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JOHN HUNTERS RACING NOTIONS. Nbw Yoek, March 21. "My information is," said Mr. John Hunter, one of the leading veteran turfmen of the east, "that Washington Park, Chicago, wiU not open its gates unless a racing bill for Illinois is passed, Our racing matters are now in splendid shape and every one in the east looks for a most prosperous season. Betting on horse races has been declared legal by the highest New York tribunal and the Washington, D. C, authorities uphold a law like ours. The day of faction fighting has gone, peace is general and authority recognized in a healthy way. It cost lots of money to get health. Lawyers are expensive birds. Speaking of birds, I made my acquaintance with the late Secretary John E. Brewster of the Washington Park Club while shooting snipe over in New Jersey. We were always fast friends and his death was lamented by all true lovers of racing. They felt that he was supreme as a manager. It is really too bad that such a magnificent plant should have been idle when the public desired high class racing. Oh, I know all about what you aro saying, that no member of the Washington Park Club ever owned a racing stable. Of course it figured against the sport. Bat a like condition of things exists at Sheepshead Bay, and one can easily figure how in order to make racing all that it should be men of quality should own and run horses. "We are all right down here and one can only hope that sooner or later the extreme men of the west will tone down or retire. Then the raciner will fall into the hands of men of worth who will race on a higher plan and legislate more broadly."
