332 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
The above is a pretty accurate sketch of a por¬ 
tion of the “ Union Race Course,” Long Island, 
on the occasion of the recent “ Ladies’ Equestrian 
Convention.” It would require but few changes 
in the picture, however, to render it a true repre¬ 
sentation of scenes at several recent so-called Ag¬ 
ricultural Fairs. The betting and gambling go¬ 
ing on among the “ gentry,” seen in the fore¬ 
ground, is not wholly confined to regular race 
courses. If there is still any one who would be 
willing to have a sister, wife or relative, take ac¬ 
tive part in these “Exhibitions,” he ought to be 
present at one of them, and hear the coarse, 
ribald jests, and the vulgar, low-life expressions 
addressed to the fair riders—language too foul 
to be repeated here. 
Tim Bunker on Women Folks and 
Horse Racing. 
HOOKERTOWN SCANDALIZED. 
Mr. Editor —You never did see such exciting 
times as we have had up here at the County Fair. 
It has been the town talk ever since. Who would 
’a thought it, that we should have a horse race in 
Hookertown, and a women horse race, too. It is 
enough to make a man sick at the stomach to see 
what women folks are coming to. I thought it 
was bad enough when my John got caught down 
vo Boston, Iwo years ago, at one of those “fair” 
races, called an Agricultural Association. I never 
thought the business was coming home so quick. 
But I'll tell you just how it happened, and you’ll 
see that the Hookertown people are not so much 
to blame as they might be. You see, last Winter, 
the members of the county agricultural society 
had to choose new officers. Dea. Smith had been 
president for some time, and wanted somebody 
else put in. So they chose Colonel Lawson, up to 
Smithville, and most of the managers were up in 
that neighborhood. The colonel is a smart fellow, 
but ha’n’t no more respect for public morals than 
a cow has for a milking stool. He goes in for mak¬ 
ing money by the shortest cut possible, keeps 
tavern, farms considerable, trades cattle, jockeys 
horses, and, they do say, attends the races in the 
neighborhood of your city, and has brought home 
considerable money that he don’t like to tell ex¬ 
actly how he came by it. What in the world 
folks were thinking of, when they put him into of¬ 
fice, I don’t see. 
But they put him in, and the colonel being a 
military character, and famous for riding a horse 
well on a general review day, was bound to make 
a sensation, and throw Deacon Smith’s adminis¬ 
tration all into the shade. There was folks enough 
up in Smithville, just like him, that had just as 
lieves scandalize our place, as not. You see, 
Smithville is a sort of Nazareth up here, in the 
land of steady habits, was settled in the begin¬ 
ning by the fag end of creation, and has always 
drawn that kind of people since. If a man 
got broken down in character, idle or dissipated, 
he was pretty sure to fetch up in Smithville, oi 
vicinity. There he found congenial company, and 
could race horses, Sunday, to his heart’s content. 
It is not until within ten years that they have had 
any meeting up there, and though they are some¬ 
what reformed, the old odor sticks to them like 
pitch. 
The great trouble with the colonel, was to find 
any decent woman that would put herself on ex¬ 
hibition before five thousand people, and make a 
fool of herself. He tried all the towns around, 
and everybody told him it would not do in Con¬ 
necticut ; that our young women were well edu¬ 
cated and modest, and knew what belonged to 
their rights and to their sex, as well as a militia 
colonel could tell Ihem. We all thought he had 
given it up as a bad job. 
But it seems the creature went home, and per¬ 
suaded his oldest girl to show off on horseback. 
You see, Tom Wilcox, the same fellow that took 
the premium, last year, on a horse with the 
heaves, had a young horse that he wanted to sell 
for a big price. His daughter, Matilda Wilcox f 
offered to ride, if Tom would get her a new silk 
dress, and a new bonnet, with feathers—and get. 
Letitia Lawson to ride in company with her. 
Nobody knew anything about it out of Smithville 
until all the arrangements were made, and th& 
handbills were out, announcing a “ grand female 
