28 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS, 



just want to eay that there is nothing come out lately that 

 has struck the fancy of the Hookertown people like that 

 cut of the horse-race, in the last paper. At first I did not 

 know but you was coming out in favor of these fast colts 

 and &quot; whurra boys &quot; at our fairs, and I begun to think that 

 I should have to drop the paper, if that was the case. You 

 see, horse-racing is an institution agin which Connecticut 

 people are dead set upon principle, and it is no kind of use 

 to attempt to revive that old engine of the enemy in this 

 enlightened age, even under the cover of an agricultural 

 fair. 



We have got a great notion of the County and State 

 Societies, and of the Fairs that come off every fall. They 

 please our vanity somewhat, and are doing a heap of good, 

 in waking folks up to a better kind of farming. All sorts 

 of folks come to them, and the better part of the community 

 especially. It seems as if we had got one thing that we 

 could all be agreed on. There is a considerable split on 

 religion, and politics always stirs up a deal of bad feeling, 

 especially such an exciting election as this we have just 

 had. Now it seems to me that these fairs are just what 

 we want to draw all kinds of people together, and to keep 

 up good neighborhood. But just as soon as you bring in 

 horse-racing, and make that a part of the fair, you see, a 

 multitude of people wont stand it nohow. It does seem 

 as if the devil was always around when folks are trying to 

 start a good enterprise, getting up something to knock it 

 all over. You see, we have put down circuses, theatricals, 

 etc., time and agin, and we don t believe in horse-racing 

 as a moral institution, fix it up any way you will. Deacon 

 Smith, you see, is a rural improver, goes in for good 

 horses, fine cattle, and all that sort of thing. He went 

 down to Boston to attend the horse show, supposing they 

 were going to have a civil kind of time. Guess how mor 

 tified he was, when he got into the show and found jockeys, 

 gamblers, and betting men around him, thick as flies in 



