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1 . » f J t | 1 I 1 1 • j I , j - I I | « i i , . , . TURF SPORT IN OLD MEXICO i -a ■ Judge Murphys Entertaining Tale of How Racing Is Growing, j • — Crowds Picking Up and Future Most Promising — President Obregons Democracy. | e— — t BT. JOSFPH A. MfRPHY.1 IfBXICO CITY. Mexico. February 5. -The American thoroughbred horse lias finally been introduced with adequate setting to the City of Mexico. With half of the forty day meeting of the Jockey Club Interna, ional d - Mexico gone into history, I stood today from my point of vantage in the stewards stand and watched the brilliant assemblage file Slowly out of the gatev. The glorious semi tropic sun had dropped behind the hills that fringe this vast plateau, leaving gathering shadows on the lowlands, hat lighting up, like some monster searchlight, old Popocatepetl sullenly snorting puffs of smeke and vapor as from the nostrils of fabled dragon and his eeasnrt, the perpetually snow rtad "Sleeping I.a.b." rearing her head majestically 1s.mm» fe. i ab.,. tl,.- sea. both standing out in bold relief fort] miles distant, but seemingl] less than fire in this rarefied atmosphere. Tin- rays of the setting sun resting an the vaporish clouds made a i ■ml of ....lor that would put to blush the brush of tie- most idealistic painter. Back, alaaasl within oar shadow in solitary grandeur on lis moan tain m ,. stood bepultepee Castle, the official Whit.- House of Mexico, started by the Axtecs. pai. lied t.y the Hpnnish rossiuerora, embel- Iish.il by the ill fate. 1 Maximilian and the ambitious farlotta, with final touches ..f meden architecture. it holds within its stnrdj walls i whalt i«K k of history. The thnnd.-i i American beef beats had succeeded tie- rattle of musketry. Mexico was at P ..i. e at last Will horse racing succeed in Mexico? If I could lift He Veil Hid look II, lo the lutllle if I . olllll see tie fruition of certain eventualities I waaN say with. .ut hesitation not only that it would succeed but t::.n n would become the great. -si wiater sport m tlie world and thai this fascinating land of mys toy would become Ibk winter piaygrouad of the Aiii.-ri. an cont in. nt . PRESENT TROUBLE WITH MEXICO. It 1 . oiil.l I w that certain powerful selfish in- ■... ., in in- own eoiintiv would keep their hands off Mexico am i quit licking their chops at tin-thought of .veiii uaiiy forcing intervention kg he fomenting •■! incipient revolutions: if 1 coaM hope that yellow oaraals of the states would giro Mexi n a fighting chance, and if 1 knew that President Obregon could work out the agrarian problem, as he has successfully worked OUl other problems, the question would be answer.-. I I was reading on. ..i oui leading papen today from t. Slates In all off page, with a two-lille head, was i storj of tl-. Prince of Wales trip to India. His arrival wa- greeted with riots, in which inn were killed and 1,666 wounded. On an other page, with a ribbon headline running aereae tin- page, was the announcement that another revolution had been sialic. I in Mei.... When one read the story lie found thai in some outlying state i general had started tn able, n was pi iptly suppressed without leas of life. The generals "army consisted of twenty men. That is the sort of pub-li.-iiy Mexico i- getting. When I was here in June I announced on my return that American and fan.i dian life and property w en as safe here as in any-city of tin.-- countries of half the size. Here, with the dawn ■ i" a new rear. 1 say that tin- same life and propertj are safer here than in any city of the Stales or Canada We have raced for twenty days. A horse or two has been left at the post We hae had some lose finishes. Then contingencies in racing have been accepted without murmur and in true sporting spirit. Our spectators at home would not be so fair. I believe an American umprie could cine here and preside over baseball without a daily bombardment of pop bottles and cushions, which would also l.e a lecord. I.. ginning with the opening day President Obre-gon. his family and cabinet here been freiitient visit. us. I invited them to lew the raina from the steward* stand. lie sent back word: "Tell tic- judge that I would gladly come up. but if I did I could not look at the pretty girls." PRESIDENT 0BREG0N AND RACING. All of which shows that the lresrdent of Mexico N mosi human. I-ist Sunday the Regis Hotel gave a cup for a race. It was placed in the presidential box. After the race the winning American owner was . s.