Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-25
BARNEY OLOl|ELD
ON AUTO-CAR RACING
Declares That Its Popularity is
Due to the Hope of See
ing an Accident.

We are living In a fast age and the
man who is willing TO sacrifice his bones
and gore on the altar Of a highly seasoned
sport is going to be the drawing card and
the one the newspapers going to print
the most stun about" remarked Barney
Oldfield, the king of motor car pilots. re-
Gently, in discussing the popularity of
motor car races. Barney is good talker
and an entertaining one. yet 1t would be
hard to find a professional athlete or cham
pion In any line who possesses more In
herent modesty than this plain young fell
low who has received the piaudits OF hun
dreds of thousands of spectators who have
witnessed his wonderful driving over circu-
lar tracks. Oldfield says he Is not an
egotist and that he realizes that the
crowds come to see him drive not for
their love of the sport, but because they
scent the danger and are filed with morbid
curiosity to witness an accident.
1T Is not enough that Americans bring
forth beautiful specimens of inventive
and mechanical skill. They must be raced
around circular track where there is a
chance of killing a driver or two.
Why He Sticks to It.
Il am not to be blamed for plying the
vocation, in which many are kind enough
to say / excel. 1t is the only thing L can
make more than an ordinary living out of.
anu II look up dNolutT Vi Nuih
the sporting game 1t would of necessity be
a deadly one in order to be profitable IL
a przefighter was not killed now and then
that sport would be relegated back to the
bean-bag class If a bicycle rider was not
occasionally. and might say often. smash
ed against the posts of a saucer track and
run over by big motor-pacing machine
the game would be just about as exciting
as session of p-the-handkerchief at
church sociabe.
The man who has but so cents will glad
ly spend 1t hoping inwardly to get chance
to see something happen TO the man VITA
the automobile It's human nature, 4 zen
YOU gentlemen. Maybe little different
brand than was cornmon in David Harum =
days. but still 1t can only be described as
human nature.
dangers of automobile track racing more
than sporting writer's in the big cities, yet
/ am asked almost every day TO TAKE one
of them a mile at record speed ia tno
Green Dragon. And they mean It, too
They crave the sensation they know must
result from the dangerous sport.
Disregard Of Danger.
.erbe man who has heard of my acct
dents while racing, who knows that three
times spectators who would not keep away
| from the fences on the turns have been
| swept before the mad machine and were
picked up in pieces. is the very one VINO
| disregards the policeman's request to get
| back OF the danger line. He knows that
| if a tire blows up; IL a piece OF steel nan
an inch In diameter, gives way in the steer
| ing column. / will crash through the very
| spot he is standing on. But he stays there.
scarcely five feet from where | drive, ana
| waves his hand as / go by at the rate OF
| seventy miles an hour l tell you it's In
the air this love for danger in sports
II frequently sit in street car or al a
table in a cafe and hear one man tell an
| other that he is going out to the auto
mobile races TO see that fool Oldheld Kill
1 himself Then 1 know what it is that
| draws them
Il attended foot ball game at the Polo
! grounds in New York last fall. Things
| were going fine for the players. and no one
| had been hurt. Along toward the latter
| part of the second half two young fell
| lows next to me arose TO leave. One re-
| marked with look of disgust on his coun-
tenance:
LETS CO. This is too tame, those fell
| lows playing a Sunday school game.
| and nobody's going to get hurt II the
| ambulance calls had been frequent, this
| pair would have been satisfied and would
have left in high glee. because they had
| seen some one broken up.
Love for the Tragic.
eff L could guarantee to go through the
| fence Monday afternoon, the merchants
would have to close up their stores, be-
| cause they would have neither customers
nor clerks. The street cars could not
| haul the crowd, nor would the Enclosure
| hold them.
why, when 1t was made known in
| Poughkeepsie last fall that / was going
| to have some moving pictures taken for my
vaudeville stunt. showing crashing
| through the fence with the Green Dragon,
the state fair grounds there, noted for
| having OF the largest grand stands in
| the country, could not accommodate the
| crowd. The fence was to be pasteboard
| one and the speed that was to be attained
| in the reproduction of the films was to DO
| the result of 'doctoring' by the picture man.
| yet they wanted to how II was done.
| and lot went away disappointed because
| 1t was not a real accident. with real blood,
! instead of red dye. splashing on my head.
''They are unwilling to admit 1t individ-
ually, but that's what they go to see me
drive for. There's that chance of acci-
dent, and they don't want to miss it. Ii it
does not occur thAy are disappointed and