The Religious Herald

Our legislators have sometimes keen optics and make discriminations which are beyond the comprehension of plain people. Thus Connecticut law forbids horse-racing, that is running horses as a test of speed to win stakes or bets. It provides penalties for all concerned in the operation, from the printer of the notice to the rider of the horses, and quite properly confiscates the horses. But let the same class of people gather together for a trotting match, and though the accompaniments be all the same and the resultant evils identical, the whole matter is claimed to be legal! Thus we are in danger of having an intolerable nuisance on the outskirts of our city, in the shape of a trotting course, with its concomitants of idleness, betting, gambling and the like. If the law admits of this plain evasion, then let it be amended so as to prohibit trials of speed for any kind of stakes. We are fast losing whatever of reputation we once had as a moral community. With theatres, trotting courses and gambling houses, any parents abroad, wishing to ruin their sons, will know where to send them.