70 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



demon's spell. And the Rev. Dr. Bevan, of Mel- 

 bourne, affirms that racing was making the place a 

 vast gambling-hell, and teaching the little ones and 

 the rising generation that gambling was right. In 

 truth, they suck it in, as 1 have said before, with 

 their mother's milk. It says little for the intelli- 

 gence of those of our farmers and breeders who 

 blindly and blandly accept dictation or advice as 

 to what sort of horses they should breed from 

 those who ' make the place a gambling-hell, and 

 deliberately breed for gambling purposes leggy 

 weeds and flat-sided wretches ' (Tweedie), ' crooked- 

 legged deformed brutes ' (Day), 'little-legged brutes 

 that would fall over a straw' (Day). Of course, 

 our youth having been educated, trained, and 

 brought up with full faith in stable-boys, and in 

 those leggy weeds and deformed brutes, never 

 lose it. That which is indoctrinated persistently 

 in youth becomes a part of the man, as the ecclesi- 

 astics well know. 'Catch them young," they say. 

 These are caught young — very young. This en- 

 courages me to attempt a slight per contra. 



Do 'fair hands,' 'fair forms,' and 'fair faces,' 

 constitute the influence, or part of the influence, 

 with the army to which Sir Michael Hicks-Beach 

 alluded, and which he denounced in a somewhat 

 recent and very mysterious speech^ If so, every- 

 body will agree with him. If not, then perhaps 

 many may be disposed to think that it was an 

 unfortunate thing for the Empire that the influence 



