160 fiOAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



The sport was to be sure severely condemned by all 

 serious people, and no church-member could attend a 

 horse race with impunity. Nevertheless horse racing 

 sometimes claimed its victims among the very elect. 

 There is a true story on this head recorded of one 

 Deacon R., of Bennington, Vermont. The Deacon 

 liked a good horse, and always had in his barn two 

 or three animals that answered this description. In 

 particular, about the year 1818, he owned one that 

 was known to be a very fast runner; and so, when 

 some wicked sporting men from New York came up 

 to Bennington with a race horse which they offered 

 to match against anything that could be produced in 

 the town, the wicked Bennington boys bethought 

 themselves of the Deacon's horse. A match was 

 made, to be run off secretly, in the dead of night, and 

 one Martin Scott (who afterward became a gallant 

 officer in the United States Army) was selected to 

 borrow and ride Deacon R.'s runner. Accordingly,- 

 M artin Scott burglariously entered the stable at mid- 

 night, muffled the animaFs feet, and quietly brought 

 him out and rode him to the track. 



The race was over a mile course, and all went well 

 till the home stretch was reached ; then the Benning- 

 ton horse fell back, and it looked as if the strangers 

 would win. But at that moment the Deacon him- 

 self, or his ghost, rose up behind the fence, and 

 screamed aloud, " Put the whip to him, Martin ; put 

 the whip to him, I tell you.'" Martin, though seized 

 with a great fear, retained sufficient presence of mind 

 to follow these providential directions. He put the 

 whip to his mount vigorously, and won the race by a 

 head. Thereupon Deacon R. appeared on the track, 



