New-York tribune., 1915-12-11
iSX-DAY PINK TEA
IRKS PAT POWERS
Oldtime Bike Race Pro-
moter Finds Times Has
Changed" at Garden.
GANG FIGHTS GONE;
GRAFTERS SHUT OUT
Instead, Polite Applause, and
Lieutenant Johnny Mullin with
Blackjack a Foot Long.

Old Pat Powers, who used 70 promote
six-day bike races himself in more
virile day, looked over the patient crowd
in Madison Square Garden last night
He toiled up hundred steps for a peep
into the gallery, inspected the folks in
the balconies, sized up the occupants OF
the boxes and mingled with the throng
in the arena.
At the end of his wistful tour Pat
approached one Of the sedate, gray uni
formed special policemen.
"At what hour. may l inquire" he
asked, "is tea served?"
Times certainly has changed, Mr..
Powers" was the graycoat's consider
ate rejoinder. "Ain't it so?'
II is so. Times, in the phrase Of the
special policeman. certainly has changed
80 far as the six-day race is concerned.
As a sporting spectacle the 1915 race
is several laps ahead of its predeces-
sors. There is an ounce more strain in
the sprints and less time between them.
There are more falls and harder ones.
There Is more and louder music. The
same pungent smoke pail as Of yore
half obscures the riders from gallery
god and boxholder alike. The same
-throated announcer Is as sub
timely scornfui of the aid of his effete
official megaphone as ever. Super
ficially it is all as it used to be.
The difference is in the class Of the
attendance-and what a differencel
The old-fashioned fan who used to pay
his dollar for general admission, carry
in a shoebox full of lunch and stay as
long as the food lasted. be it two days
or six, Is as extinct a species as the no
toriously extinct dodo. His somewhat
differently constituted cousin. who used
to have the same habit save in the in
stance of the box of food, for which he
substituted the most compact and dy-
manic of liquid stimulant. also is miss
ing.
In the old days, too, the race was less
race than a convention. 1t was the
one big annual get together Of under
world clans. The detectives at the gate
were particular only that each who en-
tered paid. They had smile and nod
more often than scowl for those
whose appearance on another occasion
would mean a quick trip downtown"
r. music and the whir of the speed
ing wheels was only a dim background
then for the social affairs that were the
real attractions. Where the supposed
spectators sat the macque from the
West Side was renewing his acquain-
tance with the gunman from the lower
East Side. The dip from Chicago, with
his wire and his stall in durance, was
transacting the business incident to
Joining new mob. Close-cropped
brothers fresh from the "big house"
were getting in touch again with such
news of the outer world as had escaped
the prison grapevine. Gamblers, con-
fidence men, wireless wiretappers, burg
lars, petermen, yeggs, highwaymen.
counterfeiters, forgers and grafters in
ordinary were wandering from tier TO
tier and box to box meeting old friends
and making new ones.
As morning came, in those days Of
red blood and red eye, the sole sur
vivor of the Saturday night after the
big strike in Death Hole would have
been forced to dof his Stetson to the
Garden. Dice began to roll. Three
card monte men produced their lay
outs. Storms of peanut shells. ba-
mana peels and paper were let loose
out of the gallery. Broken beer bot
ties from hundred feet above crashed
upor the merrymakers in the arena.
Fights started and were fought TO
finish. Rival gangs drew up in battle
formation behind their champions.
Hatchets were buried and new ones
dug up. 0vercoats and watches dis
as magically as yellow money
bet against the skill of the three card
monte men
"But Times Has Changed"
But times again with apologies to
Pat Powers gray-clad friend-has
sure changed.
Last night Lieutenant Johnny Null
len. of the Central Office, commander
Of a strong-arm squad of fourteen de-
tectives, sat placidly beside the en-
trance gate. Somehow or other, with
cut disturbing himself, he managed TO
catch the eye Of almost every person
who passed in. Quite a number took
the hint from his glance and passed
Immediately out. The lieutenant
called after some of them:
"Just turn in your ticket at the box
office and tell them | said give the
money back"
Little Buck" who used to be Tom
Sharkey's manager when the sailor
quit the ring for the ra'hskeller
dropped around at midnight for a chat
with the lieutenant.
81 bet I've met 500 gorillas in the
last few days that have all told me the
same thing" be said.
"'We're g in 90 keep away from
the race they say, because Johnny
Mullen's there, and if we do get By
there amt goin' to be no fun"
you keep spreading the world" di-
rected the lieutenant. "I've got
blackjack a foot long in my pocket and
it's needing exercise"
Down in the oval arena inside the
track the overflow general admission
crnv-daJ arnurJ ba ,1,,r-