The evening world. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, 1908-10-26
Annual Slaughter Is Over
Vanderbilt Cup Race Was
Poor Crop This Year
Disappointment TOR the
Spectators.

WELL the annual slaughter is
w over. Poor year for slaugh-
ters. The Vanderbilt Cup
this time can only claim one boy of
twenty years or so smashed by rae
Ing car one indirect victim in a man
who. was killed while watching the
parade of autos going toward the
course, and one driver mutilated :.
the elimination trials. This is hardly
enough to keep up an interest in the
sport, even though an American car
won. Next year, when the depreo7-
'ihS effect of the election is over
people may loosen up a little an;
help to make things exciting by con-
tributing few more arms, legs and
spines to the good of racing and the
general amusement
SAW boy-he was hardly mora
than boy-smashed IN front OF the
grand-stand at the end.of the race.
hearc the crunching Of bone and metal
as racing car suddenly bounced upon
him In the crowd and crushed him
against another automible that was
standing still. I saw him carried o,t
and laid. senseless, tallow-faced and
deathlike, In the bed OF a wagon behind
the reporters stand. His BODY was
9ueerly twisted. One leg bent sharnlv
and at a strange angle near the hin.
fnvisfble wounds.
few minutes later told a man con-
nected with the race how that sigh.
had impressed me.
He got what he deserved" he said
SHARPLY. He ought 20 be killed. He
had no business on the road"
In not much of lawyer. and don,t
know how legal minds regard thing
IKE this, but 1t struck me that csnI,aI
punishment was a rather severe SEN
tence 10 impose upon boy for follow
ing some fifty thousand people in fool
ish. sheep-like rush across the road
When the race was nearly over. And
especially the cruel and unusual pun
ishheht of being crushed to death. /
looked along the road when Robertson's
car crossed the finish line and saw hun
oreus OF big automobiles rush out ,Ipon
the course and come tearing down
t,Ipwara me ,gfand-stands. Presumably
IAeS We're owned by men Of Intelligence.
saw a great black army Of spectators
sweep over the fences and pack the
road tightly with human bodies for a
in!!e or more j saw, few minutes
later. gray racing cars come along in
the far distance. One swung aside to
the ditch and stopped on signal Others
PIunsed INTO the crowd, which opened
iirantlcalIy TO let them by, 1t was only
by gracious miracle that scores were
not hurt or killed and only a few more
were knocked down. Racing cars can
not go slowly. Their slowest speed
would be moderately fast for an ordi-
1t was idiotic, OF course. for people
- rush out and crowd the course while
mere We're still cars TO finish. But il
rack or common sense merilCd the death
penalty New York wouldn't nave over
a million population and Chicago would
be village.
X TOT being much OF a lawyer II
IN seems to me nothing less TN
criminal for driver of a racing
car to drive It headlong into a dense
mass of people under any circumstances
-even foolish people who have no bust
ness on the road. And there must be
some queer twist in laws that allow
the promotion OF such dangerous sport
as automobile racing on urSuarded
roads. As long as races are TIn under
the slack conditions that SURROUND the
Vanderbilt Cup race spectators Will be
killed or rnaiiDed
In Europe they do things differently.
They turn out reguler troops, and people
who encroach upon the raCecourse are
rudely prodded oil again with the bay
onet. The bayonet is a visible danger.
and II keeps the roads clear. A sure lab
with bayonet IL more to be feared than
the bare possibility Of u collision with a
racing car.
But that would never go in America.
We don't care for bayonet rule.
TN England they have a great auto
racing course of concrete. twenty
i feet or so below the ground, and
ined with concrete walls. Specta-
tors can't get in, and II the drivers butt
Their own brains ont against the stone
it's their own fault.
II Will take something Ike this 10
make any American road-racing course
safe; either that or unscalable barped-
wire fences on both sides OF the road
and subways for people 20 use IN cross
Ing. When that is attended TO the Van
derbilt Cup race Will become q great
sporting event,
Not being LAWYER haven't an exact
and commercial knowledge Of the value
of human life But ! don't think the
mother Of The boy who was killed or
crippled Saturday viii admit that the
pleasure of the crowd, or the vanity OF
the promoters, or the advertising OF the
automobiles, on even the winning by IN
American car 81 great enough 10 bGi.
ance her loss.