840 ANNUAL REPORT 



turned into sand, and to match the breath of the riders, balmy breezes 

 mounted up to great simoons — drifting desert storms. But not content, 

 on sped the fast horse. Egypt in turn fell a prey, then a nation of forty 

 millions, to-day less than four millions of half-starved, half -naked, brutal 

 Arabs, with drifting sand where once were fertile fields. Thence on his 

 ruinous tread, tramping to desert wastes the lands of rich and populous 

 nations that lined the Mediteixanean coast, extending hundreds of miles 

 back, but to-day nearly the entire range compose a part of the great 

 Sahara desert, dotted here and there by small tribes of degraded, poverty- 

 stricken Arabs, whose ancestors, like those of all other desert-stricken 

 lands of to-day, once fostered the fast horse to the neglest of all else, 

 until so poverty-stricken that the slow donkey is a luxury but few can 

 enjoy, and none but their kings and chiefs can mount a horse. 



Nor did the sea form a barrier; over into Spain the fast horseman rode, 

 then a nation of fifty millions, now less than ten millions, fostering noth- 

 ing but the fast horse and internal revolutions. Though the Arab went 

 no further, the fast horse did, and as a result France has had her uphea- 

 vals, and more and greater looked for, England has had her internal 

 dissensions, and only wants opportunity to give them motion. At home 

 all her interests stand still to see the Derby races, whilst in her more 

 distant provinces her oppressions know no mercy. She is a nation 

 of merchants — the fast horse her idol, money her God, without soul or 

 sympathy. 



Nor did the wide ocean form a barrier; the fast horse is here, corrupt- 

 ing every source of society, and fostered above all else. The people 

 of the land pay hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to see him run, 

 the zeal growing at each repeat; and as the zeal rises and races multiply, 

 depraved morals keep pace. 



Nations are made up of communities, communities of families, and 

 families of individuals; therefore, to make a great, prosperous nation, 

 individuals, families and communities must be virtuous, cultivating peace 

 at home and abroad. And the greatest of all incentives to peace at home 

 is an abundant supply of the luxuries of life, and the most cherished 

 fruit. But what award does it get at any of our popular horse races? or 

 who stops to look at it, or any of the other good things, while the horses 

 are running? Though fruit has its deyotees, nationally it is only appreci- 

 ated as a side show at a race track, to make horse racing respectable. 



And as all interests are being pressed in to do homage to the fast horse, 

 what is the drift of national morals? The Arabs had a national religion, 

 and so have we, and in substance the same. The ruins of vast regions 

 proclaim what theirs allowed, and let us see if the drift of our code for- 

 bodes a better ending. By government proclamation we have set days 

 of thanksgiving, and of fasting and prayer, which stamps our nation as 

 truly a religious nation as does the Arab's code. And as we have seen, 

 the drifting desert storms proclaim the moral of his code. Let us take a 

 survey of our nation's programme of rule. 



