MAX O’RELL ON THE MELBOURNE CUP.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2427, 19 November 1892, Page 2

MAX O’RELL ON THE MELBOURNE CUP.

The Melbourne Argus has a threecolumn article by Max O’Bell on “ The Three Great Racecourses of the World— Longchamp, Epsom, Flemingtou.” So far as fashion, elegant dresses, and polished manners are concerned, the witty Frenchman naturally gives the palm to Longchamp when the race for the Grand Prix de Paris is run, but in all other respects he gives first place to Melbourne racecourse. “ For its matchless course, the spacious stands and luxurious accommodation of all kinds for visitors, Flemington (says the famous lecturer) stands unrivalled in the world, and when one considers that Melbourne is not yet sixty years old it is perfectly marvellous.” Max O’Bell quotes Lord Rosebery’s verdict on Flemingtou, “ This is not a race meeting, it is more like a drawing-room entertainment.” “It seems to me that whenever I think of Cup week in Melbourne,” adds MaXj.O’Rell, “ It will be as a scries of garden parties with a few races thrown in. That one of these was a race for £IO,OOO, (the greatest prize awarded in the world to any winning horse), witnessed by about 100,000 people, will not at all destroy the garden party impression.” Max O’Rell searched, and of course in vain, to find on Cup Day any traces of the much-talked-of depression. “As a stranger coming into this country few things astonished me more than to see the hold that horse-racing had taken upon the people, and 1 was at a loss to account for it ” ; but he judiciously declines' the attempt to discuss the Cup from the moral side. “ Having read in Wednesday’s papers,” he says, “ the amount of money that had changed hands on Tuesday I will leave to some moralist in search of an occupation the task of considering whether it be wise to make race meetings as attractive as they are at Flemingtou.” 5 - Perhaps the crowd that flocked to hear his comedy lectures helped to increase Max O’Rell’s incredulity as to there being any depression in Melbourne.