Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-09-16
; DIVINES
MOTORDROME RACE

Likening the standardization
to the amphitheatres of ancient Rome,
when g%ladiators battled to death, the
Rev. George E.. Lombard, pastor of
the Paramount Avenue Baptist
Church, last night preached to his
congregation on The Devils Muir
derdrome."
The tragedy at the Vailsburg track
on last Sunday was also the subject
preached on by two other ministers
at yesterdays services.
The Rev. Mr.. Lombard rehearsed
last Sundays incident and called to
mind hat the Track In question a
not erected with any benevolent view,
that 1t Is not a philanthropy. He
deplored conditions that could produce
such an institution. He held that the
men of today have become so de-
PRAYED in their desires that simple
pleasures are insipid and only the
highly exciting, hair-raising sights
will satisfy.
1T understand" Mr.. Lombard con-
tinued, that infidel Paris, often re-
ferred to by many as the w~ickedest
city in the world, has tabooed motor
cycle racing, and still we allow it to
run right here in Newark. Shall we
grant that our fair city is more de-
PRAYED than Paris? Now that some
thing awful has happened. with the
sacrifice of lives of not only the en-
tertainers, but of spectators, as well,
people generally are asking If such a
dangerous, demoralizing pastime
shall be allowed to continue.
Compares 1t to Titanic.
ITO me this great calamity is not
unexpected, and l cannot see how the
promoters could have expected any
thing else. With this speed mania it
was bound to occur. More than 1000
lives were sacrificed on the Titanic
for the same mania. Still, the taste
of man generally has become so de-
.praved that these accidents, physical
manning and deaths only add to the
excitement and tend only to increase
the crowds.
ITO my mind there are three
reasons why the Motordrome should
not be allowed to e~xist-frst, for
safety's sake 1--WE have no assurance
that the spectators will be better
safeguarded in the future than in the
past); second, the demoralizing effect
of the sport, and, third, the absence
of any practical good"
lone Hundred Miles an Hour" was
the subject of a sermon by the Rev.
Smith Ordway in the K.lburn Me-
mortal Presbyterian Church y%ester-
day. He referred to the American
peoples desire for thrills and sensa-.
tions, and declared that a moving
picture show could not exist miles
II put on the screen a scene showing
a man sneaking in to see her
mans wife or something similar. He
deplored the present conditions. Dur
ing the course of his talk he also
made reference to the Velodrome BIZ
cycle track.
IF there Is any place in the coun-
try that want these places-the
Motordrome, the Velodrome and Elec-
trio Park" he said. "let them go
there. We don't want them here in
this community"
sympathy for the Bcreaved.
The Rev. b. F. Dickinson, pastor
of the Vailsburg M. E. Church, X
pressed sympathy for those bereaved
by. the tragedy and pleaded with the
men of his congregation to be up in
arms to prevent a repetition of the
affair.
1.-The sport at this Motordrome,'' he
continued, consisted principally Of
seeing young men, many of them
scarcely out of their teens, dare to
open wide a throttle on a machine
capable of going 100 miles an hour. l
want to sec this thing stopped for the
sake of the boys in the community"