Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-08-25

hold their fans, you know that they are
not so much impressed with the heat as
with the picturesqueness of half dis
closed features. Four puny souls stand
in the organ loft and squat tune that
nobody knows, and worshipers, with
s., 600 worth of diamonds on the right
hand, drop cent into the poor box, and
then the benediction is pronounced,
and the farce is ended. The toughest
thing I ever tried to do was to be good
at a watering place. The air is be-
witched with the world, the flesh and
the devil" There are Christians who.
in three or four weeks in such a place.
have had such terrible rents made in
their Christian robe that they had to
keep darning it until Christmas to get
it mended.
The health of great many people
makes an annual visit to some mineral
spring an absolute necessity, but take
your Bible along with you, and take an
hour for secret prayer every day,
| though you be surrounded by guffaw
and saturnalia. Keep holy the Sab
bath, though they deride you as big
oted Puritan. Stand off from gambling
hells and those other institutions which
propose to initiate On this side the wa
ter the iniquities of Baden-Baden. Let
your moral and your immoral health
keep pace with your physical recupera-
| ton, and remember that all the sui
phur and chalybeate springs cannot do
| you so much good as the healing,
perennial flood that breaks forth from
| the Crock of Ages" This may be your
| last summer. If so, make it fit vesti-
| bule of Heaven.
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 its
| beauty or speed ought to be cultured at
the expense of human degradation. The
| horse race is not of such Importance as
the human race. The Bible iDtimates
that man is better than a sheep, and
| suppose he is better than horse,
| though, like Jobs stallion, his neck
| be clothed with thunder. Horse races
| in o1den times were under the ban of
| Christian people, and in our day the
! same institution has come up under fic-
| titious names. And it is called a ''sum-
mer meeting" almost suggestive of
| positive religious exercises. And it is
| called an agricultural fair" suggest
| i've of everything that is improving in
| the art of farming, but under these de-
ceptive titles are the same cheating,
and the same betting, and the same
drunkenness, and the same vagabond-
| age, and the same abomination that
were to be found under the old horse
racing system.
| I never knew a man yet who could
| give himself to the pleasures of the turf
for a long reach of time and not be bat
| tered in morals. They hook up their
spanking team and put on their sport
| ing cap and light their cigar and take
| the reins and dash down on the road
to perdition! The great day at Sara
! toga and Brighton Beach and Cape May
and nearly all the other watering places
is the day of the races. The hotels are
| thronged, every kind of equipage is
taken up at an almost fabulous price,
| and there are many respectable people
| mingling with jockeys and gamblers
| and Hbertines and foul-mouthed men
and flashy women. The bartender stirs
up the brandy smash. The bets run
| high. The greenhorns, 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 on
which steed to bet their money. The
men on the horses riding around long
| ago arranged who shall win. Leaning
from the stand or from the carriages
| are men and women so absorbed in the
struggle of bone and muscle and mettle
that they make grand harvest for the
| pickpockets, who carry off the pocket
books and the portemonnaies. Men
looking on see only a string of horses
with their riders flying around the
| ring. But there is many man on that
| stand whose honor and domestic hap
! piness and fortune-white name, white
| foot, white fanfare in the ring,
racing with inebriety and with fraud
and with profanity and with ruin
black neck, black foot, black flank.
Neck and neck go the horses in that
moral Epson. White horse of honor;
black horse of ruin. Death says: 81
will bet on the black horse" Spec
tator says: 81 will bet on the white
horse" The white horse of honor a
| little way ahead. The black horse of
ruin, Satan mounted, all the time gain
ing on him. Spectator breathless.
They put on the lash, dig in the spurs.
| There! They are past the stand. Sure.
just as I expected. The black horse of
| ruin has won the race, and all the gal
| leries of darkness "huzzai huzza!" and
the devils come in to pick up their
wagers. All, my friends, have nothing
to do with horse racing designations
| this summer.
Another temptation lowering around
| the watering place is the formation of
hasty and lifelong alliances. The wa
tering places are responsible for more
| of the domestic infeEcities of the coun-
try than nearly all other things COM
/ hined Society iS 50 nrtifi there fl,a q