THE REASON AND THE UNREASON OF THE RACECOURSE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 289, 27 March 1877, Page 4

THE REASON AND THE UNREASON OF THE RACECOURSE.

(."•©tttifo Daily times.")! Tft* Bev. Upton Davis, in preaching on th* above topic on Sunday evening at the Baptist Church, said : "The foundation of this Province was laid by the hands of pious. roo» fan a temper of devotion ; it is celebrated hj pactkw that tend largely to wean men firowi Oed, to undermine morality, and to disappoint the hopes of tn« fottnetecsv The spectacle of otherwise sober me» going almost mad once a year eempe&i the conclusion that they have soma reason for their unreasonable practice- The reason of it ties in the love of horses indigenous to the Colonial mind ; in the love of social pleasure to he had some unusual way - r and in the keen zest with which we all watch competitive •trugffles. Of many that! attend, this would fee a complete analysis of their motives —not high motives,, hut not base or vicious, simply human pleasure. To build so- wide a practice on mere pleasure is,, however, held to bo very unstable argument,, for pleasure cannot be paramount in action. An attempt has therefore been made t»' defend the racecourse on the ground of utility; the breed of horses would deteriorate but for this stimulus. As,, however, other stnu cattle, as sheep and oxen, are preserved in their purity without such stir, and no one deems it necessary t<-> shear the Leicesters and to milk the kine in public to teat their auality,. it does not appear that horseeaters, with their known keenness for the points of a horse, would a! tow the best breeds to be depraved. Thisptea must l»e scouted as only an excuse, the sote basis of reason for tire racecourse is found in pleasure alone. This is slight enough, and cannot stand against the terrible " unreason" of tire whole attair. The first {oittt against this carnival is its w-ikKmoHL t may be good t'<>r society to- be stirred through and through, as by some grave social, political, and religious question. The firmness of moral tone is sadly relaxed, however, when a whole Province stands tip-ton for weeks to know which horse of a dozen can beat the others by a neck. The monstrous disproportion between interest and object must cause moral injury. The second po : nt against the racecourse is its associations. Public nouses have their use—-their use, however, is for the body alone—and it is very suspicious of small profit to anything but man's inferior nature, when tickets are to be had mainly at such centres. Look further : Is the corner of High-street during race week the resort of intelligence, sobriety, ami high-mindedness I Would we like a son of ours to be one of tliient t 'Would we give our daughters in marriage to them J Charles I>ickens was no staid ions clergyman, ignorant of the world, but from his pen has come the strongest deprecation of the black-legs and their frateraity. The third and chief point against the races is the ijimMUuj connected with them. Betting is alike the main attraction and the main snare ; it rages more about the race course than anywhere. People begin with a pair t.f gloves and fcat,. and, intoxicated by tuck or misfortune, go from bad to worse. A wager of money originally replaced a wager of battle in the settlement of disputes. The duet has vanished from English society; fighting "for the fun of the money " U almost gone. but modern betting lias grown into a nuisance and a plague. The gamblers are of two classes.' There are the men who know what they are about, and if they win anything, may be said to earn it by care fid book-making and what not. The professional better, however, does not general Improve a very worthy member of society. And there are I ho bind speculators— the chances of gain for no work fascinates them. Money thus obtained without toil and training for its use—is got without any of the moral discipline iiml has designed should attach to the proper pursuit of wealth. The habit cannot but injure even the odept, but the youngster becomes intoxicated with excitement, and is rightly discharged from any position of trust. Jfetting has created a dishonest code of honour, by which trie tailor who has given a coat is defrauded to tho advantage of a fellow-gambler who has given nothing. Next to drunkenness, there is nothing which so weakens sturdy integrity in young men. Toadstools do not grow faster by dunghills than social vice spreads in race week. There is no substantial good to horses, purses, intelligence, or morals, "There is—and my heart sinks tr* recall tlie utl'er wreck of some yocmg fellows f have known—a rapid multiplication of the sins Christ died to destroy, and a swift degradation and impoverishment of those Christ came to enrich and redeem." Christian men ought not to patronise the racecourse ; they ought to enter their plain, clear protest against the evil; and, by spiritual setf culture, they ought to> check a spoct which ruins men ** body and soul,'' and to create—especially among the young—an intense repugnance fop what eats tike dry-rot into the wellbeing of society.