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Soccer Fans Take Game Seriously In Argentina
Two Die in Rioting As Crowd Protests Bad Decision ^[[32 May 39]] By W.H. Shippen, Jr., Star Staff Correspondent. BUENOS AIRES.-Gunfire and saber strokes, or a shower of pop bottles-the difference lies in the point of view.  The Argentine soccer fan can explode with all the violence of a World Series crowd when the umpire calls a sour on in the vital inning. Two fans were killed here this afternoon-one a 9-year-old boy!  [[Image-man]] W.H. Shippen, jr.
The shooting started when the crowd, angry at an umpire for sending a popular athlete to the showers, tore through the wire netting and surged out on the fields, bearing innocents as well as belligerents before it like chaff.  The police say they fired in the air and used the flats of their sabers.  A panic followed.  Spectators attempting to flee the place found exits closed or inadequate.  When order was restored at last four gunshot victims were found, along with many others bruised and cut in the mad crush.  An ambulance responding to an emergency alarm collided with an automobile at a nearby intersection.  Later the Board of Directors of the "Boca Juniors" met because of the "lamentable consequences" of the game.  The board put up money to bury the victims and passed a resolution condemning the "brutal police" for firing on "defenseless spectators."  The police, on the other hand, claimed it was the spectators who fired the fatal shots.  Incidentally, the Boca Juniors won-1 to 0.  Our friends gave us the choice today between attending the soccer game and seeing the local zoo with its Sunday crowds.  Unfortunately (from my point of view, anyhow, although my wife disagrees), we chose the zoo.  We wanted to see Wild Bill, the buffalo, and his mate, Francisca-a pair we helped import to the Argentine, along with various other gift specimens from the Washington Zoo.  Washington's Zoo Director William M. Mann and Mrs. Mann were supposed to pay a round of official calls this afternoon.  We bade them good-by and set out for the zoo on the subway, together with approximately 90,000 other people.  In the press of thousands to buy tickets at the gate, I fell in line behind a familiar figure.  It was Doctor Mann, who had postponed his social duties in favor of another jaunt to the zoo-his sixth to date!  The B. A. zoo is an outdoor affair.  Such things as South American ostriches, Patagonian cavies, tapirs, llamas, alpacas, agoutis, storks, peacocks and howler monkeys stroll about free within the huge, tree-grown enclosure.  Dr. Mann was having a swell time.  He kept pointing his camera this way and that.  "Ah, William," he cried, "I'll take those home with me...! and those, and those...! I'll take their pictures home anyhow; meanwhile, we shall hope, and also rely, upon the generosity of our good neighbor, the Argentines!  "I'd rather he here than any place else in the world-unless it's Washington!  The circus is moving in back in Washington today. At this hour, this very minute, the red wagons are unloading; Beverley Kelley and the rest of the gang are in town! They'll be knocking around with Melvin Hildreth and the circus Maybe Frank Portillo is throwing another party for the clowns!"  Dr. Mann produced his handkerchief and wiped his eyes.  If he hadn't been surrounded by such a lively zoological panorama, I', afraid he would have caught the next boat home.  As it was, he hurried us to the restaurant to compare it with the one he hopes to build in Washington with a new P. W. A. appropriation for $90,000.  The zoo director got a cable yesterday from the Secretary Abbot of the Smithsonian Institution announcing the award.  Dr. Mann, for years, has been planning a fine restaurant in Rock Creek Park.  He was elated to learn that his hopes may be realized.  "We have a lot of people to thank for that appropriation," Dr. Mann said, "and not the least of them is Nickey Arundel-the fighting young editor of 'Nickey's News!'  You remember how he campaigned for the giraffes  until we got them?"  In the zoo here, children rode llamas, ponies and tiny donkeys, or jogged along in miniature carts.  They chased the cavies and agoutis over the grass, and fed animal crackers to the ostriches.  "How well behaved these spectators are," Dr. Mann said.  "Even the worst of them never mistreat animals.  That's why all these fine specimens can roam free with the crowds. Now in Washington 99 per cent of the spectators are fine people-it's that onery one per cent we have to guard against, the uneducated minority!"  "But, doctor," I said, "did you see that swarthy-looking citizen who just a minute ago, tried to give a lighted cigar to the baby tapir?"  "No, William," he said. "I didn't see that! And, besides, I'm a guest here!"  From what I saw today, however, of the free association between animals and men, it was the animals, as much as the men, who were educated.  The tapir, young as he was, turned down the cigar with a sniff of contempt, and I saw a llama, with a gleam in his eyes, reject a bit of tin foil.  The man you offered the foil moved away quickly.  "Why not educate your animals, doctor," I asked, "and let the public take care of itself?"  "William," he replied, "if I teach you too much about zoology you may take my job!"  Back at the hotel tonight, just to make it a perfect day, Dr. Mann got a cable from his circus pals, who missed him, they said, even more than the 600 or more tickets he buys for the Washington performances.  The cable was from Beverley Kelley, who has just completed a book on elephants.  Dr. Mann cabled back something to the effect: "Were those the ponderous pachyderms or just an earthquake we felt down here?" --- Next: The difficulties of being a conventional guest.

[[Image-a telegram postmarked Buenos Aries Branch 14 May 39]]  Telegrama 
LH25 Washington DC 16 14 3.14P
LC DR AND MRS WM MANN CARE AMERICAN COUNSEL BAIRES
WISH YOU WERE HERE
BEV KELLEY