Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1895 — A Race Track Fiend Cured. [ARTICLE]

A Race Track Fiend Cured.

The following story is told by one who for years was an inveterate better on horses: “It was Christmas eve. My 4-year-ald stood by my knee in his ‘nighty’ just before being tucked in his crib, and in his infantile manner was praying to Santa Claus to bring him the treasure upon which he had fixed his heart. When he had finished I asked the master of the house what should old Santa Claus bring papa? He bowed his little head on my knee again and innocently pleaded: ‘And, dear Santa Claus, please bring papa a race horse that can win sometimes.’ That was his mother’s work, I suppose, but it went. I bought a tree that night, loaded it down with toys the boy had asked for. And then trimmed it with the tickets that hadn’t won in the races. The unique festooning represented hundreds of hard dollars that had been scattered in the wake of a race-track ‘skate.’ I have not played a horse since that time, and I have made up my mind that I never will again. It's a delusion and a snare.”