Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-12-26
It's Only Town in United States That
Will Support Such an Event and
1t Does it Well.
HUNDREDS DO NOT LEAVE
GARDEN DUNG THAT WEEK
All Sorts Of Crooks Included in Gath
ering and They Get Away With
Much Good Plunder.


all hope had fled,
OF things that ring of Christmas cheer;
he saw but gloom instead.
And then he took his pen in hand; he
spent an hour in thought.
He penned these lines to Santa Claus
by whom good things are brought:
"Dear S. Claus; VIII you bring me a
bundle fat and strong,
Containing much that desire to keep
alive my song;
Please catch all football players, pin
numbers on their backs,
Send recipes to tell me why dope most
always cracks.
Please bundle up white hope with
something more than beef,
And as Tom Lipton's coming please
tell me what S a reef.
I'd like patent red hot stove to warm
the winter league,
And a talker for c. Murphy to save
him from fatigue.
With such requests the Sporting Ed,
wrote on, and on some more,
He fell asleep and dreamed he saw Sir
$. Claus at, the door,
Then Christmas came, just as it came
to you and me that day,
But what was in the poor eds sock
'twould be a shame to say.
New York, Dec. 26.-Some queer
things are done in the name of art,
but il art, (whatever that is), has
anything on poor old sport in New
York when it comes to having things
iput over on it there will have to be a
rising of artists long before sun up.
Mr.. g. Sport in whose name football,
baseball and a few other pastimes are
presented is just beginning to revive
from the effects of the annual smear
ing it gets in New York. For one week
Madison Square Garden was used as a
caldron in which all the good that
there is in sport was boiled to a finish,
and all the bad skinned from the sur
face and permitted to reign supreme.
Annual Sport Spree.
New York has its annual debauch in
sport in the six day bicycle race. There
is only one town in the country that
would support such an event That
town is New York. The gangster and
gunman, for when the metropolis is
famous, desert the beaten paths and
appear in the open during the running
Of this race. That is the seamy side
of the race. But New Workers support
the event They turn over thousands
Of dollars every year to see the riders
plug increasingly hour after hour and
day OTTER day about the saucer track.
There are the regulars who take their
place in the gallery at the start and
never leave, unless the police clear the
place. Then they merely walk to the
window, buy another ticket and return
to their seats. They sleep in their
chairs and subsist on "hot dogs" for
the week They will sit for hours
watching the endless grind under the
worst atmospheric conditions than can
be imagined
That two men, working in relays,
can ride six days without stopping and
cover more than 1000 miles, peaks
much for their physical condition, but
that human beings can remain in the
Garden for week and merely live,
without the added eXertion Of constant
riding is a tenth wonder Of the world.
The lungs would be justified in staging
rebellion that would tear the lining
ont of the body they are forced to
nhabit. Great clouds Of tobacco
smoke sweep out over the Garden as
the crowd enters for the first night.
As the week wears on other clouds
are furnished, Then comes the stale
smell of burning hemp. It would take
blast of dynamite to dent the air,
New Workers. 20 through this same
thing every year and evidently like It,
The riders are paid from $50 Co $3.50
for every day they stay in the race.
The prize for winning is FOltry com
pared with the effort involved being
about sl,5Oo. From the start how.
over, the watchers pick their fayoritcs,
Tho only features Of a siN.day race arc
,hc spHnts and the spills, That is
what the crowd goes to see. Hours
NAY pass and nothing will happen.
Bot Il may happen any minute and that
ngrown curiosity, the spark in human
ity which constantly reaches out in the
search Of a thrill holds the six day bug
In his seat. Once at the scene of the
race. the most dignified citizen may be-
come a "bug' and wait valuable hours
away Having come for a thrill the
longing cannot be satisfied by the