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JAMES MILTON REMINISCES Recalls Worlds Heavyweight Championship Fight at Havana. Cubans Celebrate Christmas on December 24 Have Great Number of Holidays Leisurely People. HAVANA, Cuba, Dec. 17. There are more Jholidays in Cuba than you can shake a stick at. No one appears to be in any great hurry. Owners and employes of big stores, in fact, all places of business and government offices take two hours for lunch, whereas in the States most of the bosses have food served on desks while the help eat on the fly. . . . Many of H. D. Browns original employes are working for Albert Levey, the new president of the Havana American Racing Association, sponsoring the fifty-two-day race meeting at Oriental Park which begins January 12. Among them are Jerry Corrales, translator; Al Livingston, who helped Brown build the magnificent race course back in 1914; Jim Milton, who is the general manager of the Marianao plant; Alfonso Herrera, track superintendent, and Joe lopez, photographer. Milton, famous the world over as a great starter, was cutting up some old touches in Leveys office the other day. An argument arose as to whether or not the Johnson-Willard heavyweight championship fight staged on the track proper on April 5, 1915, was on the level. Milton, striking a Patrick Henry pose, insisted the battle was on the up and up and almost showed documentary proof to back up his asseition. He said he was with Johnson for two hours before the scrap started and that "Lil Arthur" told him to tell one Cooney, who raised Johnson on 1 his plantation out Galveston way, to bet all he could afford on him to win. SAT AT RINGSDDE. Milton sat at ringside and in the eighth round referee Jack Welch told him Johnson was hurt after taking a couple of hard blows in the solar plexus. It was in the twenty-second round, Milton recalls, that Johnson commanded one of his lackeys to ask his" wife to leave the arena because he realized he was doomed to defeat. An overhand right I flush on the jaw, followed quickly by a left in the solar plexus, laid low Johnson in the ! twenty-sixth and final stanza of a scheduled forty-five-round set-to. "I think Johnson could have gotten up," admits Milton, "but I he knew he was through and he did the next best thing and called it a day." I The late Jack Curley, who promoted the affair, forked over 1,000 for the use of the track to Brown, or a head for the 21,000 paid customers. The ring was erected in the middle of the track near the judges stand. Both the ring and portal seats were taken out after Willard was declared champion and forty-one minutes later the track was made ready for the regular afternoons race , program. I The Cubans celebrate Christmas December j 24, the day before the festivities begin in the 1 States. There are no newspapers pub lished Mondays. This is a day of rest for scribes and printers. . . . New Years is the biggest holiday in the Pearl of the Antilles. The natives put it on like nobodys business. To gain admittance to the Casino Nacional, the gaming establishment adjacent to the track, is like trying to break into Morgans office in Wall Street. Last year the croupiers didnt relax until 8 oclock New Years morning. , SUFFERS BROKEN LEG. Joe Van Raalte, veteran turf enthusiast, is bedded in a hospital here with a broken leg. He sustained the injury in a recent bus accident. . . . Two of the most ardent devotees of the King of Sports are Col. Fulgencio Batista, the so-called Strong Man of Cuba, and American Ambassador Butler J. Wright. . . . All American employes at the track and" Casino must be finger-printed and "mugged " a Cuban government requisite. The credentials, which consist of six pictures and as many finger-prints, are filed after payment of 5 for each man. The visitor retains a small folder for identification purposes. The credentials are good for one year. One of the hardest workers on the grounds is Lou Maul, one of the vice-presidents of the association The Casino throws open its doors for those who like the various games of chance on December 23. The Cubans are inveterate gamblers The .boys can be accommodated with either the books or mutuels at the track.
