The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-12-02
BIG CROWD SEES
 START OF 6-DAY
 RACE IN GARDEN
Capacity Crowd Lines Sau cer Track As Fifteen
 Riders Start.

That peculiar Gotham species of nocturnal moth-the Six-Day Bike race fan-broke out of its coccoon in Madison Square last night and flut-. tered high and low through the smoky atm osphere of the historic old Garden arena at the opening of the twenty sixth annual grind. At minute after midnight fifteen riders, representing as many teams. started on their 144- hour journey around the bowl of Geor- 1 gia pine. All the nocturnal species were on hand and will take up their l abode there for the rest of the week. | Never in the twenty-six years that the race has been held has the six-day moth failed to welcome this indisput- able excuse for staying out all night.
 Steeped for so long in the gloom of | Fuel Administration darkness, the | Garden last night became a blazing 1 oasis in a desert where arid statutes 1 present and to come mad cast gloom. | Whereas the dolefuI toll of l by the village clock has heretofore meant the l five-star final of the nights activities, 1 that same o'clock this week means 1 only the beginning of the Six Day fans patient vigil of the tireless bicycle pack. It becomes q week when the night hawks gladly consent to pay a l war tax for the privilege of taking 8 snooze. The proving sundodger will lingly shells out his pennies to get a front row gallery perch where he knows the show goes right on whether he is awake or not.
 Year after year, folks, Of keen men, tai discrimination predict that the six day bike fans will reform and keep away from Madison Square Garden. But year after year, they flock to the Garden, just as they did last night. Some day in the far off future, in that IUtopian day when the ticket speculator is a forgotten species or when the labyrinth of the subway shuttle is sue cessfully explored then, but probably not before, will the Six-Day race fail to tear loving ones from their firesides for a long December week.
 The crowd started to come to Madi- son Square Garden early last night. And what q glorious, familiar scene of / beauty greeted them. A faint, odori- ferrous haze of pearl gray hung about , the barnIike rafters of the old amphi- theatre. Yelling whistIing groups of l fans hung on the gallery rails and kept time with the band and the song ! shouters. Banners were stretched across the open spaces, letting the public in on the secret that there are still bevera ges to be purchased which soon will be but a memory like the Johnstown Flood.
 , 1 In the Tecesses of the catacombs there were long tables, grooming under , their loads of steaming liberty saus- age. The popcorn peppers and the molasses candymakers were busy, and ! the chefs in the camps of the riders F had their cookstoves cranked up ana all ready for week of rapid fire f cooking.
 , There are many old faces and some new ones in the race this year. FranI Kramer, the irrepressible, is agaiT fired by the ambition to win a siX-da7 race. This wonderful rider, who sev enteen times was the sprint champion 5 of the world, has tried three time s to land first in the long grind ant has three times failed. Last yea Kramer started thte race with high 8 geared wheel, but after three days hi @ knees were so badly swollen that h had to quit. This year he is using smaller geared machine as a conces B sion to these same knees.
 - As in every race, there is dark t. horse combination. Gus Lang. wh . last year was the amateur bicycI champion, and Lloyd Byron, the anna teur champion of Australia, hay teamed up, and because of their youtI and stamina many of the rail birds eX pect them to outlast the veterans Again Reggie McNamara, the fro
 man of many a six-day grind, is i
 the race looking as fresh as ever. H
 is teamed with that other veteran
 Jake Magin.
 Back from the battIefields c
 France is Dupuy, who is riding thi
 year. with the veteran Kramer. Tn
 Bowker brothers from Long Islan
 make up a new team. which may hay
 a surprise to spring. Henri Gerwig,
 newcomer from France, is teame
 with Keller, and this team is also ex
 pected to make things lively. Thos
 old Australian riders, Brenda an
 Spears. are again in the whirI, and tn
 seneralship and foxy riding of tn
 pair Is considered likely to tax tn
 wits of the younger riders.
 Thirteen of the fifteen teams whic
 started in the six day bicycle rae
 shortly after midnight had covere
 167 miles, seven laps, at o'cloc
 this morning. The Bowker brother
 and Belle and Markey were one Ia
 behind the leaders. The eighth hot
 record made here by Lawson an
 Drobach in 1914 is IT miles, laps,
 
 follows: Spears and Brenda, Carma
 and De Beates, Corry and Madde
 Lang and Byron, Kopsky and Colour
 Grimm and Thomas Hanley and La7
 renee, Chapman and Wiley, Madonr
 and Bello, Verri and Drobach, McNt
 mara and Magin. Kramer and Dupu
 Weber and Eaton, Bowker brother
 Gerwig and Keller,
 IAVIGNE-WALCOTT BATTLE.