Show O A 1 T VI fP IT V O FORMER SALT LAKEMAN LAKE MAN TELLS OF SPORTS IN THE ORIENT Elwood S Drown Brown for tor tour four years ears head bead of the physical department of the Salt SaIt Lake Y M 31 C O A and now DOW head of 01 the physical ph department of or the tue Manila ManUa Y 31 lU O 0 A Which puts him hEUL at the head bend of that branch of the th e associations as elation work Tork in the Philippine Island writes write wr te the toll follow following ow owIng ing in Interesting letter Jetter to lo The ll Mr Brown tells teU of 01 the growth in popularity of In la the Orient That In la the th Island inlands baseball will 01 Boon soon outstrip out trl cockfighting on WI the national sport aport is his hIli prediction While bile Sir Ir Brown laU falls to say anything about hIs hla work his hb friends here know that t at he will make ma ke a D success of hla hi work Tork in the 4 new Dew ew field Mr Browa left Salt Lake January 1 1010 1 4 4 H M M M tt M M M H M M t M H M t M M M M M M M H H HYoung r Young Mens Christian Association of ot Manila I promised to write you a let letter lettel tens tel about my first impressions of the far tar east in the sporting line and here they are In Japan about the first thing I noticed was that everybody every ody seemed to have havea a cold and was playing baseball and in Manila everyone was playing baseball and smoking cigarettes It make ma e any what else the people over here have or do they either play baseball or stand around all day watching someone who Is playing The game seems to have swept over the Orient like a tidal wave In Yoko Yokohama Yokohama hama bama Tokio Kioto clUes cities we visited it seemed that every little back yard and vacant lot had hod its quota of ot kids playing the game in approved American gloves balls and outfits out There are teams everywhere In grade schools industrial schools high schools and I guess you wilt will remember what a time the University of Wisconsin base baseball baseball baseball ball team had In winning a game from any of the Japanese universities Here In the Philippines the game has taken a stilt still stronger hold It is hoped by the government that ultimately ly Its popularity will be so great that it will supplant cock fighting which is now the national nal sport Ill tell you about the cock fighting later It n would delight your heart and arouse your admiration if It you could see some of these Filipino kid play baseball and then realize that they have only had bad tho the game for a few years They hey do nothing else in their leisure time and consequent consequently nl ly are making great progress I saw a agama agama gama game Saturday between the Trade school and a high school team tm from one of the southern provinces Moros and tilt nil dressed up In uniforms and play playIng playing playIng Ing with the spirit and determination of big leaguers The Th fielders were fast last and the pitchers had a a goodly assortment of curves the catcher gave signals properly pro and they knew when to hit It out and when to f bunt I was wag very much surprised at their skill Most of the tho school teams are coached by some American college man Can Root as s Well By watching the Americans play they have picked up a lot Jot ot of baseball slang which they use continually mixing It in with their excited native natye chatter At the game i I 1 saw the other day you would hear sounds like this Taga hoy put her over oer bonga bongo loo bowa gong shoot or er first E gag gogo S owa glass glaas arm copa toY lov etc Even the tho little kids are all hard after the tho game Before the Americans Americana came native children up to the age of 10 wore no clothes at all The law now ow requires that they shall wear one garment Sometimes It will be a pair of ot sandals sandale sometimes a very short little ittle shirt shift and and and sometimes som times a straw hat and that is absolutely absolutely all Men women and children smoke cigars and cigarettes I actually saw and Im going to send you a picture later a little boy about 8 years yeara old with absolutely nothing on but buta a hat a cigar in tn his mouth a Spalding glove on his hand and and he was burning em ov over r to a larger boy who had a II big glove and was letting him warm up Another five years and baseball will be supreme here Cockfights Everywhere Right now cock fighting Is the big thing Every man has as his fighting rooster fooster on which he ho bestows more at attention attention attention than ho he does on his children The birds are trained from up and are aro ro considered d household pets They aro are either elther tethered out Jn In in the th trout tro t yard like a watch dog or given Iven an honored roost in the front room At the end of every car carline line there Is a big cock cockpit cockpit cockpit pit with tier on tier of seats around it it On Sundays and all holidays crowds of people all aU with their roosters hike out there and from daylight to dark the fighting goes on On the tha left leg of If each rooster a steel spur is fastened four thebes inches long IonS and nd sharper than a ra r They have a referee In the center o otho ot of tho the pit who picks out promiscuously from the bunch two roosters which ap appt apP appt pt P to be about t equal in ago age ag and weight Tho The two owners thereupon tuck the chickens chicken under their arms aims and step Into Int the middle of th the ring Each man tells the referee how ow much muc he Is prepared to bet on n his rooster Tho The rooster backed by the biggest amount Is the favorite and the owner of the favorite takes off tf his hat so the crowd may know The other oth r owner keeps hisOn his hison hison on About this time pandemonium breaks klota and for tor five minutes shouting yelling and arid making of bets goes on The stock exchange is as quiet as a summer r morn compared to the foolish excitement they work up here trying to place th lr bets A man bets on the hat ji n or hat off rooster Hat On Starts It Finally a little bell rings and the tha noise suddenly ceases Mr Hat On now cov coy covers era ers up his roosters head and allows Mr Hat HILt Offs rooster to peek pack p ck his hla on the tha neck Then the process pross la Js reversed and hat list on rooster takes a few at hat off ott This arouses the fighting blood of the cocks and then they are placed laced on the ground and the fight is on Sometimes it lasts a minute but usually twenty seconds is enough The roosters jump at each other and it seems to me purely by luck one rooster will hit a vulnerable spot pot with his long artificial spur and the other rooster falls over dead I saw seven fight the day I went out and the longest lasted one min mini minute minute ute and both birds were killed while w Ue the shortest tight fight occupied but ten seconds se just one clash From a sport standpoint there is noth nothing nothIng ing lag to it and it is undoubtedly very cruel and debasing The betting end of ot it is the big thing and people seem to like Uke it because they get quick action on their money The dead rosters are taken home and eaten by the sorrowing Borrowing family The Men MenAs Aa As a purely athletic feat teat the hl haiz of f Japan Is la the tho best thing I have ava seen over here h re Almost any man is able to haul a person around all allday allday day In his little cart and keep up a steady trot all the time They think nothing of running forty miles mUes and pulling that t cart with a heavy man i It all the way We rode around one oge morning in Kioto l for two hours with only a short stop or o two and I timed my man and he rarely required over six minutes for a 1 mile They hike along In cold weather and I warm weather through mud and slush and never seem to tire I am surprised that some enterprising marathon pro promoter promoter moter mater picked out a good man m n and matched him with Hayes or Do Dorando Doran Dorando rando ran do Give a man his little cart crt and he could run his miles and then go back to the twenty post and bring his opponent in InE ELWOOD E WOOD S BROWN |