Roguish Girl

Whose racing stable will lead the 1936 list of winners is a question that will he decided next Jan. 1. Whose stable will appear at the bottom of the list will probably never be known, but a likely candidate will certainly be John J. ("Bathhouse John") Coughlin, famed sporting alderman of Chicago. Mr. Coughlin races a stable of 29 horses in and around Chicago. Last week at Arlington Park a Coughlin-owned filly named Roguish Girl won a race. The fact made banner headlines on Chicago sports pages. It was the first race won by a Coughlin entry this year.

Not to be confused with Radiopriest Charles Edward Coughlin of Detroit, John J. Coughlin is famed as much for his bright waistcoats, his huge paunch and his absurd poetry, as for his losing racehorses. A onetime rubber in a Turkish bath establishment, he saved his tips, opened a bathhouse of his own in 1890. First all-night establishment in the city, it prospered promptly, enabled Bathhouse John to get a grip on the Democratic vote of Chicago's First Ward which he has never lost. Huge, burly, white-haired, he keeps sacks of potatoes and bread to dole out to his constituents in his office opposite City Hall. A master at achieving personal publicity, he once objected strongly to a newspaper article, not because he was described as a thief, but because it said he was born at Waukegan, Ill. instead of in his own First Ward. Forty years ago, reporters took to writing balderdash poems, attributing them to Bathhouse John. Bathhouse John framed the poems, kept them in his office, claimed authorship. The Coughlin poem on Repeal:

. . . Never losing the American spirit of good cheer While fighting for our glass of beer Never flinching in the battle Now we hear the dry bones rattle.

Hale and cheerful at 75, only slightly muddled in his recollections of a remarkable career, Alderman Coughlin goes to his office at 9:30 a. m., leaves for the track soon after lunch. His companion is usually his crony and political ally, "Hinky Dink" Kenna. Occasionally, Bathhouse John rides to the track on the front seat of his limousine because the back seat is filled with feed for his horses, to which he gives such names as Sub-Committee, Honored Sir, Official. Why they win so few races is a mystery to Chicago sports writers, who have blamed everything from their trainers to their owner's political acumen. Roguish Girl's victory last week inspired characteristic Coughlin poetry:

Roguish Girl, Ah, she's a pearl With feet as swift and true-- As the legs of any ewe; I'll tell you boys she's here to win, And from now on it looks as if You will be drinking the better grade gin.

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