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

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| SYlJcTSSE1l locked to b e
| II 3SN watering-p places to
| GTAISEE3al witness equin G
S&&xsSNlsJ competition. an ID
ESn9a@ there is lively dis
| W D NJ cussion in all
households about
the right and wrong of such exhibit
| tons of mettle and speed, and when
there Is heresy abroad that the cul-
tivation Of horses fleetness is an
iniquity instead of commendable vir-
| tue-at such time a sermon is de-
manded of every minister who would
like to defend public morals on the one
hand, and who is not willing to see an
| unrighteous infringement of innocent
amusement on the other. In this dis
cussion shall follow no sermonic pre-
cedent, but will give independently
what consider the Christian and COM
nonsense view of this potent, all-ab-
| sorbing and agitating question of the
| turf.
There needs to be a redistribution Of
coronets among the brute creation.
For ages the lion has been called the
king Of beasts. / knock off it's coro-
net and put the crown upon the horse,
| in every way nobler, whether in shape,
or spirit, or 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 suggestion of the fact that the
horse is something more than beast.
Job in my text 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
mightier pencil does for the horse.
Lightweight times does tho Bible speak
of him. He comes into every kingly
procession, and into every great occa-
sion, and into every triumph. 1t is
very evident that Job, and David, and
Isaiah and Ezekiel, and jeremiah, and
John were fond of the horse. He
comes into much of their imagery. A
red horse-that meant war. A black
horse-that meant famine. A pale
horse-that meant death. A white
horse-that meant victory. Good Nor
decai mounts him while Haman holds
the bit. The Church's advance in the
Bible is compared to company Of
horses of Pharoahs chariot. jeremiah
cries out: How canst thou contend
with horses?" Isaiah says: 1.-THE
horses hoofs shall be counted as flint
Miriam claps her cymbals and sings:
"The horse and the rider hath he
thrown into the sea-" st. John describ-
quest to conquest represents him as
seated on white horse In the parade
of heaven the Bible makes us hear the
clicking of hoofs on the golden pave
ment as it says: The armies which
were in heaven followed him on white
horses" I should not wonder if the
horse, so banged, and bruised, and
beaten, and outraged on earth, should
have some other place where his wrongs
shall be righted. | do not assert il,
but say should not be surprised IT,,
after all, st. Johns descriptions of the
horses in heaven turned out not alto
gether to be figurative, but somewhat
literal. r
AS the Bible makes fayorite 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
exclusively formed hoof. and listening
with a thrill to the champ of his bit, so
all great natures in all ages have
spoksn of him in encomiastic terms
virgil in his Georges almost seems to
plagarize from this description in the
text 80 much are the descriptions alike
the description of Virgil and the de-
scription of Job. The Duke of yelling
TON would not allow anyone irreverent-
ly to touch his old war horse, Copen-
hagen, on whom he had ridden fifteen
hours without dismounting, at Water
loo. and when old Copenhagen died, his
master ordered a military salute fred
over his grave. John Howard showed
that he did not exhaust all his sympa-
thies in plying the human race. for
when sick he writes home: Has my
old chaise horse become sick or
spoiled?" There is hardly any passage
of French literature more pathetic than
the lamentation over the death of the
yar-charger, Marchegay. Walter Scott
has so much admiration for this di-
yinely honored creature of God that in
"St. Romans Well he orders the girth
slackened and the blanket thrown over
the smoking tanks. Edmund Burke,
walking in the park at Beaconsfeld,
musing over the past, throws his arms
around the WORKOUT horse of his dead
son, Richard, and weeps upon the
horses neck, the horse seeming to SYM
pathize in the memories. Rowland
Hill, the great English preacher, was
caricatured because in his family pray
ers he supplicated for the recovery of a
sick horse but when the horse got well
contrary to all the prophecies of the
farriers, the prayer did not seem quite
so much of an absurdity.
But what shall / say of the maltreat-