and love a horse, and be proud of horse, and not always be willing to take the dust of the preceding vehicle, and yet be a Christian, an earnest Chris tian, al, humble Christian, consecrat- ed Christian, useful until the last, so that at his death the church of God cries out as Elisha exclaimed when Elijah went up with, galloping horses of fire, My father, my father. the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof l'