The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-08-02

But the clean, wholesome place that 1t is where the sunshine shall ever fall, as it fails today, rehecting the unsuilied mirror of that stream of cut glass crys- tai, pouring from the ferns and flowers of the hlllsides and where the air shall ever blow, as pure and sweet as 1t blows today, from the blue-hooded peak of wonder sisterhood of mountains. dream ing with their eternal faces looking fu- tureward and skyward. of the day when the teaming millions of this rich valley shall throng here for breath of nature and of her uplifting life. And let 1t be kept pure, a place where the little child may come and see nothing that shall cor rupt its wonder opening eyes, where the maid and the matron may spend an afternoon of healthgiving pleasure and return home as they left It. with no blush upon their cheek, where the boy and man may come and carry back more boyhood and more manhood.
 Keep Out Gamblers.
 And let me tell you again. gentlemen, as I have preached 1t for years with my pen. that the greatest misfortune that could ever happen to the light harness horse business, will be when it falls into the hands of the gambling element. Its chief glory and salvation lies In the es- tablishing of such parks as this and such clean sport as you have established here. Up to few years ago 1t looked as if the American horse-the light har- ness horse-was going the immoral way of the English runner. But gentlemen of wealth, with the love of the horse and the open. who love the highways and pleasant drives and pure air, men with the electric brush of nerve making speed In fhair hparfg cpfd n fhp rrofaaeipOa a driver: You shall not have all the pleasure of this noble animal, nor shall you make of him a mere gambling tool for the qualification of baser natures. There is physical life and health and happiness in him. There is moral life and happiness in the personality of his comradeship, in driving him down shady lanes and fields where the birds sing and the flowers grow. There Is ozone in his Speed and health in his twinkllng feet. and happiness in the Joy of his gameness and long life In his companionship. Let the gamblers have the English horse, but let the American gentleman control the destiny of the American horse"
 And acting on this.. the great New York Speedway was founded, at a cost of millions, and here the harness kings of the world driven by gentlemen of wealth, the captains of industry contend Oh SPitlultS Ol &Nttl anu TuDDeT A1Q cuSn- Ions of air for the glory of knghood, while their brains and nerves throw off the malaria of overwork in the pleasure and excitement of the contest.
 And all over the country have sprung up these matinee clubs owned and con- trolled by the busy man. giving him that dash of grit and flight of nerve and strength of heart, that will yet enable him to corner the progress of the world Think of what a science 1t has come to when only a few weeks ago a gentle man like MT. Billings can take green mare like Lou Dillon and at the Cleve- land Matinee park in the presence of ten thousand people, can drive her in 2:O4h in almost a second of the worlds trot- ting record held by Allx. Imagine old Dan Mace and Hiram Woodruff, who never dreamed the record would reach 2;1O, rising at the last great day and hearing that. In the thought of Ben King-they would drop dead.
 And so I repeat you have done a great thing for clean, moral uplifting sport in this great city, and may there one day come out of 1t the king or queen of the turf, llmbed like the fine steel of your furnaces, lunged like the coke and lime rock of your hills boned like the fruit of your mountains and speedy as your city's growth and glory And let me assure you with a thorough knowl- edge of Alabama horses and horsemen you have the mettle of her pasture here in Re-Election and the Sentinel Wilkes and Hal Brandon In the Tennessee Val- ley, and the matchless Fred L. Wilkes at your own door and all the good old blood of McCurdy's Hambletonian. and Lord Vara of Wilkes, and Argyle. and Dicta- tor. and Hal, and thoroughbreds in the blackbelt.
 Tho Tennessee tulip.
 Why, gentlemen, with such blood as that. you could breed two-minute iuflp out of a cabbage plant. Did you ever breed one as they breed them In Ten nessee. where the Tennessee tulip like the Tennessee pacer holds all the world records? It is told of an old fellow down here in my hoyhood days that an old circuit rider rode up to his house one day and learned from his sorrowing widow that the old man had passed away. "TIe got along all right" she said. "till horse trader from Tennessee come along last spring and staid over night and tort i'm how to mix green in his Ticker an he jes drunk hissef to death"
 And I don't blame him. for only a month ago I rode over Ewell farm look ing at John R. Gentry and the colts and the brood mares. There was a hundred acre pasture carpeted with blue grass in bright figures of blackeyed susans and purple climbing larkspurs; overhead lowered the trees and from their lofty limbs fioated that moist delicately sweet perfume that God ever gave to mortals-- the odor of the wild grape bloom. pretty brook wandered through the growing valley, pouring out some dis tance from under a huge oak. Here the cold spring bubbled up and after running down an old trough lined with sweet moss and cool with soggy wood it dart ed away over the hill amid the daisies and larkspurs In a moist place where the spring idled a moment I caught the mint grazing. With silk handkerchief for halter I thrust his nose under the cold springs sprout till the ice cold drops stood all over It's velvety muzzle like fro- zen snow-beads in holly in December and then right there I proceeded to hitch up. I suspected I should catch this tulip before I started out and so I had with me the cup and the loaf sug- ar. Now right there I had 4nipped the speed of that youthful tulip In the bud had I used a spoon. crushing all the del- icate aroma out with a too precipitate mixture tulips must be logged before they are asked to go and 1t took me ten minutes to warm him up by twirling the