IRISH SWEEP

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 238, 28 May 1932, Page 8

IRISH SWEEP

MIXING OF COUNTERFOILS WATCHED BY * VISITORS. MORE FANTASTIC THAN STAGE. The ceremony of mixing the Trish sweep counterfoils was watched this year by privileged visitors from many parts' of the world. They saw a spectacle more bizarre, more colourful, and more fantastie than has ever been staged in a Dublin theatre^ Hundreds of girls in a variety of j novel. costmnes figured in what might i well have been a colossal cabaret , show. They were divided into ^ two j sections, the first wearing military. uniform of the Napoleonie period, consisting of green jerseys with gold epaulettes, blue waist-bands, and , white trousers. j Th's other section were dressed to represent every nation subseribing to | the sweepstake. Lancashire had a representative of its own, a mill girl with shawl on her head. Then canre Napoleon himself — Captain Spencer Freeman, chief official of the draw. "Forward, march!" he commanded. His graceful soldiers moved as one man. The mixing niachines, looking and sounding like threshing machines, were in operation for hours, during which itckets from places as ,far i apart as San Francisco and Athens rubbed shoulders a moment before the devastating wind separated them •v. once again. jp* In describing the draw a corresjf pondent says:— "It is great fun being f? in Dublin on this electric day. Try , to picture the scene in the Plaza. The I Plaza yesterday a ballroom, the larg- j est ballroom there is in Ir eland. Now | all ablaze with lights and glowing j eolour, it presents the appearance of j a theatre on a popular first night. ; The floor is crowded with distinguish- j ed visitors. The Press of all nations j fill 200 seats. Cinematograph operators with their cameras oceupy around dais in the centre. "General O'Duffy, the Chief of Poliee, presides. On the stage are two drums. The larger one is the drum of fate. where your eounterfoil and mine and seven million others are slowly revolving. Its shell of sheet , steel shines dazzlingly unde'r the beat- ! ing lights. The smaller drum has the names of the horses. Perched above it all sits the director of the draw, j Mr. O'Sheehan. In front of the drum | are the four hospital nurses in uni- I form who make the draw. The method of it now needs no describing. "Everything has been marvollously | organised. The sweep is fraud-oroof and accident-nroof. General O'Duffy has even invmted since the last draw a system of code signals to the nurses to direct them in the event of emergeney. Nevertheless, Captain Freeman gave a hint of the nervous strain which the sweep has put upon the promoters when he told me how they were haunted day and night by the fear of fire, or of a mischance involving the loss or destruction of some of the precious slips, for if even a single eounterfoil were known to have gone astray, it would invalidate the whole sweep. "Not until the last prize is drawn," he said "shall we breathe freely again." "Immediately in front of the stage the staff of girl secretaries sat at a desk with typists, a topographical expert and sevei'al .linguists. Even the counterfoils written in .Chinese and Arabic presented no difficulties to the linguists. The air quivered with bright excitement.