The Sunday Oregonian., March 01, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 6, Image 50

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CHICAGO
DIAMOND (tars and dollars are now
being turned in Dixie by tlie base
ball magnates of the country.
March 1 is a signal for tilting the
-American landscape so that all big
li-ague baseball players who in the
Summer contribute to the excitement
of the pennunt races are sent flying
Houth of Mason's and Dixon's line to
find the sunshine that is so essential to
Ifcttlng .athletes Into good condition.
No other sport produces such an ex
pensive plienomena. Some money is
taken in at the gate by the exhibition
games that are played en route, but it
Is safe to say that the big league clubs
alone leave J100.000 in the South every
Spring.
The exodus has already commenced.
In Marlin. Texas. Manager McUraw al
ready has at work 'some of the pitchers
on whom he will depend in his effort
to rehabilitate the baseball fortunes of
New York's National League club. Half
a dozen teams will start in the next
seven days, and by the time a fortnight
has passed every American and Na-
tlonal League club will have from 30
to 40 men batting the ball, running the
bases, working to take off superfluous
weight, and undoing the climes against
good condition that have been wrought
by a Winter of idleness.
Those who only know the diamond
heroes by the work they do in August
would not recognlie the same men If
they jaw them laboriously striving to
get In shape In the Southland. Work
that is accomplished with lightning ce
lerity in the height of the season Is
performed slowly, painfully or not at
all. World's champion batsmen are un
able to hit the curves of the bush
leaguers; star catchers have not arms
enough to throw the ball to second
base; fleet outfielders hobble and limp
at the protest of suffering muscles, and
wonderful pitchers fall so far short of
having their mid-Summer effectiveness
that they are pounded not only by their
own comrades but by nny minor league
club that happens to be in the district
of the tour.
Without the Spring training trip and
its benefits, baseball in the early days
of the championship season would be
a farce, and the suffering and damage
to players it would entail would mean
the shortening of many careers.
Some &00 ballplayers will in a few
lays have been turned loose in the
Southern states, where the sun shines
earlier and kindlier than in the North.
While the late snows of Spring are
still cluttering the streets of the North
ern cities fast-flying trains will be
hurrying oft to camps, big cities, water
ing resorts, hot springs, cities on the
ljulf of Mexico, towns in the interior
mid Winter resorts the Nation's base
ball heroes.
The wide range which the hunt for
softahlo places covers is shown in the
accompanying list of the points to
which thu various clubs will go.
Barring only oue club, the entire Na
tional and American Leasue circuit will
be found in the South. That lone excep
tion Is the Chicago American team. Own
er Comtekoy is a great lover of long
trips. At the end of 19m. after his While
Sox had won the world's championship,
he promised them such a trip as had
never before been vouchsafed to a ball
club, and he made good his word by tak
ing them all the way to the City of Mex
ico. This year he is not going quite that far,
hut he will duplicate the 1907 trip of the
New York Gianta when they went to Los
Angeles, Cal. Perhaps if he could have
arranged. Owner Comiskey would have
enjoyed sending his charges on the cruise
round the world with the United States
licet under Admiral Bvans.
On Wednesday of this week Connie
Mack will lead his Philadephla American
league forces to New Orleans, where
they will play during the week of the
.Mardl liras. New Orleans is a town much
favored of the bail clubs, for not only Is
the climate Ideal for training in the early
Spring, but there Is a big sporting popula
tion which results In a good attendance
at the exhibition games played, and thus
hcliv to take a slice out of the expenses.
Cleveland's American league team un
der the leadership of tlje mighty l-ajole.
goes to Macon. Ga., on the same day that
the Philadelphia Americans get in mo
tion. Georgia is & popular state with the
ball tossers, "and beside Macon, Augusa
and Savannah will both be hosts for ma
jor league teams. The Boston Nationals
go to the former and the Philadelphia
Nationals to the latter.
The two St. Louis clubs get away for
Dixie on the same day. The National
leaguers will go to Houston. Tex., where
they were laxt year, and the Americans
go to Shreveport, Ala., another much fa
ored place.
The St. Louis Nationals will have train
ing neighbors not far away, for Washing
ton will again go to Galveston.
The world's champion Chicago Nation
al league club stays one week in Vkks
burg. Miss., and then make a tour.
The New York American .league club
ha arranged a stay at Hot Springs, and
Jennings, manager of the Detroit club,
winner of the American League pennant,
mill also take his club there, though the
schedules have been so arranged as to
avoid any conflict. The Boston American
League team will go to Little Rock. Ark.
