Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-10-02
How AROUSE AND APPLY EN-
THUSIASM?

fOSIRSm
The observing person, wherever in
Maine may he his home, has hardly
overlooked the widespread interest
Maine people have taken in horse
racing this fall, an interest which in
some localities almost has assumed
the qualities of contagion. From
this some have doubtless concluded
that even if the horse has been
"honkcd" out of its partnership with
man in his toll it is being given
plenty of opportunity for association
in sport
There comes to the desk a SOU
vcnir postal card bearing photo
graphs of the heads of John r. Bra
den, that much loved and strenuous
~ contested winner of Maine purses,
the two speedy Grattans, Roy and
jackson, and of that doughty New
brunswick horse, Dan Hedgcwood,
D all as attractive asscmblage of equine
physiognomy as we have seen, each
showing Individuality and horse char
acter. The card is entitled: The
Big Four" We'll named, Surely big
enough to kindle and feed the flame
of horse-racing, not only in Aroos-
took but in other parts of Maine as
well. With such there might he eX-
cuse for a king giving his kingdom,
though his life were in no danger.
And watching a crowd at one or
these races one wonders whether the
horse. which Button said was the
noblcst conquest of man hasn't
turned the tables after all the CEN
turies and whether John Willard be
not led captive by john r. Braden.
And this at time when in Maine 1t
had begun to seem the near future
would relcgate the race-hOrse TO the
archives of has-bCcns, along with
he prairie schooner drawn by oxen.
Down the long centuries have come
viriIe men companioncd by noble
horses, but when they have set the
horse in place of the golden calf and
fallen down and worshipped then is
their kind nearing the end in de-
cadence. One may think of this
when reading the account of the
voyage of Papyrus, winner of the
Derby and visitor to these shores; of
how he is companioned by mate
so that he may not become lonely,
how every attention is being lavishcd
upon him and the Eighteenth
Amendment winked at when he is
given an occasional bucket of beer
with due allowance for the imagina-
ton of space writer's. But even so
no one since the days of rotten Rome
has appointed his horse pro-consul.
We are not suffering any great
amount of decadcnce as yet on ac
count of the horse.
And man is not yet ready-nor fit
to part company altogether with
the horse. lie will indeed be a sorry
shob if the time ever comes when he
transfers his affections from the
horse to the machine, from the handi-
work of the Creator TO his own.
Henry Ford may succeed in making
a synthetic COW, but never syn
thetic horse with an appeal to the
heartstrings of man, never n race
car that will impart the same kind of
a thrill as that we get from the race
horse, or that will overflow the wells
c of affection as in the case of the old
lady in Woodstock who wrote the
owners of John K. Bradcn, after see
ing him win, requesting them to take
,,;, MI
rest as he had done enough for one
season.
What has almost amounted in
Maine to a resurrection of the en-
thusiasm, the stimulus afforded by
horse racing. is provocative of
thought. Man was ever susceptible
to the inspiration of contest He
would be restless in the millcnial
conditions Dreamed of h" the parlor
. rpinks. of asphodel starred plains of
/, level contcntmcnt and fat living for
: aall not too lazy and incompetent to
work their jaws. When tooslazy to
split the kindling he has ever been
willing to endure tho training of the
gladiator or the hard seats of the
bleachers. Though he may have
turned his back on the home store
and gone abroad for his shopping he
is ever ready to yell his head off for
the home team.
Mark Twain endowed Tom Saw
Yer with ability to turn this human
quality to whitcwashing the fence
Old New England barns were not
- always raised with New England
''rum for the only stimulus, sides
were chosen, each taking part of
the frame and the first to get it up
was the inner. Something of this
spirit went into pride in craftsman
ship He who but pulls the levers is
denied that which the maker Of the
=. machine doubtless experiences. but
he needs it, Graves it and Will seek
H.
~ Is there not some way to satisfy
this craving along constructive lines?
Some way by WHICH the demon,
.GIudscry. may be exercised by prac-