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RACING IS ASSURED AT ST. LOUIS. Joseph Murphy Makes Definite Announcement of Ton Day Meeting from Aug. 29 to Sept. 8. Joseph A. Murphy arrived in the city yesterday and was in consultation with local racing people in respect to the future of racing in the west. "I am able to make a definite announcement in respect to St. Louis," he said. "We shall race ten days from August 29 to September 8. There will be no purse less than 00 and we shall have three stakes. I spent two days in St. Louis and went over the situation with the best legal talent there. Here is the legal status: "The Supreme court has held twice in the Oldham case and the Fleming ease that an ordinary bet on a horse race in Missouri is not a statutory crime. The same court has held twice in the Hayden and Lemon cases that racing is not a game and cannot he brought within the gaming act. The Court of Appeals has held that a written memorandum of a bet, if accepted orrally, is not the recordation of a bet within the meaning of the statute. "The Supremo court has held that the acting as custodian of money bet is a felony. The statutes in the title prohibit bookmaking, pool selling, the recording of bets and the acting as custodian of money bet, but by some strange oversight the Legislature has failed to provide any penalty for bookmaking, so the question of what constitutes bookmaking is not debatable. "Wo shall take no recognition of betting at St. Louis, but all the authorities agree that if a person walks about the enclosure accepting bets at varying odds, making no registration of the bet except to hold the bettors written offer to bet and paying off after the race, he Avill be immune from prosecution. We have a mile track at St. Louis on which at the fair last fall bush horses ran miles In 1:40. We also have 300 stalls and a grandstand to seat 2,500. "We shall be In the courts of Michigan with a test case shortly. The local situation is more difficult. The Supreme court has said that racing is a game and we must find some way to wager without turning the race track into a common gaming house, within the moaning of the statute."
