Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-22
AUTO POLO GIVES
MANY BIG THRILLS
Sport Will Not Be Popular,
However, Until Danger
Is Eliminated.

Not a few Of the jewellers or toilers
along Automobile row have been predict
ing a popular future for auto polo. the
game from the south and west which
gave the public a number of thrills as a
contest and furnished food for thought for
the motor enthusiast at Madison Square
Garden in New York the week just end
ed. There had been rumors of the game
from time to time. and people had heard
that the fOur-wheeled ponies on which
it was played provided many sensa-
tional moments as the four-legged ones
of the horse polo match. But no one was
quite prepared for the exhibition which
took place in the arena still covered odd
ly enough. with the tanbark of the horse
show.
AS in regulation polo. the mallet is only
a factor in the newer game. The horse,
or in this case the car is quite i'm
portant to success, if not more SO. 1t was
on the performance Of the cars that the
interest of automobile men naturally CEN
tered. Occasionally there was bit of
engine trouble. but for the most part the
little machines. stripped to the bare
frames and lacking even bonnets, stood
up manfully under conditions that We're
grueling to say the least. Every canon
of good motor car driving, from the view
point of the car. was broken time and
bounding leather ball or fed gas to their
motors until the pop of explosions be-
came an almost continuous roar in an ef
fort to be the first on the elusive prize.
overs were made several times. but still
the motors remained operable, to the sur
prise Of the OnloOkfrs
Perils Are Drawback.
Over the radiators and the gasoline
tanks In the rear hoops Of steel served
to break the jar and make the machines
roll more easily when there was an up
set. but that they could survive much of
this kind of treatment, not to mention
the locking of wheels. furious braking and
even full-tilt collisions. made those who
had driven cars in distance races believe
that the internal combustion engine was
one of the seven wonders of the modern
world.
Whether the game can ever become gen
eral-even general as pony polo-is
moot question. 1t involves. in the first
place. deal of expense, for, played in
earnest and in the heat of the desire to
win. a big repair bill would he inevitab BILE.
In other words. it would be an expensive
thing TO promote in a professional way.
1t is probably no argument, in these
days of amateur auto racing and anna
teur aviation, to emphasize the peril of
auto polo as a reason why II should not
achieve popularity in the ranks of anna
teur athletes many of whom could
easily afford to maintain a string of polo
autos a string of costly polo ponies.
During the practice, extending over four
months, which paved the way for the ad-
vent Of auto polo to New York and the
twenty-one exhibition games played i'm
Wichita. Kan: Kansas City. Mo: st.
Louis. Des Moines and Detroit, seventeen
accidents resulted i'm the injury of six
men. That this casualty list would have
been increased il more than one car on
a side had been played as would probably
be the case were the game to develop
large proportions, is certain. 1t would be
hard to devise a game in which the play
ers took bigger chances of mishap. The
factor of danger may prove either
damper a stimulus. At any rate the
[ game has definitely taken its place as a
circus stunt crowded with thrills. and a
demonstration of car ability which is a
revelation even to the man who has
driven his hundreds Of miles at a mile-a-
minute clip.