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AMERICA'S NATIONAL GAME
379

ranking with our first-class players except in the art of batting. The games are conducted with systematic regard for the maintenance of good order, much more deference being paid to the umpire and his rulings than is true in our own major league contests. No liquors are sold writing Cuban league grounds, the man with a "thirst" being compelled to go a long distance for relief. Betting, however, is a habit so ingrained in the Cuban character that it will be a long time before that evil is eradicated from the game. Professional players do not receive salaries there as here, but seventy-five per cent. of the gross receipts of each game goes to the competing teams, of which the winners receive 50 per cent. and the losers 25 per cent. Under this system professional players in the strongest teams get about $100 a week.

For the following I am indebted to a recent number of Van Norden's Magazine. It is taken from an article written by Wadsworth Haynes:

"Then there is the Canal Zone, where the 'dirt is flying,' according to Mr. Taft, and where the canal engineers and workers from the United States have formed a regular league for the greater glory of the national game. There was Base Ball in the Zone as far back as when the French were trying to make the ditch, but it did not flourish. The last reports from Panama gave a seven-team league, in which Empire and Culebra were the big rivals, both being recruited from men working in the heart of the big cut, only a mile apart.

"'Active operations' are going on in the Philippines. Mr. George W. Moore, writing from Luzon some time ago, said: 'When I went over to Masbete the game was not known to the Filipinos, but after I had explained its possibilities they took to it with great enthusiasm. Before long we had many students who were able to play as well as the average American youths. Soon they began to organize teams in the various towns in the provinces, and now we have a regular Base Ball season in Masbete.

"'As for fans, the Filipinos have the Americans backed off the