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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1908)
THE SU3TDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND. AUGUST 16, 19Q8. to 3 . " mwwm mm .he mmi . . THERE was a long piece ll the paper about the meteoric rie of a famous cotton speculator who had come to the city without a cent and after a few yeara had been able to fall In auch a manners to owe nearly everybody he knew large iiimi of money. The Hotel Clerk read the ac count through carefully.. "Say. Larry." he remarked at length to the House Detective of the St. Reck less, "d'ye remember that nursery yarn they used to hand us In chlldhood'a happy hour about the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse? "Come to think of It. I believe I do." said the House Detective, "that Is. if It's the one about the Town Mouse goln' to see the Country Mouse and knockin' the place on account of it be In so dull and quiet, but -when the Country Mouse went to visit the other one In the city he seen so many traps and plain clothes cats and things like that layin' "round waltin' for him that be was blamed glad to beat It back to the squash Jungle." "The same pleasing ' selection." af firmed the Hotel Clerk. "And It Just goes to show what I was saying the other day. The late Aesop and the other literary parties who wrote the fables may have had the correct for mula at the time, but they are cer tainly singing off the key for present use." "As to how?" asked the House De tective. "Well. take this Town Mouse and Country Mouse classic for example," said the Hotel Clerk. "Larry, since I came Into this large burg I've met more than eleven million of these Town Mice, and I feel that I'm In position to give you the correct facts in regards to the raee. We'll assume that our particular Town .Mouse was born here because then the symptoms of the disease are apt to be more typical than if he moved In and caught It. From his Knicker bocker ancestry he Inherits a middle name 'like a down-town street and enough cash reserve to enable him to live without prolonged mental strain. So he goes to Harvard, graduating eighty-fourth In the class of 85, and after that nothing in particular hap- pens until his' death, when the Sun gives htm qne of its native New Yorker two-lly obituaries, stating that de ceased was born In 1S62. .joined the Union League Club and will be burled .tomorrow afternoon at half past two from the family residence on Fifth ave nue. Palm Beach and Newport papers please copy. "As long as he stays at home and takes on age and flesh In the regular way. which is largely done by sitting In a club window of afternoons in a row along with a troupe of other BY JIM NASIUM. I ELL. it's a mystery to me why that team of ours can't win games, said the sporting ed itor of the Evening Star to the Old Sport. "They're good hitters, they're good fielders, and individually it's the best bunch of ballplayers In the league. But they don't get results, and here they are trailing along in the cellar, taking the dust of a lot of teams that they ought to be putting it all over. It's certainly hard luck, but why should hard luck hang on to one team like Spring fever?" ; "Well," replied the Old Sport, "lfs nothing new. You often see. the same thing in this old dump of a world, not only In baseball, but in business. And It may be all right for you sporting writers to hand out the slush that lhe breaks of the game are against the home team, and that there's nothing to ' It but hard luck, and that wheu the team gets out of its slump they'll climb up where . they belong, and you can Jolly the funs along this way for a while, tout 'hope deferred roakelh the heart sick,' and the public soon begins, to suspect that there s something more to It than hard luck. "You know, a guy cua plug along and keep scratching hia back on the door Jamb for a few days and blame It on buckwheat cakes and get away with It. But if he keeps it up for a couple of months, he loses the confidence of hia friends, and the public begins to suspect something. It's the same way In baseball. Hard luck, like a buck wheat cake rash, doesn't hang on long. It's migratory, and after giving you a 1'w slams in the slats will pull 1U freight for other quarters. "Take it from me. whenever you see a guy plugging along through the worid on his uppers and blaming his reverses on hard luck, if you dig down Into his system, you'll find something that he's covering up and la ashamed to let you take a peep at. The guy who makes the crack that the world ewes him a living usually has no other asset worth mentioning, and if he over took an inventory of himself, he'd find hia stock in trade consisted mainly of liabilities. v4 "And let me tell you that It's the same way with baseball teams. Take It from nie, the breaks of the game and this thing we call luck will always be found plugging for the guys who are playing the game. A team slams out ten hits in a game and loses out to a bunch that only rops four, and then you pen pushers point to this fact to prove that the breaks of the game are against them. But let me tell you that