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The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



maica Plain clubs, amalgamated as it were, 

 with the idea of getting a speedway some- 

 where in the vicinity of Dorchester. The 

 South Boston boys suggested the Strandway, 

 or the Old Colony track bed, near the calf 

 pasture, but things drifted along with very 

 little satisfaction and no results. 



Meetings were held in several places, one 

 particularly, in the home of J. M. E. Morrill, 

 at which nearly seventy-five prominent horse- 

 men from South Boston. Jamaica Plain, Mat- 

 tapan and Dorchester attended. Finally the 

 officials and board of directors were notified 

 to attend a meeting one Sunday morning in 

 their clubrooms in Codman Square. J. M. E. 

 Morrill, although not a member of the board, 

 attended by invitation of President Brand. 

 After considerable discussion as to the proper 

 way to go about it. it was voted that a com- 

 mittee of three be appointed to carry out the 

 matter of compelling the Park Commissioners 

 to grant a location for a speedway to a finish, 

 and $500 was appropriated for the use of the 

 committee in furthering their object and for 

 such necessary expenses as might occur. This 

 committee consisted of P. J. Fitzgerald. 

 George \Y. D'Arey and J. W. Linnehan. The 

 committee met the next day and organized 

 with Fitzgerald as chairman and Linnehan as 

 secretary. It was agreed that the committee 

 should work individually and separately, and 

 report results weekly. 



When a member of this committee inter- 

 viewed Alderman Curley and told him that 

 the directors of the club had appropriated 

 $500 to be expended in the way of advertise- 

 ment and the collecting of signatures to peti- 

 tions to be presented to the City Government. 

 Mayor and Park Board, the Alderman advised 

 against it. "Don't let your committee spend 

 one cent ; you don't need to. You have a ma- 

 jority of the Common Council and the Board 

 of Aldermen with you now and they will stay 

 with you until the finish. Bring all the influ- 

 ence you can on the Mayor to have him com- 

 pel the Park Commissioners to grant you a 

 location for your speedway, but don't spend 

 a cent of the club's money in this matter." 



When this matter was mentioned to Alder- 

 man Baldwin he practically gave the same ad- 

 vice as Alderman Curley, and it might be well 

 to mention right here that not one cent of this 

 $500 was ever expended by this committee 

 throughout their whole transaction. 



When this conversation was reported to 

 P. J. Fitzgerald at a meeting of the commit- 

 tee, he said, "That is just what I expected 

 from Jim Curley. It is now up to us to go 

 after Mayor Collins, and we had better see 

 him individually, not collectively." 



After three visits to the Mayor's office, 1 

 was allowed to see him. I opened up by say- 

 ing, "Mr. Mayor, as a member of the Dor- 

 chester Driving Club committee on a speed- 

 way, I have come to see you about granting 

 a location in Dorchester for a speedway where 

 the Dorchester horsemen can race their 

 horses." 



"How many of you are on that committee?" 

 asked he. "I had P. J. Fitzgerald in here yes- 

 terday. He is set for a speedway on Franklin 

 Field. You men must be crazy to ask for a 

 race track on that field. Why, you will kill 

 more people there in a year than were killed 

 at the battle of Bunker Hill." 



"Mr. Mayor," I inquired, "did you ever 

 drive a horse in a race?" 



"No," he replied, "I never drove a horse in 

 my life, and I would not know what to do 

 with him if he should go faster than a walk." 



"Well," I said, "it would be of no use for 

 me to argue the question with you." 



"No," he answered, "Fitzgerald gave me all 

 the argument I wanted yesterday, but I prom- 

 ised him to look into the matter and I am 

 coming out some Saturday to see you boys 

 race your horses at Mattapan." 



I thought to myself, here is where I can get 

 a chance to spend some of that $500, so I 

 said, "Mr. Mayor, if you will come out next 

 Saturday, I will send a carriage for you at 

 whatever hour you may designate." 



"No, you won't," he quickly responded; 

 "when I go I will go with my own driver and 

 horses that I know will not run away with 

 me." 



That Mayor Collins did visit us at Matta- 

 pan and see us race, and then went to Frank- 

 lin Field and looked over the ground where 

 the present speedway is. and became interested 

 enough to take the matter up with the Park 

 Commission, and had a quarter of a mile 

 speedway laid out, is a fact, and was due en- 

 tirely to P. J. Fitzgerald, who was a personal 

 friend. 



That the Dorchester Driving Club had 

 starting judges' stands and a grandstand buill 

 is due to the late Mayor Hibbard, who was 

 for years, while postmaster, a member of the 

 club! 



To tell the story of how the speedway was 

 extended from a quarter to a half-mile 

 track during the Fitzgerald administration 

 would be only a repetition of the first part of 

 this story. The only difference was that, in- 

 stead of having to deal with a man, as Mayor, 

 wdio had admitted that he knew nothing about 

 a horse, in fact, was afraid of them, the com- 

 mittee had to deal with a man who, although 

 he had never owned a fast horse, had driver 





