MAEKS OF AGE, AND ABUSES. 489 



or for elevating the average standard of our stock, if they 

 can get a good horse to run and bet upon? The race be- 

 comes, in their hands, only an extraordinarily exciting species 

 of gambling, where the horse is used instead of the game- 

 cock, the cards, the roulette-ball, or the dice. Money is the 

 object, betting is the mania, and gambling the great attrac- 

 tion. This is the center, the soul, the all-in-all of the affair; 

 and if this stimulus were removed from it, the dear people 

 and their fine breeds of horses might go to — destruction, so 

 far as these philanthropic gentlemen are concerned. 



The very character of the men engaged in the pursuits of 

 racing — their lives and their habits — condemn any such as- 

 sumption on behalf of the turf Who is it that attends such 

 places? Who is it that keeps up the races? The way in 

 which the thing is managed, as we have seen it scores of 

 times, is about as follows : Some man, of horse-racing re- 

 spectability and notoriety, sends a challenge to some other 

 equally noted man of the same kind of respectability, and 

 who also keeps a race-horse, and backs his challenge by the 

 exceedingly disinterested offer of contributing his share to- 

 ward a purse of a few hundreds or thousands of dollars, to 

 be given the owner of the winner. These fine gentlemen, 

 be it known, are very enterprising, genteel, and benevolent — 

 gamblers by profession, now devoting themselves to the laud- 

 able object of improving the breeds of horses in the country. 

 What a praiseworthy exhibition of public spirit and gener- 

 osity ! But the winner is to have the purse of money, and 

 both may, perhaps, make a snug sum by betting. Ah ! here 

 we have the incitement — ^the full measure — of their benevo- 

 lence. The purse lays off the race-course and organizes all 

 its appliances — nothing else in the world. 



These gentlemen, about to engage in their worthy mission 

 of giving an impetus to the improvement of the stock of 

 horse-fiesh, call together an immense number of their con- 

 freres to enjoy with them the edifying opportunities of the 

 race. The sport is, accordingly, witnessed by an immense 

 crowd of excited spectators. Some burly old judge, who has, 



