THE PHARISEE AND THE SPORTSMAN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 39

THE PHARISEE AND THE SPORTSMAN.

Contrast for one moment these two classes of men. The one, self-opinionated and uncharitable, hurls his diatribes at all and sundry who do not follow his own example. From the depths of his ignorance he calls up lurid descriptions of a sport he has never witnessed and a system he doesn't understand. He has possibly heard exaggerated and ridiculous reports of dark deeds on racecourses, and in his charity and generosity he lays down his oracular ipse dixit, " Racing must be wrong, because I say so." Look, on the other hand, at the typical sportsman. We never hear of him stumping the country inveighing against churches, recklessly asserting that all parsons are drones, because they live upon the industry •of others. We' never even" hear him condemn church raffles, bazaars, frauds, or art unions, or retaliate'on his opponents by attacking these forms of gambling. "Live and let live" is. his motto — every man to his own hobby. Why cannot these self-styled moralists let the sportsman alone? But ! such tolerance is not to be looked for ; we have arrived at a stage where M.H.R.'s actually propose legislation against smoking cigarettes. Sportsmen are too broad-minded in their views and liberal in their sympathies to wish to interfere with the pursuits of others. Yet among their opponents we see clergymen, combining with professed freethinkers and professional betting" men in an unholy alliance to suppress racing. \