President Herrman. of the Cincinnati
National league club, has arranged to
take .his club to a retreat deeply beloved
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of the millionaire St. Augrustine, Pla.
Only 37 miles away will be the Brooklyn
National League club, which has picked
out Jacksonville as about the proper
place for training. Pittsburg will follow
an unfailing rule of the last eight years
and go to Hot Springs.
Intimating the number of players at
500, it is allowing only about 30 to a club,
and thu is not extravagant. In many
cases the number advances all the way
to 40, and it never goes below 25.
A goodly percentage of the men who go
South never return North to the cities
that signed them. Astute managers soon
discover their weak points, and they are
either released or else farmed out to some
minor league for more experience.
In addition to the players who make
the Southern trip the management pays
for various other persons. The trainer
is vitally needed, and some -clubs also
take along a rubber. Then the business
manager, the president and other officials
of the club, newspaper writers, etc., are
Included in the roster.
The total of any party can be safely
averaged at 40. Balancing a costly trip
like that taken by the Chicago Amer
icans, against, for instance, a short jour
ney like that arranged by the Boston
Nationals to Augusta, Ga., it is safe to
say that In railroad fare and sleeping
accommodations en route not less than a
round hundred dollars is spent on each
man. Here is WoCO for a starter.
Say the trip lasts four weeks, and it
is usually not less than a week longer
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Classic Literature Now Taught in English
At BroTvo University Students Are Tnnsjht the Uvea
of Kontu and Athenians w an Experiment.
PROVIDENCE, R, I.. Feb. 17. Special
Correspondence.) There is being
tried here, at Brown University, an
experiment In education that is attract
ing the interested attention of college and
secondary schoolteachers everywhere.
Just what it is going to prove nobody
can quite tell as yet. But there Is every
Indication that it will solve one of the
difficulties against which the old-fashioned
idea of a "well-cultivated mind"
has had to struggle in recent years. It is
an attempt to give a student who knows
neither Greek nor Latin that acquaint
ance with classics which is still by very
many educators considered necessary to
a well rounded education. It is an under
taking that concerns every American
community where a school board, a su
perintendent and a High School principal
have constantly to consider the question
of just how much classical instruction
may properly be paid for out of the pub
lic ftinde.
After all, this is the point of view at
THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, MARCH
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than that, the. boa d. of a party at S3 a
day per man is another $3600, making
J76O0 for the club. Four hundred dollars
for incidentals is a very mild allowance,
which means some S&KK) which must be
put out by every team, a total of $128,000.
.From this must be deducted the sum
made in exhibition games. This Is a
fair Item, but not big enough to make any
serious cut in the .balance in favor of the
South.
Both championship teams, and clubs
with stars whose fame is National, men
like Cobb, Chase. Mathewson, Waddelt,
Walsh, Chance, Overall, Brown, Tenney,
etc.. make fair money, but the case is
indeed an isolated one where the entire
cost of the trip is made by the club.
All over the South the enthusiasts revel
in the chance to see the big stars, and
there is mighty rejoicing when one of the
home clubs in the Texas League, South
ern League or Atlantic Coast League
manages to capture a game from one of
the big fellows, especially with a famous
twirler In the box.
Some of the other leagues also send
teams South, for instance, the American
Association, Eastern League and Tristate
League, but they seldom go very far, con
tenting themselves with journeys in the
vicinity of Richmond, Va., or Charlottes
ville, Va.
The ball player gets no salary on the
Southern trip, but every dollar of his ex
pense Is borne by the club, which Is
really aiding him .to get in shape to
earn his ; living. -
Brown, which has long been one of the
strongholds of classic education in this
country whether a man is going Into a
literary, scientific or commercial profes
sion for practically every pursuit has
now become a profession in the true
sense a grounding in what used to be
known as the humanities is still pretty
nearly necessary. A short time ago the
head master of Harrow, the great Eng
lish preparatory school that has always
been regarded as peculiarly devoted to
the classics, came out with the declara
tion to the effect that the Greek language
as a subject for study is out of date In
these times.
Yet, such is the belief of many dis
tinguished American educators, no one
has discovered anything that will ex
actly take the place of Greek and Latin
as a foundation on which nearly every
thing else can be firmly set. Teachers
of the classics in this country have long
been disturbed by the apparent loss of in
terest in their studies, and there certain
ly has been a tendency in some High
Schools to discard Greek in order that
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the time formerly devoted to it might be
employed .to more utilitarian subjects
more utilitarian from the twentieth cen
tury point of view.
