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RACE MEETING AT PEORIA Considered in Nature of Experiment — If Successful, Will Be Run Annually. • Peoria is to have an opportunity to see real horse racing the first two weeks in July. Promoters of the meeting, both local and those interested in bringing the horses to Peoria, frankly admit the affair will be an | experiment. If patronage warrants, Peoria! will have running races every year. If not, the local jockey club will admit defeat. Horse racing has frequently been attacked by moralists because of the betting which is an inevitable part of it. Yet, it survives and preserves its reputation as the sport of king* in spite of this. Peoria is sufficiently metropolitan to justify all forms of entertainment which are adequately regulated, which answer a popular demand, and which have found favor in communities no better and no worse than this. The Journal is hopeful the race meeting here will be successful. It believes the interest in horse racing is natural, and that it need not be condemned because sometimes abused by the unscrupulous. Nothing is more fascinating than thoroughbreds stretched out on the home stretch, and in a workaday world that which gives a clean, wholesome, outdoor thrill needs no more justification. Peoria cannot afford to be squeamish. It is reaching that stage where village prudish-ness must give way to metropolitan tolerance. Yitality is worth much in community life, and horse racing appeals to the vital besides bringing to a community a crowd of visitors whose chief object is to enjoy themselves, and the city playing host. — Peoria Journal. »
