RACE MEETINGS AND RACEGOERS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 22, 21 October 1919, Page 5

RACE MEETINGS AND RACEGOERS

"A NEST OF BLACKGUARDS"

MR. Bin's REMARKS IN PARLIAMENT

A SPORTSMAN'S VIEWS

The current issue of the "Weekly Press." with which is associaled Hie official organ of the sport of racing, contains a reference to the remarks in Parliament of 3lr. Isitt 011 race meetings and racegoers, which should interest sportsmen and the public generally, as well as the member for Christchmeh North, to which it is addressed. The article in question is written' by one "Antistheiii'3." whose weekly contributions to tiie paper are one of its brightest features. "Mr. Isitt," writss "Antisthenes," "must lie a son of that dear old theoloeic Scotswoman who was so hopeless about the ultimate fate of "aer neighbours that her gossip said' to her, '1 suppose you think 110 one in the village will be saved but the minister and yourself?' And she replied, "Deed, then, 1 have mv doubts about the minister.' Mr. Tsitt belongs to a nation that haj loved horse racing from the beginnings of its story. The racecourse is the only spot where its members are really united; there class disappear?, and one sportsman is as good as another. The Ivlng races, the nobility and gentry race, the merchants and farmers raw, professional men and tradesmen, their employees, miners, farm labourers, labourers of every kind race, the House of Conimons adiourns To, the Derby, and if you are in Christchnrch on a race day the streets are as empty as if some pied piper with a magic flute hud passed through them. A Nest of Blackguards. "Where have the people gone? They a.re on the racecourse. There's the fact. The majority of Mr. Tsitt's fellow-towns-men and- fellow-countrymen are 011 the racecourse. But Mr. Tsitt says, the racecourse is a nrsl; of .blackguards. If lie means what he says he thinks the majoritv of his fellow-townsmen are blackguards, a.n'd himself the only man of worth. He really must be the old Scotswoman's '•'on. T)r. Murray (there is 110 higher authority! defines blackguard thus-.—'One oT the idle criminal class; a 'rough,' a low worthless character addie'ed to or ready for crime; an open scoundrel. (A term of the utmost opprobrium.)' Does Mr. Isitt reallv believe racegoers are blackguards? I supnose he did wh*n he was finishing that speech, in the ITnuse, but then I ( think at tint moment he was drunbn with his olonuenco. and T pow OTipeal to Mr. Mft sober. Mr. Isilt of the morning nftpr when be sow his excess in the ■Timo?" and The Dominion*. Mr. Isitt of the chastened afternoon when he saw it in the Tost,' and in the alarmed looks of his friends —T appeal to this sober Mr. Isitt to retraet an accusation, at which the accused are smiling, biu which <'s a deathblow to the accuser's renutation for sobriety Surely he does not wish to go nn record nermnnently as a man who took people'* character awav on hearsay or 011 his own imacninijc. I suppose he doesn't frenuent the rarccov.rse. ITow, then, can he say it j* a nest of blackguards? Ido frequent. Hi« racecourse, but I neve- meet any liliekifunrds. Very elaborate precautions are. in fact. ta lr en to r»reveiit any nerstn of bad character setting foot on l he ree"eourse; and if Dr. Murray s hnWtnal'v criminal blaeVgnavds could be '-non-" si"ht vou would on a race day find them—if you found nnv-only outside the racecourse ring fence. Mr. Isitt did Himsolf Wronn.