this slush doesn't go down the throat that Is operated from the think tank. There is nothing in the whole blamed busl-, ness but ball playing. It is nothing but good ball playing and steadiness In the pinches that gets hits when they produce runs, and it Is the same asset that keeps their foozles from being costly and keeps the other guys' hits scattered llkf facts In a political speech. Luck hasn't a blamed bit more to do with winning pennants than it has to making nations or getting into paradise "I don't say that there isn't an cle ment of chance in baseball. Just the same a there is an element of chance In success In any business, but take It from me. this element of chance is al ways on the side of the guy who is there with the goods. Chance, luck or whatever you want to call this evan escent thing, can only supply the op portunities and you've got to have the goods to take advantage of these yop portunlties. "Now. you may call it luck In base ball when a team takes all kinds of seemingly reckless chances on the base and gets away with them on ac rour.t of the errors of the opposing KX V 4 A 1 Mm V k IV i J 7hi 111 IV VI 7 trained Pomeranian club men, all with the little tufts under their ears neatly trimmed and their paws up, he doesn't attract any considerable attention. It's when he invades the bosky dells of the interior United States that he begins to sort of fluff out aid get weighty below the Plimsolls. The woods are full of these human snowballs from 'ew York that get bigger the further "they roll away from "the place, where they started. . "The town where he goes to give tha peasantry a taste of pleasure la gen erally one of those places that got shoved up a siding- in Its early youth and never found Its way back to the main line. But even at that It's doing pretty well, considering the climate and the difficulty which the suburbs have In trying to keep from looking like farming land. It has In Its midst at least one leading citizen who once went to a banquet at Fort Wayne, where they served watermelon with real champagne wine at IS a bottle poured In through the plug and then had the coffee after they ,got through Instead of along with. There are sev eral others of social prominence who are wise to the fact that a correct din ner coat Is not one that can be taken off easily just before sitting down to the table. Wealthier citizens are often seen to smoke a noble 10-cent - cigar called the Andy Jackson brand, on ac count of it being full of old hickory, with a gilt band around it, Just the same as if It came from Havana, Cuba. There has been a debut party where a regular city caterer furnished brick ice cream and fully 18 worth of Imported mustard greens was wrapped around the chandelier. "To be sure the annual engagement of the Bessie Hopkins Stock Company with a change of bill every night and a set of plush furniture and a silver card receiver given away on Saturday evening to the lady and gentleman holding the winning coupons, is still reckoned as a gay week, and one re plete with box parties and theater sup pers. Also boiled custard and choco late layer cake have more or less of a lead on Camembert and yellow Char trouse for finishing off the heavy meal of the day, but. as I say. they still manage to do quite well In their simple urban way. "But not for a holy second would It do for the Town Mouse to seem to be pleased with anything. If he was ever caught looking satisfied the By-Hecks might not know he was a regular New Yorker. So he calls the snuff-colored waiter at the Palace Hotel XJarcon' end then wears a look of real pain on his' face when in formed that the latter answera only to the name of Roscoe. After eating his way through a line of food that would keep a poor family two days he pushes his chair back and regrets in an audible tone of voice that outside of Sherry's and Rertor's a man. can't get a decent meal In this country. He occasionally lets fall remarks reeardinc a little hreakfast he rrr(T M tVER SAW. .-THINK o'- tC&VkP l ) ,tf team. But let me tell you that it's the guys who take long chanees who put the .other guys up In the air and make them foozle, and that's good, baseball and not uck. ' ' "You fellows who write the sporting slush may call it hard luck when the home team slams out a few hits and gets the bases populated, and then the heaviest hitters on the team, who have been banging the ball all day. come up to the plate and whiff and there's nothing doing in the run getting line. But you lose sight of the fact that there's a pitcher out there on the rub ber who is drawing a salary on ac count of his ability to pull off this very whiffing stunt in the pinches, and you ?an take my tip that there's a blamed sight more good pitching by the op posing pitcher and punk pelting by the home sluggers in this painful occur rence than there Is hard luck. "No, take it from me, there Is a thun dering" lot of . little assets that go to make up a good ballplayer that isn't generally recognized or thought of by the public. Pennants have got to be won by something more than hitting the ball and fielding it. It Is possible for a guy to lead