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THE KEVIVAL OF RACING. "Class and quantity, which mark the contending .ill8 a h.1,ratRa Springs, indicate the reviving vitality of the racing game as by a rising waveline on the medical chart. The institution of racing appears t be coming through its crisis gamelv. Owners of famous colors are going to the races with better animals and more of them, a man can make a bet without feeling like a criminal and he can sec its fate settled in a contest that does not look as tame as a chariot race in the circus." Taking the above quotation from the New 1ork 1 ress for a text, the Louisville Courier-Journal goes on to say: "This optimistic view will gladden the hearts of thousands of persons who love the horse and who take more interest in a race than in turf speculation. Such persons may yet have to thank the crusaders, who would have destroyed racing if thev had had their war. for liaving been instrumental "in improving its character and making it permanent, with the betting feature retained but not abused. . ir.or..a or so the race course has been an institution in Kentucky. It has not been without attendant evils, even in recent years when the fate of racing in a number of states should have been a warning. But with all its faults it has not been .the menace to morals it has been pictured by its enemies. Kentucky has never been given over to ruinous gambling. Nor have owners, trainers or managers of tracks been, as a class, undesirable citizens. Breeders of thoroughbreds have been a conspicuous and creditable part of the social fabric of the state. Generally speaking, they have been gentlemen and sportsmen. Racing has alwavs been accompanied by betting, but the evil has been offset. It has been a stimulator of a great breeding industry, and valuable as a wholesome outdoor sport "The emotional reformer who sees but one side of a question, and that side through a glass that distorts the view, will have It that 99 of 100 men who are dishonest are made so by betting uiwn races Like the assertion that the moon is made of green cheese, the statement is easier made than proven "The iKilitlcal axiom, as goes New York so goes the country. may be applied to racing. If the eastern turf survives the crisis and rises to greater strength, regenerated, a respectable American turf and the re-entrance of racing into territory long since abandoned may be reasonably hoped for." This and not an end of racing and of the breeding industry is the consummation to be desired. "The survival of racing under regulations diminishing the activities of the professional gambler, as a layer of odds and as a molder of the character of the turf, will be somewhat disappointing to some of the fanatics who would bavo every race course lxcome a plowed field, and every thoroughbred i breeding plant a nursery for cattle or cart horses, but killing a sport and an industry to kill a parasitic evil Is like burning the house instead of liaving a sluing cleaning. The controversy between tobacco men lias brought more lawlessness and disgrace ujkhi Kentucky within the last two years than horses have been responsible for in a century, vet no one who is altogether sane would advocate "a law making tobacco-growing a felony in order to stamp out night riding. Those who would destroy racing rather than allow anyone to hack his judgment at the track will probably not be found, la the llnal analysis, to be in the majority."-