-orted to the box. He was congratulated by the president and was then presented tile CUE by Mrs. Obregoa in a neat speech of perfect Knglish. It made me wonder when a President of the United Slates will have nerve enough to go on a racetrack. It is true that Jeorge Washington raced a stable of thoroughbreds, but that was before pMUnhj reformers had poured molten iron into the soul of the American people. It is true that Roosevelt gave a • piasi-indorsement to racing by permitting his daughter Alice to attend regularly without protest. Our nearest advocate since Washington came from the taciturn ex president of Princeton. Woodrow Wilson, a rather unexpected source, one might say. In bis writing in- has p raised Washington fls n lover of thoroughbreds and a sportsman. He permitted without protest Admiral Grayson to race a string of horses, and -x-Secretary Tumulty has always been our friend. I believe we can claim that whatever We may have lacked in quantity of presidential advocates, with Washington. Roosevelt and Wilson, wa have not lacked for quality. We have learned some things of the Latin character here. When we open new plants in the States we expect a bag hurrah the opening day. then n "frost" for some days and from that on a steady improvement With four months of publicity and assurance that we intended to run a clean, high-, lass sport with officials of established reputation, Continued on second page. TURF SPORT IN OLD MEXICO ..ntinned from first page. we o|.cm-d arith idgii haaes. The Iitin raeea, haw-ever, are from Missouri. The opening day. with I plant pretention- enough for New V..rk City, taw had an att.-ndann- fit for tin- M.-tropolitnii Opera lb use, but scant in number- The next day. Sunday, we had tare, but still a "frost." My heart -auk within me. If the crowd was aaaail Saturday and Sunday what would Tuesday be Imagine my sar prise whea we bad more people Taea- day than we did Saturday. Tin- next Saturday are had doable the Baaauaer of people of the opening day. and last Sunday we had a crowd sjood eaasagh far any American city. We are steadily growing from I fainim- P. a f -a-t. RACING FUTURE: PROHIBITION. The first tiling ..lie must do here is to gain tin-public"- real eoafideece. Then it will slowly drift to .mil You cannot hurry it. It must not be for gotten that «.• an playiag to local people almost exclusively. Infair publicity or propaganda in the State- has left the impre-sion in many minds that one rrosaiag tin- border will be shot at daylight New Oilcan- Havana or Tijuana racing without the tourist arontd starve t.. death. We are doing a- well a- any of these poiata would under the -ame . iiiditioii-. Three hundred Anieiican regulars wi.iihl make thi- racing qaite the equal . f Jeffersoa. .-will get them in dm- time Tin- passport restrictions haVC been lilted: We ll.lVe .111 e|l t ll U-ia -1 ie pre — bureau in . ur Imr-emen : are have a plant equal to any in the world, a land of perpetual sunshine iwe have had on., shower slace January I, which . ffers i- much to the tourist a- Europe and ret.. i in baa not yel ruined tin- persoaal liberty of tbi- coaatry. People will come, perhaps not thi- year, bat n.-t year, t.. a certainty. One heal- 1U111..1- of Mexican national prohibition I w.ubl laugh except that 1 laughed when the idea of national prohibition in the Catted States wa- broached I have not utagbed share. Tin-drink of the people here is pulque, a ferm. lied sap ..f a species of cartas. It looks like dirty milk am! -moll- abominably. It takes the plant seven years to mature. Then a cup is boll. .wed ill lie ceiitir stem and a- the sap gathers in it i1 i- drawn off and goes through a process of f-iin.-n tati.m. The] saj tin- kick of a government male i- a Bephyi compared to it I have not had tin-courage • try ii They told me early that ia drawing it off a gourd is used. A hole is mad- in tin- stem mar tin- loo of 1 lie how!. A pen insert-the stem in the cup of the plant and -lick- the juice ..ft". When tin- liquid reaches in- lip- he empties the boWl and -tart- over. The process and tin- odor have deterred me from following m asaal custom ..I trying anything oaee. WHAT MEXICO MOST NEEDS. Manx people in our parse proad country li.ave an idea tint recognition of tin- obre_r..n government would he a panacea for all the evil- of thi-. country. Wliile it would help and would no doubt be followed by tie influx of million- of dollars ot American ami English capital, it is not tlie real soMem. If ..in- goveranteat could make oar -elfish financial interests keep their hand- ..fi of tin- internal affairs of this coaatry. and if tin press would not distort tlie report that -.na " ii oral." with hardly enough men ander him p -ti-1; Up a bank in New York, had thrown the whole country into revolution, it would help Mexico more than ic recognising the present government Ih.- real problem of the Onregoa government i-tin- agrarian problem. The real wealth of a rountry i- in its agricultural resources. Mexico is a land of untold wealth. It ;- drawing from the earth millions in oil ami precious metals, bat ii-ri al wealth Ilea dormant. It- hacienda- with proper irrigation will grow anything Those who could tern the surface of this country into a garden an- marking tiaae until some stabilised titli to |.r. peit. .an he worked oat How rlii- i- to be dan- I am not inc. and 1 have not egotism enough to predict whether President Obregoa ran work it out or m !. Men of our own ...uiitry. residents here ami keen observers, saj in- can and will. If in- .an. Mexico will grow by leaps and Pound-
