San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-02
Revival in South and East
Growing Despite Efforts
of the S.P.C.A. to Prevent
Big Mains.
By JOHN ARCHER CARTER.


Copyright. by The San Antonio Light
HagerstOwn, Nd, March 2.-Lik
influenza and the cat, cockfighting ha
come back. A passion for the sport
born in ancient Greece and transmit
ted through generations, again stir
the East and South.
Hagerstown has its quota of FAM
enthusiasts so frantic for the thrill
of the pit that threats from the Balti
more Society For the Prevention Of
Cruelty to Animals do not dissuadC
| them from perfeeting plans for
mammoth main here one night this
week. The championship of West
Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania
will be decided, the fans assert.
well take a chance" they de-
clare. "A few days ago the cham
| piOnship of four states was determin-
ed here and we were not bothered.
Anyhow the risk involved quickens
the interest"
That an effort will be made to pre-
vent it, is as certain as the drop
socket gaff. Mrs. Roger Whipple,
president of Baltimore's s. =. c. A.
is reported to have assembled much
data on the spread of the sport and
to be ready to present her facts to
A. Angle Wolfinger, states attorney
of Washington county. A grand jury
probe may follow such action.
Two Fights Are Raided.
Twice within the past week have
such threats been carried out in the
Maryland-Virginia area. At Norfolk,
Va, last Friday police arrested 30
alleged cock pit sportsmen. At Back
River, in Baltimore, Sunday morning
200 others gathered TO hear the be-
feathered despot's heels click on Mary
lands shore were routed by the police.
But Hagerstown proceeds with her
plans
The sport is So old Tutankhamen
may have enjoyed it in the shade of
the pyramids. The ancient Greeks
are credited with originating it.
While Plato was lecturing on brother
ly love and Socrates was cultivating
bis appetite for hemlock, the clutter
of birds of feather flocking valiantly
together could be heard from the back
alleys of the Acropolis. Rome's armies
when not crossing the Rubicon, let
their dies be cast on one cock or an
other in the bloody ring. The coliseum
had worthy competition from the
cockpit. England introduced the game
to her children in the Twelfth CEN
fury to keep from gaming in the
marble alleys. 1t won recognition
from the courtiers of Edward the
Third and gained so in popularity
through the years that Parliament in
1919 passed well-teethed laws and
stopped it.
In the meantime, of course, Amer
ica's urge to be up to date, had seduced
the pastime across the sea. In revo-
lutionary war days Virginia and
Kentucky birds were winning world
wide fame. Patrician planters bred
chickens for the pit rather than for
the pie. The entire south fell prey
to the epidemic. After the war be-
tween the States, the sport ,spread
to the North and East. Birds OF
| perfect size and pluck were bred in
New England. Then suddenly the
curtain rang down. Prohibitive laws
were passed. The super-valiant New
England birds were seized by the S.
Z. c. A. and served in soup like any
common low brow of the hen house.
Now after so years of quiet, Amer
lea re-embraces the old delight.
Darkies with twitching crocus sacks
under their arms skip furtively along
the bayous. Game chicks flutter
through the blue grass and peck at
bugs beneath the rhodendron. And
in the hills and tidewater acres
farther north the clamorous Growing
OF tomorrow's champion browns out
the hustle of industry and the roar
of the fog horn.
Only at Norfolk and Back River
have cockfights of recent date come to
grief. In the Virginia city it was not
MAJOR contest, but possibly 100
men gathered about the pit on the
third floor of n dilapidated building.
When police arrived they attempted
escape by slipping down the elevator
shaft, or lodging out of the windows,
but the ROSTERS, ignorant of the law
they had violated and gamer than the
men, fought on.
The Back River disaster of last
Sunday morning, however, was so
great as to be catastrophe and all
because of rooster plucked in error.
from the hoi polloi of fowldom. The
main was to decide the Maryland Vir-
ginia championship. A purse of $4,000
had been posted. The fights had
progressed excitedly. Fourteen bouts
had been held.
The score was eight for Virginia.
SIX for Maryland, In the midst of
me fifteenth clash, The plebian rooster
aforementioned cock-a -doodled the
nam into a Waterloo for the spec
tatOrs.
Thus tipped off, the police walked
e,, Yet is Hagerstown undismayed
She IL have her tri-state contest be.
lore the end of this week. according
10 the fans. For police may come
ana police may go, but cock fighting,
as nemosthenes is understood to have