Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-07
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, October 6-For the third
time in the threeyear-old history OF the
annual automobile race for the Vanderbilt
cup on Long Island. undoubtedly the great
est sporting event in America the race was
won by French car. Louis Wagner. driv-
ing the French 100-horsepower motor OAR
racq, covered the course of 49, miles In
4.501O %.
Nincenzo Lancia, who drove n I2o-horse-
power Italian Fiat. was second. with an
elapsed time of 4.53 Is A.. Third in the
race was Arthur Durey, driving Il l2o-horse-
power Lorraine Dietrich, also French car.
france also made the car that ran fourth,
Clement-Bayard driven by Clement
wagner, the winner, who got his lead In
the first lap and held it throughout the
daredevil rush from dawn until almost
noon, had been picked as the favorite by
even his competitors some days ago
IF the Darracq holds together through
the big race, the other drivers have been
saying all week. we can't beat Wagner"
Tracy, the winner of the recent elimna-
ton races. was the popular hero at today's
race. Unfortunately for the hero and his
American car, a locomobile, Tracy met
with series of troubles and his car did
not make creditabe showing. This il
true. also. Of the four other American cars
entered.
So much for the bald facts Of the grand
stand bulletin board. The real story of the
race for the Vanderbilt cup has TO do with
shrleklng, uncanny monsters that mangle
strong men, with blinking consultations
that honk in silly way far off in the dark
ness, with crashing bands and gayly clad
women. and the restless movement of hu-
man beings numbering in the quarter mil
lions and all wrapt In the witchery and
mystery Of the night.
Scenes at Midnight.
Anybody who thinks that the Vanderbilt
cup races begin at lawn along a country
road on Long Island is pitifully lacking in
knowledge of these races. They begin at
midnight before that dawn in the neigh
borhood of Herald Square, Manhattan, and
they really end hours after the running Of
the cars has been finished. For II is the
crowds and all the turmoil and gayety Of
SO vast a gathering of people that make
the races the glorious spectacle they are.
If the races We're begun in the broad
glare of noon half their charm would be
lost 1t is the unearthliness of the hours
during which the spectators gather I'm a
seemingly unending chain of thousands OF
automobiles that CLEAN with big eyes far
away IN the darkness which grips a par
ticfpant as no other like event ever gripped.
AND there is always present the feeling
that within that gray blur which brushes
along brown road like the shadow of "A
wlnd-driven cloud are two athle,-c men
WIZ, peiHdpS, are TuSHlnS toward a terri
BILE death few rods farther along the
course. You wonder whether they will live
to pass the grand stand again. 1t is
CHASTITY.
Everybody has a faint conception at least
of the visual impression made by that pass
ing grayish streak on the oiled roadway
What the sound made by the exploding
gasoline within the streak is like is not
easy to conceive.
Manhattan was the starting point of most
of the 100000 or 100000 who trimmed the
automobile course with a human fence
over twentyseven miles long.
lt'was rollcking, festive crowd, some
times displaying, in spots, bottles filled
with red liquor. and shamelessly giving
internal evidence of that liquor.
Merry Parties in Machines.
For hours and hours a long line of ma
chimes containing merry parties blocked the
foot of 34th street. where the ferry to
Long Island City is located, and that vi
entity. Almost every big city in the coun-
try had representatives among those
waiting motor bugs" Buffalo alone sent
six carloads of the motor mad. Pittsburg-
well. everybody In Pittsburg owns tour
ing car, and the town was on the job.
The crowd that went by train and 1t was
large one. was provided for by lie Long
Island railroad with extra trains innu-
merable. but even then they chung to the
sides of Inc cars.
MOTORISTS and their friends that raced
down through the dark country roads in
duged in shouting and much blissful wav-
ing of bottles to passersby. Many more
silent bicyclists skinned along the road
side.
1t was when the travellers turned corner
among the black trees and were suddenly
confronted with the lights. the standing
crowds and the general hubbub of Krug's
Corners that they began to feel they had
arrived neal the beginning of the grounds.
Now the racing course was reached, and
all along the roadside were thrifty farmers
ba wiling to passing motorists the advan-
tages of some particular farm edge a
parking place for the cars. Crouched around
blazing fires near the fences were groups
Of standees who drove away the fog and
chill with fire. Overhead were many BAN
ners advertising some brand of tire or
other necessity to the bugs
There must ne 10000 cars along this
pike" somebody suggested at guess.
There seemed to be that many moving
along through the darkness any way one
looked and as many more forming glaring
fences on beth sides of the course.
When the lucky ones with seats the
grandstand, the starting point, midway be-
tween Mineola and Jericho, reached the
vicinity of this important spot there was a
blaze of searchlghts and hum of ex-
hausts like the buzz of machine shop.
A Stream of Cars.
For more than five hours stream OF
cars, sometimes two and three abreast,
moved along in front Of the grandstand
while drivers sought their parking places.
Only a few feet, often only inches, sepa-
rated a machine from the one ahead of it.
and through it all squirmed the standees.
In the yellow glare of lights one could
make out bundled figures searching for
their seats their stands, although many
through before daybreak. and out of the
gray mist weird machines would begin to
tiIce out OF nothingness far down the
course. In the meantime the crowd grasp
cd n ANYTHING that promised Amusement