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Show Report from America PIERRE CARTELL IIIALEAH, FLORIDA Probably Prob-ably not the least of man s sins is betting on the horses. But since it is such a popular sin. it m ght as well be given as good a setting as possible. Certainly no better setting could be imagined than that here at Hialcah. There is an amazing amount of beauty and color crowded into this most elegant of all America's racetracks; stately, aristocratic palms, acres of flowers, flow-ers, and a vast expanse of greens, hedges, ivy, and fresh, spring grass. It is all on the style of a super club, a bit startling at first, but undeniably delightful. And over and above the scenery scen-ery one does have horses. And where horses race, it seems men will gather and bet. - Whether at the end of the season sea-son or not, the amount of money that is poured into the macines is staggering. The number of grimfaced gentlemen who line . up before the one hundred dollar j window makes one wince. And , the volume of valueless tickets ' that is destroyed after the race) is run attests to the fact that it's plenty easy to guess wrong. Most of those who come here to watch and bet are northerners down on vacation. Obviously , they have plenty of money. It's practically burning holes in their pockets. They arrive early at the track, absorb I fear very little of the beauty, and not a little of the booze here present, and bet on the daily double the first two , races as a unit, for the uninitiatc. j Then it is a steady trek from ; .trackrail to paddock which here is a superb plot shaded by palms and as cut off from the outside world as if it were Shan-gri Shan-gri La to inspect the horses for J the next race, to the ticket windows win-dows marvelous mechanical contraptions, undoubtedly an invention in-vention of the devil back to the rail again. Through a full afternoon this uses up a great deal of energy, J shoeleathcr, nerves, about a hundred dollars, and a couple of packs of cigarettes. The enjoyment of the bettor is all too much tied up in his little "tickets; it's impossible not to get the feeling that racing has suffered a sad decline when it's not the horse and the race that creates the excitement but the money and the hope for a few easy dollars. Florida has put thumbs down on slot machines and other forms of gambling but looks with loving lov-ing eye on horserace betting. They bet here at the track, on street corners, in bars, and strange to say even the school 1 children wager a bit after class-j es. Getting rid of slot machines hasn't done anything towards the ( elimination of gambling. Tossibly it's even done some harm, focus-1 ing attention on a great sport and doing that sport no favor by drawing to it some very undesirable unde-sirable elements. Todav a contrast to the normal was a flaxen haired blonde from Buffalo who knew nothing about horses, racing, or betting, but who gloried in the beauties of the track, rooted passionately for the horses she thought were prettiest, and went crazy with excitement ex-citement when they raced. She clung doggedly to her possition at the rail through the whole afternoon, asked innumerable questions of those nearby, and in general seemed to have a g.rcnt time. When she picked a winner, she was too surprised and happy even to cheer. |