the league in hitting and yet be the least valuable member of his team In pro ducing runs, and it's runs that win pen nants. "The mentality and temperament of a ballplayer has a thundering lot to do with his success, just the same as if has with the guy In the business world. A guy may be there with the physical ability all right, and he may be the great est hitter in the business and the most sensational fielder that ever wore spikes under ordinary conditions, but if he isn't a quitfk thinker and cool in the pinches he comes a long way from being a valuable player to his team. "Naw, Old Man, speaking of local con ditions, look over our" team and pipe oft the list and see If we haven't got a few SITTING CEUE i had the day before he 'left town with dear old Clyde, meaning Fitch, and may. also be heard casually referring to Otis Skinner as Ote. Should the wealthiest citizen take him out for a spin in his new machine he will remark on getting back tat it's really astonishing how well one of these inexpensive American cars can go sometimes. ' IN WHICH HE TALKS LIVING. f ttv t TTrlTf ntTWtf TTV tTT of these kind of stars in town. Dig up the facts In the case and see If this hard luck that you spout about isn't simply failing to do the right thing at the right time. See if we haven't got speedy run I 1 I J ' V 7 - ;"When hs reaches the point where he simply cannot stand It to stay away from Broadway another hour, he gives the side-tra?ked metropolis a farewell . treat by repairing to the depot in the regular hired conveyance, with his flossy travel ing clothes on, consisting in large part of a ahirfwith a .stripe like the awning over a grocery store, a wescut with a ABOUT THE MAN WHO BLAMES IT ON HARD LUCK ;xvLUr Ur-1 vU'UU id'HAi' CALL-I f-LUClv W ntN-A-TEAM-TAKES -ALL- KINDS-OJT-CHANCEc) -AND .GETS ON-ACCOUNT OF EKBOReX CUT-LET-nKm-YOlI-THAT , "ir3:G00D.BALL-PLAm(3.M HYocmou i ttlTLE OUT AND COLLECT IT? 0"W 1TT7 Uryt, 'AT ners who are always getting nailed on the bases because they are trying io run bases with their feet instead of. with their head. See if we haven't got a whole team of good hitters who get over-anxious diagonal pattern, the same as a cross town carline, and a pair of English tweed trousers turned up so far at the bottom that he can scarcely be said to be wear ing them at all. "And then in due season when the crops are laid by the Country Mouse from the Junction cornea to the city to see him. For awhile the Country Mouse endures it and let their nerve jump the governor belt In the pinches, and a bunch of star fielders whose think tanks run dry when they need them. "Yes, we've got the best team in the league on physical and mechanical ability, but the worst at the thinking game. And when brawn stacks up against brain In my old game of life, my money goes on :ie latter. Take It from me, there's a Hindering lot of weak teams who put all over stronger teams simply because ley are to blamed shy on physical abil .y that they have to rely on their mental aehlnery. while the stronger team is so lamed long on physical ability that they ,et it into their knot that they can win in this alone. There are some ball teams A'ho are so blamed strong that they forget o use their heads. , "Then there are other things that enter nto the successs of a ball team. The fans lo not generally realize how much a man ager has to do with the success or fail ure of his team.- In order to play the ;ame he is capable of putting up a player has to be kept in the proper mental condi tion, and his peculiar temperament nursed along. Take it from me, a star player may be trying his hardest to deliver the goods and yet falling down fiit simply because his manager or the directors of the club don't know how to keep him In the proper frame of mind to do his best work. "The money stabber in the bank, the prune clerk in a grocery store, or a kid in any other business can have It in for his boss and grouch It out, and the ma chinery In his conning tower may be jumping the governor belt and running amuck to beat the band, but he can plug along and pull off his daily work in a pretty decent sort of a way. But let me tell you that the ball player's peculiarity of temperament has to be nursed along and catered to or it's all off. "It takes a better judge of human na ture and more knowledge of how to han patiently while the City Mouse, wearing a smile that begins at wisdom and ends at pity and has bored-to-d?ath written all the way across, takes him around and shows him the Aquarium and the Bdcn Musee and Dead Main's Curve and the Flatiron building and feasts him betimes at those downtown lunchrooms where they ladle in the soup with the Australian crawl stroke and beat the eggs at the fame time they eat '&m. Finally the worm turns. The Country Mouse takes the City Mousekindly but firmly by the faultlessly-cut lapel of his morning coat and, as they say in the latest popular song hit, these words to him he then does speak as follows: " 'You need not show me any more wax works. After the second' visit, the sight of John W. Kern as he looks In parafine, with glass eyes and Iceland moss whiskers, on a