The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-08-25

bath, though they deride you as a
Dlgoted Puritan. Stand off from gam
ping hells and those other Institutions
winch propose TO initiate on this side
n water the iniquities OF Baden
Baden. Let your moral and your i'm
mortal health keep pace with your
physical r~ecuperation and remember
that all the sulphur n c~halybeate
SPRINGS canno do you so much good as
the healing, perennial food that breaks
forth from the Rock OF Ages" This
may be your last summer. If SO, make
1t a fit vestibule Of heaven.
TURF ABOMINATION.
Another temptation lowering around
. nearly all our watering places is the
horse racing business. We ali admire
the horse, but we 10 not think that its
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 han 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 1t is call
I'd a meeting" almost sug-
gestive OF positive religious exercises.
And it is called an agricultural fair"
~ w. AlAA hiaI ID AAAl-
proving in the art Of farming. But
under these deceptive titles are the
same cheating, and the same betting,
and the same drunkenness, n the
same v~agabondage, and the same abom-
ination that were to be found under the
old horse racing system.
l never NEW a man yet who could
give himself to the pleasures Of the
turf for a 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 reiEs 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 kim OF
equipage is taken up at an almost fab
ulOus price, and there are many re-
spectacle people mingling with jock
eys and gamblers and libertines and
foul mouthed men and flashy ONE
The bartender stirs up the brandy
+: smash. The bets run nigh. 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 arrang-
ed who shall win. Leaning from the
| stand or from the carriage are men
and women so absorbed in the struggle
Of bone and muscle and mettle that
they make a 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 IT a~y a man on hat stand
whose homo i domestic happiness
and fortune-~ mite NAME, white foot,
l UhJta HQnk-ara in fh0 rin q no mir
with inebriety n with fraud and
| 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, Il will bet
Il 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 gaining on him.
Spectator breathless. They put on
the lash, dig in the spurs. There! They
expected it. The black horse of ruin
has won the race, and the galleries of
darkness "HuzZa, huzza!" and the
devils come in to pick UP their wagers.
All. my friends, have nothing to do
with horse racing designations this
summer!
A TIMELY WARNING.
Long g the English government
got through looking to the turf for the
Dragon and the light cavalry horse.
They found u that the turf depre-
ciates the stock, and it is worse yet
for men. Thomas Hughes, the mem
Der Of parliament and the author
known all the world over, hearing that
a new turf enterprise was being start
ed in this country, wrote a letter in
which he said: help you, then,
for of all the cankers of our old civ
ilization there is nothing in this coun-
try approaching in unblushing mean
ness, in rascality holding it's head high.
TO this belauded institution of the
British turf" Another famous sports
man writes, How many fine domains
have been shared among these hosts
OF rapacious Sharks during the last
200 years and, unless the system be
altered, how many more are doomed to
fail into the same gulf?" With the
bullfghts of Spain and the pear bait
ings 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
temptation that hovers over the water
ing place, and hat is the temptation
to sacrifice physical strength. The
modern Bethesda, just like Thu Bethes-
da Of the text. was intended to re-
cuperate the physical health, n yet
" $1,000 I'm I1C l.
places their health absolutely destroy
ed! City simpletons boasting of hav-
ing fmbibed 20 glasses of Congress wa
ter before breakfast. Families accus-
toned to go to bed at 10 O'Clock al
night gosSiping unit 1 or 2 o'clock in
the morning. Dyspeptics, usually very
cautious about their health, mingline
fee creams and lemons and lobster
salads and until the gastric
juices lift up all their voices Of lamen.
tation and protest. Delicate women
and brainlesS young men dancing
themselves into vertigo and catalepsy
Thousands of men n women coming
back from our watering places in the
autumn with the ndat aid fol-
ailments that will last them all theil
life long. You know as we'll as I dc
that this is the simple truth. In thu
summer you say to your good health
"Goodby, l am going to have a gay
time now for a little while. I will be
very glad to see o again in the au.
tumn." Then III the autumn, wher
o are hard at work in your Office OF
Il store m chon ~ ao,,r&ipo &C.,