Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-08-10

tuC SAuiCIISdH dIuUdSSduOT, I'LL IUc dIHs
bassadors, and Gen. Pershing, Adj
miral Beatty, the military governor
of Paris, half the French senators, the
Rothschilds. Vanderbilts and CAROLS
of Carrollton and many others.
And money. money, money.
Jim, take mine." says the American
girl in black liberty and olive satin.
The lieutenant hikes across the sward.
elbows through the crowd to the bet
ting booths and buys q ticket with
her $20-a French government ticket
on horse.
Everybody is buying tickets, here
amid wealth and fashion. climbers and
sightseers. nannequin girls showing
off new styles and buyers from all
over the world studying how they will
take" And everybody is buying
tickets over there, across the track, in
the sun-blistered field" where the
crowds are so dense that movement
is difhcult. These others, the little
shopkeepers Of Paris, clerks and
working folks on their half holiday
and day of. government employees and
railroad men, retired couples living on
their little incomes, janitors and
marketwomen, dray drivers and tram
conductors. university professors and
typesetters-the whole social fabric
surge around hundred betting
booths to blow their money on
horse.
A 81 ticket. Ten 81 tickets. One -
ticket. Ten - tickets. The perspir-
ing multitude in before-the-war
clothes puts UP total. by mere num-
bers. greater. perhaps, than the rich
and the fashionables in rose garden
paddock.
How much money passes through
the ''mutuels" it is impossible to state,
for so fabulously high have been the
receipts Of late that the racing So
cieties. decline to communicate the to-
tails to the press.
This cheap multitude don't care q
bean to see the horses. It il enough
to be on the spot where the, govern
nlent allows betting and to feel the
hypnotizing thrill Of the sunlight and
the breezes; the magnificent park and
forest. and the color. fashion, riches
and beauty vaguely visible across the
track. 1t feels rich to see the glori-
Gus procession Of limousines arriving
and the kaleidoscope razzle of the
ANAL break up. Buy your tickets. Buy
as many as you please. The govern
ment is behind them.
Do not criticise the French govern
ment.
Paris is forced to have the races.
They started Immediately after peace.
They mean Partisan prosperity They
are the exhibit garden of new styles
the true show place, in wonderful
setting, Of the great Paris dress
making trade, and all the looms and
gewgaw factories Of France. The
race track is aris-in-the -afternoon-
the, brilliant cengloneration to which
made It.
Hence the betting, supervised by
government.
France tried everything to solve the
problem without betting, but 1t has
been proved that racing without bet
ting cannot make brilliant season.
And betting without state supervision
Invites evils.
Some years before the war France
Tried honestly to crush betting. Com
Ebinations of bookmakers were owning
horses and deciding winners in ad-
vance. and Joseph Oller. the inventor
Zof the "pari mutuel," had opened a
palatial poolroom in the center Of the
boulevards, for clerks to risk the till
ht lunch time. Then came the famous
Goblet circular. which stopped all bet
Ping and ruined Paris season.
Merely spectacular racing could not
maintain itself. The attendance fell
|pff. The great agricultural societies
protested. Sporting Paris languished.
Tho spring season failed. Rich tour
SITS did not stay. Paris luxury had
DO triumph In grand prix gone on
btrike.
Then Paris commerce made its voice
heard. The powerful syndical cham
pers Of dressmakers. milliners. lin,
Eerie dealers. jewelers., florists. cor
etmakers. the united department