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I MUCH ACTIVITY AT NEW ORLEANS. An almost endless turn of whitewashed fence posts, a mile stretch of leveled turf surrounding a magnificent oval of greensward, majestic oaks, still fresh with the dew of a tropical winter, and a dilapidated grandstand on the eve Of . rejuvenation from which thousands have iii other days witnessed the speed struggles of man and beast such is the spectacle that fills the eye as it ;sweeps across the Fair Grounds race course, toon to be re-opened. Impioved bv the frequent autoujnbile race meetings, the track is hard and fast and will present a surface equal to the fastest track in the country within the space of the next thirty days. A number of persons visited the race course Sun-dav to note the effects of the rejuvenation work and to see some of the horses already quartered there. It is. admittedly, a sight worth going all the way to the Fair Grounds to see. and during the few weeks remaining before the big forty-day meeting opens, the crowds of Sunday visitors to the course undoubtedly will be large. Tom Campbell, Eugene Pierce and M. Michaelis are among the racing enthusiasts who visit the track everv few days. They po out in their cors, which usuallv are filled with other adherents of the "snort of kings" and take a spin around the outer rail. Just Bed, one or the horses at the track, made things hum Sunday morning with a performance which dockers said was 24 seconds for the last quarter. The stalls at the track now house thirty thoroughbreds. The neighborhood in the vicinity of the Fair Grounds Is alive with horsemen. Boarding houses are leginning to show old-time activty. Cottages, which in the old days were the homes of horsemen who came south to spend the winter, are being re-opened for the season. The seventh ward, in former days the hot bed of race track habitues, is beginning to take on the atmosphere of a little settlement populated Avith men and women fresh from the outdoors life or racing cities. More than a thousand new chairs are to be placed in the grandstand boxes. The judges stand is being repainted and the patrol judges stand is to be rebuilt. Telegraph instruments are being installed in the press stand. The site of the clubhouse has been cleared, and a number of old stables that have seen their day have been demolished. The site of the clubhouse will not interfere with the roofed entrance to the grandstand from the old Bayou St. John street car shed. It was at one time the intention to pull down the old structure and move the gateway to the entrance to the grandstand. It is now decided, however, to allow the roofed arcade to remain and to erect the clubhouse on the broad expanse of ground which formerly was used for parking of carriages and automobiles. A terrace will adorn the plot of ground and a broad drlvewav will be made around the rear of the clubhouse, leading from the inner rail drive from the Geutilly gate. The clubhouse will lie constructed of finished pine and will be in bungalow style. : Judge Joseph Murphy will be in New Orleans late e this week to take personal charge of the work going g on at the Fair Grounds. He has signed up a majority of the stables that have been shipped to Charleston, ;- at which place a race meeting open December 2. At the end of that meeting shipments fo.- New v Orleans will begin. The stake books for New Orleans will be in the hands of the horsemen now racing at Charleston before Judge Murphy returns s south. New Orleans Times-Picayune.
