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THE INTOLERANCE OF THE REFORMER Major Foxhall A Daingerfield of Castleton Stud where the Keerie wonders are raised writes to the Thoroughbred Bocord of Lexington Ky on the sub ¬ ject of the racing crusade in the east and its in Huence as follows followsAn An English blshon in few words expresses the Biblical and sane view on the subject of betting and sumptuary laws Making a bet is not pin neither is taking a drink sin drinking to excess is sin If I should say I will bet you five shillings It will rain tomorrow it would take a long time to prove from the Bible that 1 had committed sin sinIf If this be true and I think It is regulation not extirpation Is what is needed to keep these indulgences indifferent in themselves as to tiicir moral asjuct from becoming sinful by excess excessTo To this degree and this alone has the govern ¬ ment a right in tiny case to interfere with the per ¬ sonal liberty of the individual citizen By the en ¬ actment of laws prohibiting under a penalty of imprisonment in a penitentiary for the period of one year acts which in themselves violate no moral law arc not Malum in so a crime is manufac ¬ tured out of what is not in conscience or under the Divine Law accounted sinful sinfulThe The passage of statute laws prohibiting lie making of a bet or the purchase or taking of a drink a crime punishable with a severity shocking to ilie moral sense of a ratlonul jury of freemen Is de ¬ structive of respect for law dt stroying as it duos all proportion between the offense and its puuisU ment and by its disproportion rendering its en forcemeitt repugnant to common sense and hence a dead letter adding to the number of unonforced and unenforcible statutes which tend to add to the growing contempt for law and order Think of liunishmpiit Identical in character if not in degree being meted out for violation of sumptuary laws or to gentlemen making lit open daylight a bet of their own money on the prowess of rival racers In a contest Tiewed by thousands1 of their admiring fellow citizens and that meted out by the same jury to thn thief the burglar or the wrecker of femue virtue Yet this is what the governor of the Em ¬ pire State has succeeded in bringing about in that state by his insistent demands upon the legislature of that state Is stateIs not the crime of placing sucli an enactment on the statute books out of all proportion to the Ir ¬ regularities sought to be repressed Many of the sumptuary laws which are being urged upon legis ¬ latures all over these United States are distinctly anilChrist in character They discredit the first miracle wrought bv the Master when on earth He converted the water into the better wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee and distort the rela ¬ tion fixed in Holy Writ between the expedient and the morally wrong as shown In the incident of Noahs janibouree where Ham was given a punish incut for untilial conduct in his failure to cover the nakedness of his father which even now makes it hazardous for his descendants to appear on tiie streets of Springfield while the lapse of the old navigator is passed over as an offense claiming no comment by the side of Hams HamsVet Vet losing all sense of proportion Governor Hughes some uninformed ministers and puritanical bigots allied with old women of both sexes are determined to destroy hundreds of millions of dol ¬ lars bankrupt thousands and deprive hundreds of thousands of laborers of the moans of subsistence to benefit a few poolrooms and aid political aspir ¬ ants disgruntlemcntsIt or punish others for past disgruntlemcnts It can not be denied that irregularities and wrongs have been occasionally indulged on the race tracks but where is the meeting of large numbers of citizens of all walks of life where these are un ¬ known or where general good order is so much the rule and so rarely the exgeptionV Political commer ¬ cial and eveu church gatherings are more dis ¬ orderly and without the police protection and re ¬ straint so constantly present and so effective as at the metropolitan race courses One camp meeting almost anywheru will show more objectionable char ¬ acters and features than a seasons racing on the metropolitan tracks and all the prohibition or local option laws ever enacted can not keep the police from thirstyBegulation finding a dhrop for the thirsty Begulation not prohibition or extirpation is the needed remedy for the abuses incident to racing Let not the olficiais cover un or deny the existence of abuses but unearth and remedy them Then the sober second thought of the intelligent citizen will vote the repeal of hasty enactments and the most glorious healthful and inspiring of outdoor sports come again to Its own and the raising of the horse essential to the production of all utility breeds be restored the countless millions invested and tem ¬ porarily obscured be revivified and the hundreds of thousands of acrca of land in various states now reduced onehalf In value by the cloud cast upon its most potential product resume their proper place and pristine value as among the greatest assets of the republic
