On Ice

Stunt fliers, automobile racers, pearl divers, bull fighters risk wicked wounds in the exercise of their bodies for gold. Not so fisticuffers, footballers, baseball players, golf champions who make most of the money. This winter, however, has seen a shift in money values which brings one sport at least nearer a financial level with its vicious risks. Professional hockey players are being bartered for many thousands, receiving presumably increasingly fat dividends for their efforts. One rumor floats about that the Montreal Canadians hold Howie Morenz, greatest of all hockey players, for a $100,000 bid.

Morenz is stoop shouldered with skinny legs. Possessed of that tiny fraction of speed which slips him around a twisting enemy, he is the highest scorer in either the International or American Divisions of big league hockey. Statistics issued last week give Morenz 22 goals. His teammate Aurel Joliat has 20. The highest scorer in the American Division is Hay, Detroit, 13.

With Morenz and Joliat pounding the puck so steadily into opponents' nets the Canadians lead the International Division by a safe margin. The only U. S. team, New York Americans, is a bad last. The rival league is led by Manhattan's other team, the New York Rangers, trailed closely by Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.

In March the season ends. The first three teams in each league struggle against each other to select a champion. These winners play for the World's championship. Addicts pick the Canadians to face either the Rangers, Boston or Detroit for supremacy in this vivid, dangerous diversion.