LESSON III.

THE RACE-GROUND.

WHAT we shall say on this subject we have published on two former occasions; but we do not hesitate to repeat it here, with the addition of a single anecdote, because we hope by so doing to bring the subject before a different and more numerous class of readers.

What is a horse-race? Simply a rivalship, or rather trial of speed, between two brutes; But these brutes are mounted and spurred over the course, by beings who claim to possess rational and immortal souls. A multitude of other beings, of the same description, stand by, and risk their money in betting upon the superior speed of a favorite courser; while many others, who do not join in this, are engaged in other gambling, equally disgraceful and immoral, and in almost every variety of folly, riot and revelry, such as drinking, fighting and blaspheming the name of Heaven! To these may be added a crowd of spectators, actuated by mere idle

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curiosity, and among whom are some virtuous and well disposed, who are liable to have their virtue shocked if not contaminated, by the grossly indecent scenes which are passing before them. It happens, indeed, very often that unsuspecting young men and women, especially young women who live by servile labor, are initiated, at those exhibitions, in a career of vice and infamy, at the bare thought of which they would previously have shuddered with horror: the former, having perhaps the most respectable parents, and other connexions, and the fairest prospects in life, sink into worthless profligates: the latter exchange virtuous poverty, industry, and a decent living, for a state of precarious and vile dependence upon the most abandoned and unprincipled of the other sex. It is, in short, at horse-race that ingenuous youth of both sexes, too often enter upon the broad road to ruin, with the gloomy prospect before them, of the state prison or the gallows, and eternal misery in the world to come.

And for what are these evils, so destructive of our civil, political and religious institutions, to be encountered? For the purpose, we are gravely told, of improving our breed of horses. But we venture to say, that this is one of the most bare-faced absurdities, ever attempted to be palmed upon a discerning public. If horses

are to be improved in useful qualities by racing, other animals may be equally improved by the same means. Why not, then, adopt the same method for improving the various breeds of horned cattle, sheep or hogs? Ox-racing, hogracing, and sheep-racing, by parity of reasoning, would improve the animals amazingly! And we should no doubt be told of the superior flavor of the beef and pork, and the doubly refined fleece of the sheep, as well as the more palatable taste of the mutton chop; and all owing to the grand operation of the Race-Ground!

It is well known, however, to those who understand the subject, that horses trained to the course are fit for little or nothing else. They are bad, because unruly and unsafe under the saddle; unless rode by the most expert or experienced ostlers or jockies; and they are worse still for the carriage or heavier draught, wanting strength as well as steadiness. The good saddle, carriage or draught horse, is of different habits altogether, if not of a different breed, from the race-horse. The one is possessed of all the useful qualities, needed in such animals by the man of fortune, the farmer, or drayman; whilst the other, like too many of those bipeds who make the most use of him, is vicious and worthless every where but on the turf. It is clear, indeed, that between the dissipated and profli

gate of the human species, and the race-horse, there is more than one point of resemblance; the quadruped, as well as the biped, being spoiled and rendered useless, by deviating from the true line of life, pointed out by Nature alone, in the one case, and by Revelation as well as Nature in the other. A horse, as well as a man, may be made a fool of, if nothing worse, by a bad education. But be this as it may, the wellbred man, the man of taste and fortune, wants strong, steady, well broke and well shaped, if not elegant, saddle or carriage horses: And sober, sensible, industrious farmers, or draymen, require large and stout built horses, with the same qualities, excepting elegance of shape, for the performance of their labor. The race-horse is not at all at home in the stables or fields of either of these descriptions of persons; and they are, perhaps, the only descriptions of persons who ought to be encumbered with the heavy expense-for a heavy one it is—of keeping horses. An industrious merchant, tradesman or mechanic, will find his account, not in keeping, but in hiring a horse, whenever he has time to take a ride for health or pleasure-for riding is one of the innocent pleasures of life—or when business demands it; and as for pleasure rides, he will act the wisest part who takes the fewest of these: I mean the young man, who has yet,

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not to make his fortune, but to secure a competence for his old age; for we shall be the last to advise either young or old men, to think so much of making fortunes here, as of laying up riches in "another and a better world." every dictate of prudence requires, that young men, while laying the foundation of a permanent and respectable establishment in life, should refrain from all such extravagance as keeping a horse.

And here it may be asked, how is horse-racing to improve the breed, when the discipline or training, by which race-horses are prepared for the turf, is similar in effect to high seasoned food, or any other powerful stimulus, upon the human frame; producing, by an unnatural and feverish excitement, a temporary degree of strength and spirits, beyond what they would otherwise naturally possess, and invariably, by re-action, leaving the subject weaker than before the stimulus was applied. This alone proves, that the great exertion of the animal on the turf is a forced, unnatural and painful exertion; for although all horses run naturally; yet they do not naturally run in such competition or rivalship, as they are taught to exhibit on the race-ground; nor are they goaded when running wild in the freedom of nature, by the whip or the spur, or any other impulse, than that by