The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-01

- $500 chA1 49, 1
with which to keep keen the edges of these
requirements The left spur only is re-
moved from birds. When a match Is ar
ranged, considerations OF weight. appear
ance and wager guiding the opinions of
owners to this end, a steel gaff is put
where the natural one would have grown
and made secure by many windings Of
hwine. Then all concerned proceed within
the building 10 the pit in the center. on the
bare ground. Owners, hackers and ham
Hers enter the pit with the birds and an
nounce the odds. Spectators VINO wish to
express their opinions drop the amount
they think them worth on the ground or
place it on the railing in front of them,
where it is at once matched by persons of
contrary opinion and where it remains un-
tai the issue make it the property of one
or the other. The issue is the only chance
in this conflict of views. One does not play
a broker or stakeholder as we'll as the
game. Nor need the impoverished appear
ance of the majority of spectators dis
hearten one whose blood has become too
sluggish to be stirred by small money. The
seedy hombre on the next seat is as likely
as not TO produce on occasion from under
his shirt coin and bills enough TO keep him
in luxury for p year. The limit has beer
pushed up to $4,000 against a Chinese
hacker in the ring, and covered by him on
the spot without flinching. Those who at
tend Cocxights do not have 10 wait Ions
fer returns. When bets have all been laid
the handlers anger the birds by letting
them peck at each others combs. A rush,
jump and fluff of feathers often settles the
business. for one of the gaffs usually
strikes at the instant of attack, and if the
one getting it becomes thereby disabled, or
tries to run away, the other wins. Nor IS
victory always to the better bird. A gait
nay become so fastened in an attack that
the victim, in kicking its legs to get loose
may stab the victor and put him out of
commission first. Probably at least half
the meets result in one dead bird. II the
bird happens to nave a good record the
owner Tugs 1t nome, builds a nice box for
il, cloth-liped and garlanded with flowers.
and a roomy grave is dug for it in the yard.
into which the family tenderly lowers 1t.
If it's record has been Indifferent. or a
losing one, into the pot it goes, to be served
boiled at the next meal.
PROUD BUT NOT SORDID
While it can hardly be supposed that the
average native d~epsises profits which the
pit may yield him, qualification of pride
rather than gain of pocket seems his UNI
derlying motive. He likes to be known
as the owner of a prize bird. If the habi-
tues of a pit may defer to his opinions and
look up to him as a leader, he reaches close
TO the top of his ambition. Such a position
needs capital to maintain it. The money
he wins he uses for that purpose. A good
day at the pit may pile up TO the credit or
a native cartwheel dollars as heavy as he
can lift and a great stack of bank notes.
He shovels the lot into a bag, ties up the
mouth of it, and it is not opened until he
next visits the pit. He would as soon think
of buying himself a home, or getting
comforts or luxuries for himself or his
family with it, as would a foreigner think
of depicting the capital needed in his bust
ness for like purposes. 1t is much the same
with the Chinese, although not to so great
extent. They believe in having fun with
part of their winnings. When the even
ing drive on the Luneta is enlivened, as
often occurs, with the sight of an open
barouche filled with Chinese, sunhats tilted
deep over the ears and their legs dangling
outside, one may always know that for
tune has suddenly favored some one In
that party, and that this splurge into So
ciety is his way of making money fly 1t
has cost him $12 for the team, plus the
cumshaw with which he may favor the
native driver, and he will return to the
next cockfight at least that much less than
he brought away, regardless of the indul-
gences that his winnings may provide for
himself and friends in sing-song and fancy
chow.
1t looked as If the new civilization, about
which people talk in connection with the
Philippines, might be making some prog
ress when the government of Negroes was
organized. That island was the first to
show a disposition to be benevolently as
simulated, and sought authority and aid.
obtaining both freely, to establish civil
rule and carry it along pending the adop-
ton of a general plan. In the province Of
which Bacolod is the capital the lawmakers
declared that they wished to set their faces
sternly against gambling. Their statutes
contain provisions for a fine of $500 for
giving away or selling a pack of cards.
the same fine for every pack of cards found
in the possession Of a merchant, and a fine
of 800 for gambling of any description.
Whatever else these provisions meant, they
did not intend to apply to co%ckfighting.
Bacolod has one of the most pernicious
pits in the islands, where bets of $40, 900 are
not uncommon, and where every hombre
in that region who can scrape together
so cents goes to back his judgment with it.
The pit so engages public attention that
no one cares for cards, and a legal pro-
hibition against selling them, giving them
away or having them on hand was as little
likely to produce revenue for the magis-
trates' courts as If the natives had been
forbidden by law to harbor wildcats. If
the sincerity of the lawgivers is to pass
unquestioned, as probably it should, they
did not give a thought to ~cockfghting when
passing these laws. They doubtless had
heard that American sentiment was
against gambling. Since they wished to
partake Of thai as well as OF other senti-
ments of the new sovereignty, it behooved
them to go solemnly on record. They saw
no reason why a declaration of sound
moral principles should stop them from
fighting their chickens, as their fathers did
and as they expect their Children TO do end
lessly.
AMERICAN PLANS FOR REFORM.
If the practice is to be checked it must
be done through other than native infiu-
ences. Statutes to that end can hold out
little encouragement The experience of a
company OF soldiers at Bacolod may, per-
haps. be suggestive. One of the company
got possession of a rumpled. scrawny fowl.
Not having the heart or appetite to kill it,
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