The experiment that is under way at
Brown University consists in teaching the
classics in English, so that a young man
who had no chance to study them before
he came to college and who feels after
he gets to college as if he could not spare
the time to begin the long process of
learning to read them in the original may
get as much benefit as possible from them
at second-hand, so to speak.
The first question raised when this at
tempt was started was, "What good are
Greek and Latin to a modern American
anyway?" And if Greek and Latin are
considered merely as languages the
answer Is. "To those who will write for
a living, preach, argue in the courts or
otherwise employ language as an imple
ment of their calling, very useful; to
other Americans, of very little use."
HucVleberry Finn took a huge interest
in "Moses and the bullrushers" until he
discoVered that they were dead. After
that he bad no use for them, for as he
said, he didn't take any stock in dead
folks. That is a good deal the attitude
of mind toward the classics which class
7X
1908.
rY: HUNDRED J3ALL PLAYttS IN TNE
MAcOR JLEAGUtt BEG fN SERIOUS
UORflT THIS UEEfC '
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fa1
ical teachers have to meet everywhere.
They do it generally by pointing out that
in law, in . business, in politics and In
literature, the 20th century American has
derived his ideas and customs from the
Athenians and Romans of 20 centuries
ago. A really intelligent and correct un
derstanding,, in other words, of modern
institutions and government, of modern
science and commercialism a thorough
going, always-workable, never-can-be-muddled
comprehension of them de
mands a knowledge of the sources from
which they sprung.
One very wholesome effect of the effort
to keep the classics alive has been a
modernizing of the way of teaching them.
It is no longer enough for the instructor
to drill his pupils in the grammar, rhet
oric and versification of Caesar, Cicero
and Virgil or Xenophon, Plato and Ho
mer. The form is of less Importance
than the substance, though the mental
exercise given by mastering the forms is
still appreciated. The student at Brown
who tries to get in touch with the spirit
of the ancients may do eo through the
medium of the Greek and Latin lan
guages, or he may use translations, not
as a means of hoodwinking his instruc
tors, but in classes where the sole en-
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deavor is to impart such knowledge as
an English-speaking person can properly
acquire of the Latin- essayist or the
Greek dramatists.
Particularly for those students who
have no gift of learning languages and
a great many people are so limited by
jiature these courses in classic literature
minus classic tongues are likely to be
valuable.. The involved periodic sentences
of Cicero and Demosthenes are no longer
stumbling blocks in the path of schol
arsn.p. The oration against Catiline is
not employed as a means of Jesting in
dustry in the use of a Latin dictionary.
The inspiration to good citizenship, ac
cording to the Brown idea, is the chief
lesson to be learned from the courses in
THE FATHER OF SKYSCRAPERS
Continued
trend toward it.. Today he is just as bit
ter an enemy as ever of the tall building
though he builds it on demand, and will
let business go hang for hours to in
veigh against It.
One of his pet contentions is that there
should be a law restricting the height of
a building to one and a half times the
width of the street on which it is erected.
Where skyscrapers are permitted he be
lieves there should be a law regulating
the height to which the building proper
may rise, and the tower should not be
allowed to cover more tnan one-fourth
of the ground space occupied by the
building. Only In this way, he declares,
can a city of skyscrapers be protected
from a widespread conflagration, for he
holds that the average skyscraper, once
it gets afire, will burn more rapidly than
the nonskyscraper, because, when all is
said and done, there is much more wood
in a skyscraper, what with the enormous
quantity of trim, noors, furniture, etc.
Creator of the new Annapolis, Mr.
Flagg says that such work, where one
has room to plan approaches, would be a
pleasure if folk would only leave a fel
low alone." From all of which it may be
gathered that he is a man of determined
ideas and is not afraid to express them.
Educated in this country and at the
Ecole des Beaux Arte, where so many
Yankee architects have been trained, Mr.
Flagg has never been in a firm; he has
always worked by himself. Though he
has more business than he can handle
with comfort and the assistance of ' a
large staff, he is still the student, and he
Is happiest, perhaps, when he Is deep In
some complex French or German treatise
on architecture. He. devotes his time to
and from his office to such reading and
practically all his evenings are likewise
occupied. Once in a great while, when
Mrs. Flagg gets him out to some social
function, he spends the greater part of
the evening with his eyes fixed on a wall,
apparently "seeing things" architectural.