hot day, begins to pall. Likewise, I am carrying a full line of Aquarium products and would not care to look at any more samples Just at present. I- know all there is to know about fish anyhow. The Mayor of my town is the original boneless sardine and the meanest man-eating shark in cap tivity Is the president of our local build ing and loan association. I- may also add that I am somewhat a-weary ot the sort of fodder-shops that you have so kindly steered me into. There may have been a time when I drew the napkin well up over the chest like a carriage robe before starting in, but I assure you that I can now eat gravy without having to be undressed with a spoon, afterwards. I would ask, is or is not Delmonico's 'still open? If so,, lead me to it. " 'While it is true that I have not yet been to a manicure I am In training for that event; In fact I have often had the back of my neck shaved- and hay rum dle the untutored human being In cap tivity to successfully manage a ball team than it does to 'run a steel trust or be a ward heeler. Some players have to have the life bullied out of them to keep them shewing the best -they've got, while others have to be Jollied along and get the salve handed 'out to them every day to keep them Just right, and the manager who knows his job studies his players' temperament and treats them individ ually In the way that gets the best re sults. "The gams is splattered full of a bunch of cast-iron proofs of this peculiarity in ballplayers in a lot of guys who were dubs under one manager, but have butted lntd the galaxy of stars under another. Some guys you've got to drive and others Diving a Fine DIVING is a sporf which is taking up much of the time of American swim mers nowadays and in which they have made great advances during the last three or four years. Three years ago the New York Athletic Club endeavored to foster Interest in the sport by adding a diving contest to its monthly programme of swimming events held at Travers Island. At this time there were not more titan half a dozen good divers in the whole country. The graceful and spectacular work of the few metropolitan divers upon this oc casion, chief among whom were Thomas. O'Callaghau!, Walter Lee and Fred Wenck, caught the fancy of the specta tors, and diving was an established fea ture upon each programme of swimming events thereafter. A little later the In terest created oy the sport coming to the notice of the officials of the Amateur Athletic Union the latter added a Na tional cliampionship at the sport, which has been one of the most interesting fea tures of the National swimming cham pionships. Later still the colleges took up diving and made It one of the principal features of the programmes of their dual swim ming meets when the intercollegiate swimming association , was organized. Then they created an intercollegiate diving championship. Rules were then adopted by the A. A. U. to govern diving contests, defining the standard dives, and now this branch of sport is as firmly established as if it had been followed for years. The regulation dives altogether number five the plain front, the plain back, the front Jackknife, the back Jackknlfe and the one and a half dive. The takeoffs, which are from a solid platform, number three in all 10, 20 and 30 feet and the diver gets credit for a greater number of points as the height of the takeoff in creases. In the plain front dive the diver, with feet close together and hands held over head, must describe a long or short semi circle before entering the water, that de tail being left optional. This is the easiest of all the dives and the first one mastered by the beginner. The front Jackknife is executed by jumping a few feet in the air, turning sharply and descending so that the head shall enter the water not more than six feet beyond the edge of the platform from which the diver has Jumped. This is quite a difficult dive, as the contest ant is very apt to make it a plain front dive instead of embodying the features of the Jackknife, and thus leaves open a trap into which many good divers have fallen on the day of a diving contest. In accomplishing the third regulation dive, the back jackknife, the contestant stands, feet close together, on the edge of the takeoff with his bacrf to the water. Jumping upward his body turns quickly toward the point of takeoff and he de scends with his face outward. As In the UN TO HOTEL CLERK used on the hair, even when f was not going out In society, but merely for the luxury of the thing. I realize that the suit which I -am now wearing looks like the kind you could get from the Great Pneumatic & Specific Tea Company for 300 of the green cpupons, but after you have led me to a tailor who's expensive enough to call himself a draper, and have suitably adorned me with a few of the proper gauds, baubees' and trappings, I have a feellrg that I will be more of a, blithesome treat for the Jaded eye than I am now. After that I desire to be Introduced into the haunts and homes of . the rich, where the butlers have their faces enclosed in brackets and the foot men wear short pants. I wish to see personally if these wealthy parties can really call the hired help by their last names the same as they do In Robert Chambers' books, and get away with it. And then we'll look around for a business opening in the vicinity of Wall Street.' " 'But are you aware of the perils ami footfalls of a commercial career here?' says the Town Mouse. 