Evening star., 1909-05-23
ANOTHER DIG At
THE RACING GAME
Cullen Makes Fun of Belmont
Meeting in His Charac-
teristic Way.
By Clarence L. Cullen.
,ndpnce Of The Star.

nival! It's all to the buzz-buzz.
1t sounds like many summer wynds per
colating through quite a lot of treeses
you know that zephyrish effect
Where is 1t coming off?
Why. at Belmont Park.
Belmont Park-maybe you've forgotten
Is a race track. The turf reporters uset
to allude to Belmont Park variously a.
1.-THE Newmarket of America" the hnes
race course on the globe" and all that
1t is. 1t is, But it's going to make TIT
finest little aggregation Of building iots
and at no very distant date. that yo'
ever saw or heard of.
Went down to the Belmont track few
days ago just to verify some things ie
heard
For example, the race-boosting news
papers over here have been saying ri6n
along, since Belmont started feeoiy e
give q little racing q while back. th2t the
gag was a great success; that seven OF
eight thousand folks went out there ever
day; that they were enthusiastic; tnat y
was fine and bully: that 1t was like Ole
times. and much more fuff-wun or ina
general description.
On the other hand. lot of veracious
folks Of my acquaintance who'd beer
out to the Belmont track told me that II
was f-l-i-v. f1iv. which is the new wore
-
that II was all to the gloom -glum; that
not more than a thousand people at the
outside nudged dismally around the
grounds; that there was no enthusiasm
whatever, and that 1t was just as Muci
like the old-time racing thing around
these parts as a railroad sandwich pur'
chased at Glenns Ferry, Idaho. is like
something human to eat
So. y'see. dropped down to have per
sonally conducted peek.
X *
The boys who told me that Belmont was
q fiiv win, all right.
Once, back in '93 or '94, q New York
hotel burned down and about eighty per-
sons were consumed in the conflagration
My end Of that job. as an employe Of q
New York newspaper. was to cover the
morgue. / spent nearly three weeks al
the morgue. while the unfortunates were
being identified.
Well, nothing that has occurred to me
since that time has reminded me SO
much Of that sad assignment as this re-
cent afternoons visit at Belmont.
1t was just as much like an afternoon
at the races as an afternoon at the
Mothers Congress, and when you've said
that you've plumbed the depths OF human
misery.
The intense ouietude OF the occasion
was what struck me most.
Still, you couldn't expect anything ex-
eept auietude from con concourse or all anoo o.
track plant that was built to accommo-
date about $4,000.
Once. at a place called Eliot's Grove
near Chicago, attended, for the paper
the woods. you know-of the deaf and
dumb folks of the Town OF Wind. TnsSe
were about 1900 of 'em present at that
picnic. and they played ball. and danced;
and bowled. and swung In swings, ana
something big-but all the time the pres
ent humble author and the other news.
paper men then and there present longed
with an ,neab,e longing . tf RI haYs patne te
bunch or some noisy push like that hop
along and stake the circumambient air
To about fifteen minutes worth OF one
horrific shrieking number. just to relieve
the tension. as it wair, and give the
woods a tone.
The Belmont thing reminded me OF that
deaf and dumb picnic. too, from when
YOU will have observed, that II remlhoeo
me of quite a heap Of little old things.
First, about the crowd present.
There really couldn't have been. AZ !
say, more than 700 or 800 men present al
the track.
stand at all. Do you get that! NOBODY;
The grandstand was unoccuplea. Nu ~,
=
that grandstand was constructed TO seat
not less than $4,000 people. The few
hundreds Of dismal ones VINO moocheo
around the track stuck to the lawn.
There was NOBODY In the betting betting IN IN.
aiiowed I'm there I'd seen 1900 crazy mei
souirming in that betting inclosure. But
there was NOBODY In there on the gay
/ visited the track this week.
Vairy well. Now. on the following
morning, just for curiosity and things.
neered over the N'Yawk papers to see
what they had to say about the size OF
the attendance at Belmont on the prev'-
GUS day. ~. o.
tendance at Belmont on the previous day
as having been less than b:OO. Most 20 ol
them stated 1t at 1000. 500 ana S'OOo
one of them gave 1t as 10000.
Y'see. they're boosting the game along
and they think that the padded attend
ance thing is one of the best little boost
ing ways.
Nou- about that whispering part OF It.