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t Racing From Two Points of View By SALVATOB. j Two books that have recently come to my hands illustrate very forcibly two different points of view regarding racing, and as I survey them the complete, not to say astonishing, contrast that they present invites, indeed, it challenges comment. The first comes from Florida with the compliments of Mr. J. E. Widener and bears the title: Beautiful Hialeah. As is so well known as scarce to require mention, Mr. Widener is the president and chairman of the board of the Miami Jockey Club and the one man directly responsible for having made Hialeah the most admired racing plant in America. And as might be suspected from the title, the volume is devoted to portraying the manifold beauties and attractions of this famous park. The cover bears the name of Bert Clark Thayer as the author, while the title page conveys the information George F. T. Ryall has collaborated with him. The sub-title also tells us that the book is "the second in a series of sentimental journeys to Americas leading race courses." Which reminds that about two years ago Mr. Thayer brought out the first one in the series. It was devoted to Saratoga and was greeted with general acclaim because, first of all, it was a novelty in the way of "turf literature" and, secondarily, such a delightful one. Bert Clark Thayer is a photographer who devotes himself almost exclusively to racing and the thoroughbred and he has been called "the poet of the camera" in his field. While he has made many admirable portrait studies of individual race horses, his forte is really the depiction of racing as a spectacle and a sport, with everything that goes to make it up. He has, above all, the "seeing eye" for the picturesque, the intriguing, the queer, the quaint and the beautiful. These he sees with an altogether different vision from the regular cameraman, and as he is a master of his instrument as well, the results he obtains are always interesting and often unrivaled. SECOND ISSUE COMPLETE. In his previous volume oh Saratoga he added to his pictures only marginal commentaries in the way of captions, telling, but sometimes not telling quite enough. This has been corrected in his new book by calling upon Mr. Ryall, well known as a slfilful and informed turf literateur, to furnish a series of brief sketches scattered through the illustrations, which, in a concise but pleasant way, convey a lot of information. In his Saratoga volume, Mr. Thayer pended solely upon black and white from the presses, but for the benefit of Hialeah he has added a number of charming plates in full color. They are excellently done and add immensely to the effect sought for. Altogether, this is a unique production and will excite the admiration of anybody, whether particularly interested in the turf or not. It is at once typical of Mr. Thayers highly individual manner of presenting racing upon the printed page and Mr. Wideners equally finished and fastidious manner of presenting it to the public. Having expressed these sentiments, let us turn to the contrast, pronounced above not only complete but astonishing, which the second volume under consideration presents. In doing so, there seems no necessity of formally describing it by title, author or publisher while the only illustration is a photo of the author himself, perhaps, after all, the most fitting thing of the kind that could have been included. DESERTS RACING. This author, however, is a well-known former sports writer who, after a number of years during which his name ornamented the sports pages of various big daily papers, has said "goodbye to all that" and betaken himself to other fields. His book is his valedictory in his former role, as well as his farewell salute or parting broadside to ------- - - 4 the various sports which formerly he exploited in the way of his vocation. It is not a pleasant book. The number of bitter, disparaging, sarcastic, consorious, vituperative, cynical, derogatory, sneering, reprehensible and damnatory things that he sets down about almost all the different major sports and numerous minor ones is so monotonous that in the end it defeats itself. As the reader proceeds, he finds himself not only repelled and disgusted by this unremitting flow of abuse, but tired and made indifferent. If a man or woman of either plain common sense or any personal . experience, he experiences a feeling of nausea. Among the subjects which come in for the most comprehensive and unqualified "lambasting" is the turf. The number of different denunciations of racing and those devoted to it is apparently only limited by the amount of space that the chapter allotted to them has been apportioned. But within that space the writer manages to crowd sufficient scorn, contumny and castigation to suffice for an encyclopedia. It is, in effect, a torrent of vilification. Everybody connected with the sport is either a crook, a stuffed shirt, or a nit-wit led like a lamb to the slaughter. As for the sport itself, it is just a travesty intended to fleece the unwary on the one hand and to enrich the operators on the other. LACKS KNOWLEDGE. What is the most instructive feature of the whole indictment, however, is this: The author, apparently, hasnt the slightest idea of what racing really is. In fact, he says so in so many words, for he makes the statement that what he terms "the front" of the sport does not and never has interested him. By that he means racing itself the actual contests, the horses and men that take part in them, the manner in which they are staged and the underlying elements. No his interest is or was wholly focused upon the sordid, surreptitious and unseemly things that, in racing as all else, are always to be found, from business to politics and politics to religion, wherever human activities on a large scale are brought into play. To everything but this the writer alluded to is either wilfully or ignorantly blind. And he concentrates his efforts upon making his readers see things through his eyes and in the same light as himself. When one turns from such a book as Mr Thayers, upon Hialeah, to this other, one moves from daylight, as it were, into darkness. And unless experienced and unable to judge things for what they really are, he will be puzzled to co-ordinate them or explain them as products of one and the same source of inspiration. BOOK LOANED. The second book did not come to me for review. Neither did I buy it. I cannot conceive anybody who would really spend money for such a volume. It was passed along to me by a friend who had been reading it and was curious to know my reaction. He had gotten it from the public library where he had picked it up somewhat idly because the title interested him, he being fond of all kinds of sport. But he was not more than superficially intimate with racing, knew I was, and wished to know if it was really the deplorable mess that the writer made it out to be. The incident illustrates a very serious matter. Namely, the effect that such books, of all kinds, have upon the innocent and uninitiated reader. To say that it is pernicious is to state it mildly. Poisonous would be the fitter word. Nobody, man woman or yountr person, unfamiliar with racing as it really is but would derive from this account of it the most distorted, prejudicial and unreal impression. One of the best antidotes lies in such a volume as Beautiful Hialeah but unfortunately, the latter will probably never come to the notice of such readers. It is indeed a pity.
