The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-16

I western world the Monte Carlo of the United States. the playground Of the
 Americas.
 So declared wise American busi-
 ness man who made his millions in Il Pittsburg. but who does not gamble. who has never owned race horse, ana | who hasn't any property in Cuba. The enthusiasts who do gamtle and own race horses and sCuban property en- dorse his statement with the exception of the twenty year limitation. Barrins s the million people. they say Havana will be all these other things witnin | five years.
 II Encouragement of gambling was one l1of the chief campaign assets of the 1 Liberal Party which elected General | Gomez President. When the new gov ernment comes into power on January 2s. one of Its first acticns will be to re establish the Government lottery. Cock lighting will be restored to the cate gory of legaiizsd sports. Bull ngnt- ing may be rehabilitated later on T Racing is already here. Jai afai IS s most exciting gambling game. The opening of paIatial "casinos" is within the range of immediate possibilities. and baseball in Cuba is already a bet ting game.
 The President of Cubas wishes to become in America what the Prince
 
 governmental guardian of genteel gam
 bling. The Latin has no conception Of that Puritan conscience which mas permeated all the American Union. and
 which looks with stern disapprovai upon the game of chance. The Cuban
 has forgiven Spain for shooting his patriotsN anu Estarving his mother to death in a reconcentrado camp. but he can never forgive the United States for abolishtng the lottery and placing a cock fight beyond the pale of the law. Now that the United States is again to withdraw from Cuba. and the new Government Is to be Liberal, Ha-
 vana hopes to make the most of it's | broad-minded 1iberality.
 l. Open gambling Is a thing of the past in the United States. with the excep- l ton of q few cities, of the mountain section of the West and such million aira resorts as Newport and Palm | Beach. Racing the sport of kings has fallen under the ban of the Puri- tan conscience in the States and every horseman will admit that the game IS dead in America. Immediately after | the passage of the law which killed
 horse racing in New York. the great | turf kings began to look for foreign | fields Many went to Europe, but Mex leo, Argentina, Cuba and even Vene-
 zuela attracted attention. That gave | the Havana promoters their cue. They | would make Havana the great racing town of the United States. whether the American flag fioatcd over It's forts or l not. s
 Havana Is close to New York. not | half as far away as San Francisco. Its climate Is ideal for winter racing. The
 meeting held this winter was not a | great success. as race meetings so, but there was a Saratoga atmosphere about
 the hotels that bespoke the presence of the talent" in goodiy number. Next
 anxious to encourage racing. there probably will be national and muni- cipal subsidies for the encouragement of the breeding of thoroughbred horses" and the city of Havana will
 loom large on the sporting map.
 If, in addition to racing, Havana can furnish the attraction of clubs" where
 one can take his chance at anything
 from craps to baccarat, the Jai alai Functions" the Government lottery, fl the cnckfDg mains and good game of baseball with a betting ring at-
 tached; will 1t not appeal to the heart
 of hin, who fees from the wrath of
 the aroused Puritan conscience? If Governor Hughes and Governor Folk
 and the other reformers have sewed
 things up so that a man cart get his money down in the States. will not the
 Honorable A. Mutt, Esq, set sail for | Havana?
 Havana thinks he will, and it is
 making every preparation to receive
 him kindly, absorb his loose change, give him some action for his money,
 and then tender him the use of the municipal banana patch for subsist-
 ence. The banana patch Is A happy
 thought, for 1t must be borne in mind
 that 1t is absolutely impossible to walk back home from Havana without
 getting ones feet very. very damp.
 The success of the horse racing game
 in Havana will be measured by the
 amount of patronage from the United States. The Cuban Is a born gambler. | like all his Latin American cousins, but he is a gambler on sentiment. He has neither the patience nor the dis position to figure out the dope sheets" He doesn't care anything about form I He bets on his feelings. That variety
 of gambling does not prosper at the
 race track. The racing game lives of
 the people who apply arithmetic. al- zebra, spherical trigonometry and tn- tegral calculus to the form sheet. They figure out exactly which horse will win in the fourth race. They back | their judgment with their money. If
 the horse doesn't win, the dopester | never finds fault with his system. It was the jockey or the condition of the track or the presence of crossreyed
 man in the betting ring which put the | plans agley. The true dopester never questions his mathematics.
 The Cuban bets on the horse with
 the pleasing name on the jockey with | the pleasing colors or on the horse | which the companions of the moment | consider a sure loser. At iai alai he l bets on his favorite team without re- gard to form or condition. At that | game he gets action for his money and are not sufficiently exciting and he
 doesn't patronize them regularly. The lottery appeals to him because 1t affords a chance to get a great re- turn for a very small outlay. The odds are against him in the drawing, but he thinks only of the difference between the grand capital prize and
 the price of a ticket. The Cuban na- tional lottery is assured of big bus
 mess from the moment N opens for business.
 The average American baseball fan would be astounded If he could see a
 ball game in Havana. Havana has several first class teams, as has been proved this winter in contests with big league teams from the States. The game Is played exactly as in this coun- try, the English language being used by the umpire and the players. The Havana newspapers have introduced much American slang into the Cuban vocabulary through the medium of the sporting page. That slang has been carried into politics and baseball has become, in fact. the national game of Cuba.
 The great difference Is In the grand