Though he has plenty of money, which he
has never worked especially to acquire,
he leads the simple life on Staten Island;
he Is thoroughly content to let the ornate
be In his work alone.
Christopher Grant La Farge. with his
classmate at Massachusetts "Tech.". the
late George L, Heins, joint creator of the
plans for the famous Cathedral of St.
John the Divine, now being erected in
New York City, is an example of -a fa
the wisdom of the ancients among whom
the Idea of the city-state was developed
for the first time In history. Socrates,
from a dusty plaster bust in one corner
of the lecture hall, becomes a kindly, pa
tient, wise old man who understood bet
tor than his fellow-citizens the evil in
fluences that in time must break down
the structure of society. The young
American Is taught to know the ancient
Greeks and Romans as living human be
ings, just as human as he is, whose
struggles for, liberty, for purity of gov
ernment, and for better social condi
tions were just as real as the same strug
gles are in our time.
As they are taught through the medium
of the Englfsh language, the classics di
vide themselves into literature, history
and politics. The sole purpose in all the
courses Is to span the distance of 30 cen
turies and make flesh and blood out of
the dust of other days.
One course, for instance, deals with the
family life of the Romans, and another
with the home surroundings of the
Greeks. In illustration, there are stere
optlcon lectures bringing graphically be
fore the students' eyes the facts of the an
cient world as depicted in vase paintings.
"Views of a villa built centuries ago, but
still occupied by some wealthy Romun,i
of the oldest surviving bridge on thft
Tiber across which the troltey now
buzzes, of the mouth of the Cloaca Maxi
ma, or Great Sewer, whose construction
dates back into the legendary age of the
Roman kings, .of the outlines of temples,
forum and amphitheater which saw th
making of history in an era of activity
whose effects are still felt throughout
the civilized world these pictures of the
world of classical antiquity give vividness
to the impressions of the American stu
dent who knows no Greek and "small
Latin," but who wants an Intelligent con
ception of the debt of modern times to
old times.
The purpose of a modern American
university like Brown is to make intelli
gent, clear-sighted and upright American
citizens. It Is because a knowledge of the
classics. derived directly or indirectly. Is
essential to effective study of the sciences
of government and social economics that
such stress is laid upon arousing interest
in the life and literature of the ancients.
The working out of this experiment
of combining the traditional academic
education with the utilitarian training of
today has thus far promised to be suc
cessful. The head master of Harrow to
the contrary, the experience of Brown
bids fair to show that the debt of mod
erns to classics cannot be repudiated.
from Inj?e Z.
mous man's won who has secured fame of
his own making. His faier is John La
Farge, known on two continents as a
painter, a worker in stained glass, an art
critic and an art collector. Forty-six in
January. Grant La Farge looks like a
young man of 22 or so; his youthful ap
pearance has often caused persons to
wonder how he came to be intrusted with
the work of planning and directing the
i construction of the great cathedral. His
specialty is churches, and in this line
he is considered one of the country's fore
most authorities.
Of course, among the top-notchers of
the country's architects are Charles Fol
lcn McKim, associated with Daniel Burn
ham on the Washington beautifying com
mittee, and William Rutherford Mead,
partners since 1S77, and vhose work Is too
"well known to need any mention here.
Suffice it to say that Gilbert is only one
of the . well-known architects of today
who were trained under them; among
others are John M. Carrere and Thomas
Hastings, whose plans for the new New
York Public Library building won out
over the flood of others submitted.
Though he has not been heard of much
outside the profession, in it EI L. Mus
queray, who, as supervising architect,
was responsible for the architectural
beauty of the St. Louis World's Fair, Is
regarded as a newly risen leader. Of all
the architects here mentioned he is the
only one not of American parentage; he
himself says he Is an American by way
of France, and his tongue backs up his
statement. Like the average architect, he
is much averse to talking about himself,
but will go to infinite pains to explain
some detail of architecture in which his
visitor may show Interest.
To sink their personalities in their work
seems to be a trait common to all the
country's really big architects of imagina
tion in the field today, the men who ar
making America famous for its archi
tecture. When Forgiveness Is a Crime.
A ten ls on Globe.
When a man transgresses, punishment
is the greatest charity. The people who
know of his transgression should also
know that his punishment Is swift and
sure. The warning that comes from pun
ishment is of no value to society; forgive
ness of a crime is a detriment to socie.tv.
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