The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-11-06

ward, all succulent forage and soft litter ano
paradisaical pasture field. Those farms IN
Kentucky and in different parts OF the Nortn,
where the horse is trained to perfection ID
heetnes5 and in beauty and in majesty, ara
we'll set apart. There is no more virtue IN
driving slow than in driving fast any mora
than a freight train going ten miles tne
| hour is better than an express train gong
| fifty.
There is q delusion abroad In the world
| that thing must be necessarily Rood and
| Christian if it is slow and dull and plodding.
| There are very few good people who seem 10
| imagine it is humbly pious to drive a
spawned. CALLED. glandered, spring halted.
| blind staggered Jade. There is not go much
virtue in Rosinanto as IN q Bucepnalus.
| We want swifter horses, and swifter men.
and swifter enterprises, anil the churcn OF
| God needs to get off its jog trot. Quick tenn
| not drick horses? In the time OF war the
cavalry service does the most execution, and
as the battles OF the world are probably not
| all past, our Christian patriotism demands
that we be interested in equinal velocity.
We might rs we'll have poorer guns In our
arsenals and clpuser ships in our navy
wards than other Nations as to have under
our cavalry saddles and before our parks 0!
artillery slower horses. From the battle OF
Granicus. where the Persian horses drove
the Macedonian infantry into the river.
clear down to the horses on which Pnllip
Sheridan and Stonewall Jackson rode into
the fray, this arm Of the military service
has been recognized. Hamilcar. Hanni-
bal. Gustavus Adolphus, Marshal Ney were
cayalrymen. In this arm Of the service
Charles Martel Mt the battle of Poitiers beat
back the Arab invasion. The Carthaginian
cavalry, with the loss Of only 7U0 men, over
threw the Roman army with the loss OF TO-
900. In the same way the Spanish chlVairy
drove back the Moorish hordes. The best
way to keep peace in this country and in all
countries is to be prepared for wal. .and there
is no success in such contest unless there
be plenty OF light footed chargers. Our
Christian patriotism and our instruction
from the word Of God demand that first OF
all we kindly treat the horse, and then after
that, that we develop his feetness and his
grandeur and his majesty and his strength.
But what shall say Of the effort being
made in this day on a large scale to make
this splendid creature OF God, this divinely
honored being, an instrument OF atroctou5
evil? I make no indiscriminate assault
against the turf. believe in the turf II 1t
can be conducted on right principles and
with no betting. There is no more harm in !
offering prize for the swlftest racer than
there is harm at an agricultural fair in offer
inc prize to the farmer who has the best
wheat, or to the fruit grower who has the
largest pear, or to the machinist who pre-
sents the best corn thrasher, or in school
Offering prize Of copy Of Shakespeare to
the best reader, or in household giving
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. 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 without the
prizes the horses flcetness and beauty and
strength will never be fully developed. Iii
cost $1,000 or $4,000 or $10, 900 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 small scale, ought to be
denounced Of men as It will be accur5ed Of
God. If you have won fifty cents or $4,000
as wager, you had better get rid OF 1t. Get
rid of it right away. Give 1t to some one
who lost in bet. or give it to some great
reformatory institution, or II you do not like
that, 60 down to the river and pitch it OH
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. Gambling blasts man or It blasts
his children, generally both and all.
An intimate friend, 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
'.bookmaking"-- gambling, all bad, all
rotten with iniquity. There Is one word
that needs to be written on the brow OF every
BOOKSELLER as he sits deducting his three or
Ave per cent, and slyly ringing up" more
tickets 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 horse OH OF the race,
and on the brow of every jockey who slack
ems pace that, according to agreement, an
other may win, and writing over every
judges stand, and writing on every board OF
the surrounding fences. That word Is
"swindler!" Yet thousands bet. Lawyers
bet. Judges of courts bet. Members OF the
Legislature bet. Members Of Congress bet.
Professors OF religion bet. Teachers and su-
perintendents of Sunday-schools, 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 deafen, there will be multitude
OF people cajoled and deceived and cheated,
who will at the races 90 neck and neck, neck
and neck to perditlon.
Cultivate the horse by all means, drive
him rs fast as you desire, provided 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 ofmorality under the flying hoof.
Do not under the prctext Of improving the
horse destroy man. Do not have your name
put down in the ever increasing catalogue
Of those who are ruined for both worlds
by the designations Of the American race.
course. They say that IN honest race course
is q "straight" track, and that dishonest
race course Is q "crooked" track-that Is
the parlance abroad-but tell you that every
race track surrounded by betting men and
betting women and betting customs Is
straight track-I mean straight down! Christ
asked in one of His gospels, SIS not a man
better than sheep?" I say, yes. and he is
better than all the steeds that with lathered
flanks ever shot around the ring at race
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 80
lanes his own morals that he comes out a
whole length behind in the race set before
him.
Do you not realize the fact that there Is a
mighty effort on all sides to-day to get
money without earning it2 That the curss
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 re.
spectacle, they go into these gambling prac.