Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-10-30
NO. 46,

is no success in sucn a contest unless there
, be plenty of light footed chargers. Our
Christian patriotism AMI our instruction
from the word of God demand tn 1T first of
all we kindly treat the horse, and hen G.ter
that. that we develop his fieetness and his
grandeur and his majesty and his strength.
But what shall / say of the effort being
| made in this day on a large sale TO make
this splendid creature of God. this divinely
honored being, an instrument OF atrocious
evil? / make no indiscriminats assault
against the turf. / believe in the turf if it
can be conducted on right principles and
with no betting. There is no more harm in
Offering prize for the swiftest racer than
there is harm at an agricultural fair in offer
ing a prize to the farmer who has the best
wheat, or TO the fruit grower who has the
largest pear, or to the machnist who pre-
sents the best corn thrasher, in n school
offering prize of a copy of Shakespeare to
the best reader. or in household giving a
lump of sugar to the best behaved voungster.
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. Heaven
itself is called prize, ''the prize OF
the high calling of God in Christ Je-
sus." So what is right in one direction is
right in another direction. And wthoutthe
prizes the horses feetness and beauty and
strength will never be fully developed. Ifit
cost $1,000 or $4,000 or 5000 and the result
be achieved, it is cheap. But the sin begins
where the betting begins. for that is gam
bling. or the effort to get that for which you
give no equivalent, and gambling, whether
on a large scale or a small scale. ought to be
denounced of men as it will be accursed of
God. If 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 lost in a bet, or give it to some great
reformatory institution, or ii you do not like
that, go down to the river and pitch it off
the docks. You cannot afford to keep II. 1t
will burn hole in your purse il will burn
hole in your estate, and you will lose all that,
perhaps 1000 times more-perhaps You will
lose all. Gambling blasts man or it b'asts
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 $50, 600 or 500. 900 change hands,
Multitudes ruined by losing the bet. others
worse ruined by gaining the bet; for if a man
lose a bet at a horse race. he may be dis
couraged and quit, but if he win the bet hs
is very apt to go straight on to hell.
An intimate friend, a journalist, who in
the line of his profession Investigated this
evil. tells me that there are three different
kinds of betting at horse races and they are
about equally leprOus-by "auction pools,'
by "French mutuals," by what is called
'.Dookmaking"- gambling. all bad, all
rotten with iniquity. There is word
that needs to be written on the brow of every
poolseller as he sits deductinG his three or
five per cent. and slyly "ringng up" more
tickets than were sold on the winning horse
word to be written also the brow
of every bOOkkeeper who at extra in
ducement scratches a horse of OF the race.
and on the brow Of every jockey vino slack
ems pace that. according 10 agreement an
other may win. and writing over every
judges stand. and writing on every board of
the surrounding fences. That word is
''swinder!' Yet thousands bet. Lawyers
bet. Judges of courts bet. Members of the
Legislature bet Members of Congress bet
Professors OF religion bet. Teachers and SUI
perintendents of Sunday-schools. l am told
be-. 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 dea'en, there will be multitude
OF people caioled and deceived and cheated,
who will at the races go neck and neck, neck
and neck to per1itiOu.
Cultivate the horse by all means. drive
him as fast you desire. provided you do
not injure him or endauger yourself or
others, bat be careful and do not harness the
horse to the chariot Of sin. Do not throw
your jewels ofmoraitv under the flying hoof
Do not under the preteXt of improving the
horse destroy man. Do not have your name
put down in the ever increasing catalogue
Of those vino are ruined for bott, worlds
by the disSipations of the American Nlce
course. They say that m honest race course
is a straight" track, AM that n dishonest
race course is n ''croO'Se II trI rIck-.hat is
the parlance aDrJa but tell yJu that every
race track surrounded by betting men and
betting women and betting customs is
straight track-I mean strais isht down, Christ
asked in one of His gospels. is not n man
better than sheep?" say, yes and he is
better than all the stee Is that with lathered
fanks ever shot around the ring at IA race
course. That is n very poor job by which n
man in order to get n horse to come out
full length ahead of some cher racer SO
lanes his own morals that he comes out
whole length behind in the rae. Sc before
him.
Do you not realize the fact that there is
mighty effort on all sides to- lay to get
money without earning it? That i the curse
Of all the cities; it is the curse of America
The effort to get money without earning it
and rs other forms Df stealing are not re-
spectacle, they 20 into these gambling prac-
ices. L preach this sermon on square old
fashioned honesty. L have said nothing
against the horse, l have said nothing
against the turf. l have said everything
against their prostitution. Young men, you
20 into STRAIGHTFORWARD industries. and
you will have better livelihood. and you
will have larger permanent success than you
can ever get by wager, but you get in with
some of the whisky, rum blOtched crew
which l See going down on the boulevards,
though l never bet, will risk this wager,
s5, ,000, 900 to nothing. you will be debauched
and damned.
Cultivate the horse, own him ii you can
Afford to own him, test all the speed he has,
II 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 mics 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 rapid
". and he did not Interfere with their hap
piness. He had all of us in the
wagon with him. He drove TO the country
church. The fact is that for eghty-two
years he drove in the same direction. The
roam span that l speak Of was long ago un-
hitched, and the driver put up his whip in
the wagon house never again to take it down,
out in those good old times l learned some
thing that l never forgot-that n man may
admire a horse. and love horse, and be
proud of n horse, and not always be willing
10 take the dust of the preceding vehicle,
and yet be n Christian, an earnest Christian.
an humble Christian. a consecrated Chris
.ian. useful until the last, SO that at his
death the church of God cries out as Elisha
exclaimed when Elijah went up with gal
loping horses of fire, NY father, my father,
the chariots of Israel and the horsemen
thereof"
New EngIanders to Meet at Atlanta.