'I was born here and even I hesitate to risk my capital in repkless Investment in this great ruth less 'city.' " "Have no fear.' says -the Country Mouse. 'Among he goggle-eyed perch : who appear . to frequent these waters' most numerously a genuine Jack salmon--fin from the headwaters of Bitter Creek! with real teeth and a dorsal fin In good; working order, ought to be able to pick ft' living. In about two years from now I exjfect to be probably the most active! little clown dog ip the whole animal show.' "And nearly always, Larry, ft turns out: just that way. I'm told that 'statistics! will show there's a constantly Increasing! number of pale grey little Town Mice! with pink eyes and nervous noses, run-j nlng errands for husky ex-Country Mice, who go around swinging large business, deals and reorganizing the social registpri with the same aplomb and skill that they I used to show in milking a cow." ; "Is It as bad as that?" asked the House Detective. "It's worse than?that." said the Hotel, Clerk. "They say there's hardly a. great captain of-industry In town that wouldn't! know a good deal about putting away I clover hay In a barn if you pressed Mm " j you have to nurse, and the wise manager gets hep to this, and as a result has the whole team going just right. And you can take it from me that there's a thun dering lot of ballplayers in the business who have never set the circuit on fire who would be pulling off a blamed sight more In the incendiary line If they were treated differently. "And now. Old Man, if you. want to get hep to .why this great ball team of ours can't win games from some of these false alarms they stack up against, just let this dope I've handed you filter through the chinks in your garret and then turn your searchlight on the team and look it over and get wise. And take it from me, there's a thundering lot of parallel cases in the business today." Athletic Art front jackknife, the regulations require that the diver's head shall not enter the water more than six feet beyond a line drawn from the edge of the takeoff. The last of the regulation dives, the one and a half, is the most difficult, and few even of the most expert divers often suc ceed in performing It perfectly. This dive as a matter of fact is literally a somer sault and a, half. The body must describe a complete somersault In the air and then continue half way around again, so that the entrance to the water is head first. It is on this point that arises the dif ference between the diving experts of America and those of the Continental countries. Americans hold that the very essence of thp dive rests upon a clean en trance, head first, with the least possible disturbance of the water. It was on this part of t.he dive that so much discussion was created at the St Louis World's Fair. Germany was represented by a team ' of splendid divers from the Continental point of view. In Germany points count for the diver's manner of approaching the takeoff, his form in preparing himself for the dive, his movements in the air,' and then criticism of his actions ceases'. Magnificent work was shown by the Germans at the World's Fair contest In all these particulars in fact they com pletely outclassed the efforts of the American contestants. But the Germans did not care how they entered or struck the water. Walking down the plank of the springboard with head erect, eyes front, chest thrown' out, feet close to gether, legs working like those of an automaton, hands rigidly held to the sides, the German diver with a spring of marvellous ease would describe a beau tiful evolution through the air and then hit the water broadside with a resound ing smack that would send showers of spray over every one near by. The American performers followed with a great deal less fuss and even grace, Jumped far out into the air and entered the water head first, at times with such skill as scarcely to cause a ripple. When the contest was decided the Judges had no other alternative than to award the event to the American contestants. Every young swimmer now knows the regulation American dives sanctioned by the A. A. U., and these youngsters are becoming very efficient. While hut five regulation dives are scheduled, still the rules in this country permit three special divas, so there need be no check upon originality. However, it is the object to confine even these specialties to evolutions which shall Invariably end with the entrance head flrs.t to the water, although no attempt Is made to hamper or restrict the move ments of the diver in the air. Diving Tarely has bad results If a per son will exercise Just ordinary caution. Persons should make.it a practice never to dive into unknown' waters. Investiga tion of the nature and depth of the water should always be made before a dive Is undertaken.
