A SPENDING ORGY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17246, 12 January 1924, Page 26

A SPENDING ORGY.

NEW YORKERS SPEND VAST SUMS ON SPORT. An Eastern writer has discovered that “ King Midas has come into his own m the island of Manhattan” (cay* toe sporting writer of the “ San Francisco Chronicle j Money flows in a golden stream, apparently as unceasingly as the waters irom our mountain streams, and the New Yorkers, aided and abetted bv millions of visitors, have entered upon an orgy of spending that would have caused King Midas to blush with shame. i Price matters not. J It is merely a question of how much money the individual has in store, and whether it is sufficient for what is at hand. That- was a condition that struck me I most forcibly when I visited New York | for a couple of weeks during the sum J mer. We 1 - never counted the* cost or - the bank balance. Simply whether there was enough m hand to continue the pace. • At that time our sport- loving public had spent almost a million dollars for the Firpo-’Willard fight. We came right, back for more than half a million for Leonard and Tendler. Tn between. ball games were drawing big houses and minor fights were attracting crowds that, would have at . , tracted world-wide attention a few years back. Saturdays, Sundays and holidays saw thousands on thousands spending, spending, spending, in their quest for amusement. It cost- me 4 2d0l 75 cents for the rental privilege of a small dressing room in one of the Long Beach bath houses and another 75 cents for suit I thought. perhaps. there would come a pause Rut. we haven't reached the end An i othgj miihon and a quarter was paid

into the coffers of the fight promote for the Dempsey-Firpo battle. Over a million "as contributed f this six-game world’s series, and tho sands on the only Sunday were deni the opportunity of handing over th« money because there was no more rooi Zev and Papyrus raced before wh is estimated at- a half-million doll house. "With football, ir is eut irely a qu« tiou of seating capacity. and not- t willingness of the public to spei money. The pendulum continues 1o swing. Tt. is a law of Nature that the pe dulum must swing back Wo. seem have lost our sense of proportions, o usually sound appreciation of the val of a dollar. This *3 n't keep up for ever and 1 ever.