Connecticut western news., 1899-08-24

that all the sulphur and chalybeate
 springs cannot do you so much good as
 the healing, perennial flood that breaks
 forth from. the Rock of Ages" This
 may be your last summer. If so, make
 It a fit yestibule of heaven.
 Turf Abomipation.
 Another temptation lowering around
 nearly all our watering places Is the
 horse racing business We all admire
 the horse but we do not think that it's
 beauty or speed ought to be cultured at the expense of human degradation.
 The horse race is not of such impor-
 tance as the human race. The Bible
 intimates that a man is better than .
 sheep, and suppose he is Letter than a horse, though, like Jobs stallion, his
 neck be clothed with thunder. Horse
 races in olden times were under the
 ban of Christian people, and in our day the same institution has come up under fictitious names. And it is call ed summer meeting,' almost sug- gestive of positive religious exercises.
 And it Is called aI agricultural fair" suggestive of everything that Is inn proving in the art of farming. But under these deceptive titles are the same cheating, and the same betting, and the same drunkenness, and the same vagabondage, and the same abomination that were to be found under the old horse racing system.
 never knew a man yet who could give himself to the pleasures of the turf for long reach of time and not be battered in morals. They hook up their spanking team and put on their sporting cap and light their cigar and take the reins and dash down on the road to perdition. The great day at Saratoga and Brighton Beach and Cape May and nearly all the other wa tering places is the day of the races. The hotels are thronged, every kind of equipage is taken up at an almost fab ulous price. and there are many re- spectable people mingling with jock eys and gamblers and libertines and foul mouthed men and f1ashy women. The bartender ssirs up the brandy smash. The bess run high. The greerlhorns, supposing all is fair, put in their money soon enough to lose it. Three weeks before the race takes place the struggle is decided, and the men In the secret know 6n which steed to bet their money. The men on the horses riding around long ago arrang- ed who shall win. Leaning from the stand or from tha carriage are men and women so absorbed in the struggle of bone and muscle, and mettle that they make a grand harvest for the pick pockets, who carry off the pocketbooks and the portemonnaies. Men looking on see only a ,ytring of horses with their riders flying around the ring, but there is many 'l man on that stand whose honor and domestic happiness and fortune-white mane, white foot, white fank-ar, in the ring, racing with profanity and with ruin-black neck, black foot, black flank. Neck and neck go the leaders in that moral Epson. White horse of honor, black horse of ruin. Death Says, 'I will bet on the black horse" Spectator says,
 T will bet on the white horse" The white horse of honor a little way lhead The black horse of ruin, Satan all the time gaining on him. Spectator breathless. They put on he lash, dig in the spurs. There! They Ire ipast the stand Sure Just as I 1t. The black horse of ruin 1as won the race, and the galleries of darkness 'Huzza, huzzar' and the levils come in to pick up their wagers. Ah, my friends, have nothing to do with horse racing d.ssipations this summer!
 A Timely Warning.
 Long ago the English government got through looking to the turf for the iragoon and the light cavalry horse They found out that the turf depre- ,iates the stock, and it is worse. yet Tor men. Thomas Hughes, the mem per of parliament and the author known all the world over, hearing that l new turf enterprise was Leing start d in this country. wrote letter In which he said, Heaven help you, then, Tor of all the cankers of our old civ lization there is nothing in this coun- ny approaching In unblushing mean less, in rascality holding its head high, o this belauded institution of the British turf" Another famous sports nan writes, Flow many fine domains nave been shared among these hosts ,f rapacious sharks during the last 200 years, and, unless the system be Uttered, how many more are doomed o fall into the same gulf?" With the ,ullfghts of Spain and the bear bait. ngs of the pit may the Lord God an initiate the infamous and accursed horse racing of England and America!
 l go further and speak of another that horers over the water Ing place, and thar is the temptation to sacrifice physical strength. The modern Bethesda, just like thlsp Bethes- la of the text, was intenAed to re- cuperate the physical health, and yet how many come from the watering places their health absolutely destroy ed! City simpletons boasting of hay Ing imbibed 20 glasses of Congress wa ter before breakfast. Families accus-> toned to go to bed at 10 o'clock at night gossiping until 1 or o'clock in the morning. Dyspeptics, usually very cautious about their health, mingling ce creams and lemons and lobster salads and cocoanuts until the gastric |uiceS lift up all their voices of lamen- -ation and protest. Delicate women md brainless young men dancing themselves into vertigo and catalepsy. Thousands of men and women coming pack from our watering places in the lutumn with the foundations laid for lilments that will last them all their fife long. You know as well as I do hat this is the simple truth. In the you say to your good health: 'Goodby. 1 am going to have a gay ime now for little while. I will be 5ery glad to see you again in the au- umn.' Then in the autumn, when Tou are hard at work in your office or 'tore or shop or counting room, Good Health will come in and say: :"Goodby. Il
 am going" You say, Where are you ,oingY' 'Oh," says Good Health, "I tm going to take yacationw It is a poor rule that will not work both I,