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IMPROVEMENTS AT EMPIRE CITY. New York. July 17. James Butler Is planning to make further improvements at Yonkers after the finish of tho current meeting, including the installment of a new stewards stand. The stewards stand at Yonkers now is one of the old-fashioned sort, witli wide-spreading, eaves that obscure a good por linn of the track. It was all right in the nineties when the late William H. Clark built the Empire City trotting track, but it does not go these days. Patrons of the grandstand want to sec finishes. They see them at Sheepshead Bay because the stewards and judges stand a light, steel-framed structure, enclosed by glass does not obstruct their view. Mr. ISutler and Mr. Wlim have worked wonders with the infield of the Yonkers course. The sand dunes which used to offend the eye have been leveled and a luxuriant growth of coarse grass has been coaxed from the sterile soil by diligent ton dressing. It is not generally known, but it Is a fact nevertheless, that James Butler was the man who picked the site of tlie Empire City track as a suitable one for a first-class trotting track. He had the ground on which the course lies surveyed and took an option on the property before Mr. Clark thought of interesting himself in the enterprise. That was when Mr. Butler was still president of tho Fleetwood course. Mr. Butler surrendered his options and his ideas to Mr. Clark when that gentleman indicated that he wanted to build tho course; Mr. Clark went ahead in the big way which characterized all his undertakings and built the Yonkers course at n cost of over a million dollars. The cost was uncommonly heavy because it was necessary to make an embankment of seventy-five feet for the upper turn. There is no better grandstand on the metropolitan circuit than the one at Yonkers. Tlie Empire City property cost Mr. Clark from ,750 to ,500 an acre. Its present value per acre Is about 1909.sh,000.