"The onposite of ble.eksuard is gentleman. When ICO racing I meet men of all classes who deserve Hint name. And those who rule our .Turf, un and down the. Dominion, deserve it. T have often ' thought that the words of an old English worthy might (omitting the condescen- ' eion) have been penned aft«v personal 3 acquaintance with them—'The Gentle- \ man,' he says, 'will heat every man with 8 due Pespoct, and will he friendly, yip V- .- in?, condescpmliiis, ohliginsf, p.nd ready jl to do a kindness.' Thus (always omit- | till" the condescension), one thinks of t"e | Man of whom Mr. Isitt is a. professed 1 follower, 'The first true gentleman that 8 ever breathed.' Sucih men arc very loath jj to iinnrte ill to anvone. I feel sure 3 that bv this time "Mr. Isitt must have [j that in his peroration in the t< House he did 'himself less than justice. | I magining a Vain Thing, 3 - "No one ever fell into serious error 5 suddenly." and Mr. Isitt's is the .result 5 of lons continued misuiu!ei'?tan<liiij of "* human nature. The descendants of a 3 race of warriors, explorers, and sea- | kings cannot live entirely in voluntary I subjection to work and worry. In youth f they must have the excitement of eon--5 test iu games, and when they are older 3 tjho excitement of contest in sport. This I Mr. Isilt never could see, awl the result | is that he has gone on from year to year a imagining a vain thing about the Turf « until he has reached the curious state 4 n f mind whitih ho suddenly revealed in J Parliament last AVednesday. It is unfortunate for him that no Lewis or Herries i ever took him in hand to enter him to a the Turf. When he was younger he jj might have been tihown the facts and I have cot a broader and saner view of his | fellows. Later I blame no man for i, rmailinsr nt the task of educating him. I do not wish to wound him, but in all charity it must be said that t.he ignor--1 anee and ni'.ejudice die has exhibited fleem 1 unpiercable. When he so confidently a denied the utility of the rncihorse on t the strength of ten minutes' chat with i an acquaintance who had "put him I wise,' but whoso name and full itrgui nient he never laid before us to ex--5 amine, he seemed beyond the reach of j reason; and his aspersions just had to be 1 put up with. Meanwhile well-bred I horses with sportsmen on tiheir backs I have endured greater and lesser torments ! in Mesopotamia and won a glorious vicj tory over the Paynim Turk which could not have won in the absence of either, j 'and the racehorse has once more proved himself necessary to a connuerinp Tace. I Mr. Isitt ought, to admit tha.t he is just i as far wrong about racehorses as lie is ; about racing men. i Don't be a Gradgrind, ! "And as to Hie sport which by long j action and reaction has evolved the one and the oilier,- Mr. Isitt should try to see it from a fresh point of-view. To begin with, lie should read 'Hard Times.' I Tn that book the sanest democrat we i ever bad in England, one whom it is sur- ! prising to see neglected in these democratic days, put the ense for relaxation as only a man of genius conJd. His Thomas Grndgrind, like Mr. Isitt, takes • too limited a view of human nature. < Thus he addressee some unfortunate • school children who fall within his I power: ! " 'You are to be in all things regulated I and governed by fact. Wo hope to have > before long a lxiard of fact, composed of f commissioners of fajt, who will force the > people to be a peonle of fact, and of no--5 thing but fact. Ton must discard the I word, fancy nltogeths".' _ ' f "Ho brings up his own children without i fancy, and is horrified to find thorn look- ! ing at. a circus, nis daughter excuses i herself, i "'I was tired, father. I havo boon tired : a long time.' "'Tired? Of what?' asked the oston- ' islied father. : "'T don't know of wliat—of everything a I ihink.' < "To be tired of life at fifteen! And j all tbromrh wilful deprivation of jov and deliirht, when on:■ bi' a 'ne T s on earth ;listo be hnnny nm! to ui' , 'ce other peonle S I iiapnv. Biekei'o'fer"" flrndi'rind to see jj something nf this truth, ami I shall part | wilh Mr. Isitt in the words of the old I circus proprietor: t " 'Krniire, shale hands, first and iasl. i Don't be cross with u°. People linipl 1 V>« amused. They tan't b" alwavs a i learning, nor yet thev e».j''t ly> always jj a working, they ain't made for it. ' " 'Tnu mn=t bnve lis. S'""ire. Do the H wi e e thing and the kind thing too, aid j| make the best of us; not t lie worst.'"