NINETEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART II 95 



races? We advertised in the horse papers to give stakes and purses ag- 

 gregating $18,370. They all filled and the races were contested each after- 

 noon on the track in front of the grandstand. Then what happened? In- 

 stead of paying the $18,370 in full, as we did for our other vaudeville acts, 

 we deducted 5% from each of the first four horses in every race. This 

 made $2,270 and cut the amount for us to pay out down to $15,600. Then 

 we charged each horse that started in a race 3% of the amount of the purse 

 he started in, and this amounted to $7,871 and cut down the amount we 

 were to pay out that much more, or to $7,729. In other words we offered 

 for harness races $18,370 and only paid out $7,729, while for music and 

 attractions that performed at the same time before the grandstand, we 

 offered $14,036 and paid $14,036. To show that we can well afford to pay 

 for racing I will state that our day grandstand alone during the 1918 fair 

 took in $31,630, which is a good deal more than the entire cost of music, 

 vaudeville and racing. On a rainy day, when no racing can be given, our 

 grandstand is a lonesome place. We have the bands playing and the acts 

 going on all the time, but the small receipts show, in no uncertain way, 

 that it is the racing that fills it to overflowing. To give you an idea of how 

 little money the owner of a harness horse really gets for his work I will say 

 that at Des Moines this year there were 140 harness horses on the grounds. 

 They did not all start on account of lameness or lack of condition, or some- 

 thing of that sort, but if every one of the 140 horses that had been shipped 

 in there had started and earned his proportionate share of the amount we 

 paid out for racing, $7,729, he would have received the magnificent sum of 

 $55.20. All that owner would have had to do, out of that $55.20, would be 

 to pay a week's salary to both his driver and his groom, board them as 

 well as himself for a week, buy feed, hay and straw for the horse, pay 

 a drayman for hauling him in and then hauling him out, pay for repairs 

 on his boots and harness, pay for repairs on a broken sulky wheel that 

 gave out when he was run into over at the other town. After that, if no 

 other incidental expenses showed up, he could pay for shipping the horse 

 on to Hamline by express and, in addition, pay three railroad fares from 

 Des Moines up there for the driver, groom and himself. The rest of tha 

 money would be his. Can you understand why there is a different crop of 

 owners each year? 



In conclusion, I wish to say that I think we should give this proposed 

 association a helping hand and ask the parent associations to give them 

 memberships on their boards. I think that if harness racing is to continue 

 we will have to divide the burdens more equally where they belong. If it 

 is a vaudeville act, and I contend that it is now nothing more, we must pay 

 for it as we have been doing for the rest of our vaudeville by cutting out 

 the entrance fees and deductions from money winners. If we don't want 

 it, we can continue along the same lines as at present and it will fall of its 

 own weight. The great majority of harness horsemen are people of mod- 

 erate means and the rise in prices of everything used in connection with 

 harness racing has almost put them out of business. Racing should be 

 paid for in full out of the gate and grandstand receipts as is the rest of 

 our vaudeville. All state fairs have been unusually successful and profita- 

 ble the past few years and, as we all want harness racing and, in fact, must 

 have it, I think we should first of all support this new horsemen's Protective 



