Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 188, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1913 — Page 3

SLUGGER HELPS KEEP PHILLIES IN RACE.

Sherwood Magee, Hard-Hitting Outfielder.

Even if the Philließ do not win the National league pennant this year they have demonstrated that they are a fast and game team. Manager Charley Dooin has some of the heaviest hitters in the league on his roster. Cactus Cravath and Sherwood Magee are the star sluggers of Dooin’s club, and have contributed in large measure to keeping the Phillies at the top the greater part of the season. Sherwood Magee has done some rare execution with the stick, though he has experienced batting slumps at times. His present batting mark is over ,300.Magee has long been recognized as among the great hitters of the diamond and has a batting eye that the passing years do not appear to dim.

WORLD TOUR GREAT SUCCESS

Japan, Philippines, Australia and France Will Receive Americans With Open Arms. - A warm welcome in foreign lands awaits the Chicago, White Sox and the New Tork Giants, asserts James A. Hart, formerly president of the Chicago Cubs, who returned recently ' from a trip around the world, traversing part of the route the globe-trot-ting baseball teams will follow next winter. He predicts an- enthusiastic reception of the baseball players in all those nations which already have shown an Interest in the sport, and especially In Japan, the Philippines, Australia and Prance. * "Manila will give a great welcome to the teams," said Mr. Hart. “So will Australia, if too many games are not played in one City. In Japan baseball is confined mostly to the colleges, though I saw small boys playing the game. It appeals more to the educated classes than the rank and file, however, so the work there will, be educational rather than remunerative.

James A. Hart.

There are a number of leagues in Paris where the game has a great vogue and they should draw welL The deportment of players on and off the field will be most important, as the people in the countries to be visited hardly would understand the quarreling with the umpires and some of the tricks which are here regarded as legitimate.”

Slugging Pitcher.

Pitcher Rube Benton of the Reds is setting to be, some hitter.

Among the Basedall Players

Walter Johnson is Griffith’s only heaver who bothers the Mackmen. • * * Mike Balentl, the former Carlisle Indian,, Is becoming a star shortstop. • « • Smoky Joe Woods considers that speed is his best asset in the pitching line. •• 0 } The Cuban fans are certainly loyal to their players whenever they get the chance. • • • First Baseman Pipp of the Tigers sure is a Pippin. His batting and, fielding is very good. * • • Larry Doyle is given the cerdit by George for putting and keeping the Giants out in front. > • • • Birdie Cree of the highlanders ascribes his batting slump to playing the sun field at the Polo grounds. • • . • Lee Tannehlll is playing grand ball for the Minneapolis Millers since he was released to that club by the Kansas City Blues. g ee e 9 “This man Lavan of the Browns is the best shortstop I have ever seen,’’ said Umpire George Hildebrand of the American league. • *. e Big league scouts are heading for the Paoiflo coast to watch of Player Coffey of the Long Beach team of the Southern California league. see Secretary Foster of the New Tork Giants says he has received many letters from anxious fans asking for tickets to be reserved for them to the world’s series. e e • Catcher Jimmy Block, who was one of the players sent to Milwaukee in the Schalk deal, has quit the team ittF good. Jimmy’s salary has been cut in two by the Milwaukee club. . e* e e Manager Birmingham lias gathered In another young catcher. He is Robert Young. Young stands 5 feet H Inches in his socks, weighs 186 pounds and is built for enduranoe and speed.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, IXD.

PLAYERS AMISS IN RUNNING

Mor£ of Them Would Benefit Greatly by Instruction In Scientific Principles of Sprinting. **A man that Is continually losing the decision by half a step,” said John J. McGraw, manager of the champion Giants, in talking on the subject of base running, "will never win a close game for you. As far as results are concerned the ball might just as well beat him to first by thirty feet as by three. Real speed on a team consists of just that extra half step.” , It is probable other managers realize this ’fact as well as McGraw. It seems strange, therefore, that .spring training does not include expert coaching in the art of sprinting. There are few ball players who in the hands of ,Mike Murphy would not learn to run much faster than they do. Few of the men have any idea of the scientific principles of sprinting. Any one who has watched ball players closely and noticed the manner of running and the length of their stride will realize they do not run with the same power and efficiency as the trained short-distance'man. In the first place many ofthem, while they move their feet and legs fast, take a short stride and run with an up and down motion. They also waste time by throwing the foot far out behind them. Then, too many of them turn their toes out. Any trainer will tell you that a man is capable of taking only a limited number of strides in a specified time. The object Is, therefore, to carry him over every inch of ground possible at each Btride and to do it with the least waste effort. Barney Wefers is 3aid to have taken a nine-foot stride. Many ball players with limbs just as long do not stride over five feet. It seems reasonable to suppose that a really good coach by teaching players quick starting and the proper method of sprinting could give many of them that extra step or half step which in a ball game often measures the distance between victory and defeat.

HOPE OF THE BOSTON TEAM

Hub Purdue Has Been First Class Pitcher for Last Two Years and With a Losing Club. No baseball club is so weak that it does not boast of at least one star, and the lowly Boston Doves is no exception to the rule. The Boston tearp has three players who would strengthen any team in either major league— Second Baseman Sweeney and Pitchers Tyler and Purdue. “Hub" Purdue

Hub Purdue.

has been a first-class pitcher for the last two years, even with a losing team behind him, and he started in again this year by blanking the champion New York Giants in the opening game in New York city, allowing McGraw’s men but two hits in nine innings.

FREAKIEST HOMER ON RECORD

“Granger” Woods Knocks Ball Into Gopher Hole and Bcores Winning Run of Exciting Game. “Granger" Woods, who used to star in the box for Oklahoma City during that city's participation in the old Western association, won a hotly contested baseball game, during last season, at Canton, Okla., when a ball that he hit' through the shortstop rolled into a gopher hole, giving Woods a home run and the only tally in the game. The play happened in the ninth inning. Both Woods and Woodworth, who opposed him at Canton, were pitching for Watonga regularly, but having an off day they agreed to pitch for Canton and Hitchcock. Both pitchers were going at their best and the two teams were ungble to hit when hits would bring in runs. There was considerable rivalry between the two boxmen and this was the first time they had pitched against one another. In the ninth inning, with the score 0 to 0 and hits very few. Woods came to bat The second ball thrown by Wobdworth was knocked through the shortstop and rolled into a gopher hole, about a third of the distance out toward the center fi,elder. The outfielders worked hard to get the ball, but before they could recover it. Woods had made the circuit and won the game. K

Champion Base Stealer.

Clyde Milan, the Washington out fielder, is leading both leagues in base stealing.

LIKE PITCHED BATTLE

RAILROAD IN FINISH FIGHT WITH / HORDE OF CATERPILLARS. Though Defeated in the End, the Insects Succeeded In Demolishing Alt Train on Long Island Railroad. About a month ago a column-long telegram from Montauk, L. 1., ap-

invading army is to cut railroad lines in the enemy’s cquntry, and this.iß exactly what was done by a countless army of caterpillars that invaded the Long Island railroad’s right of way, between Amagansett an,d Montauk. The fatalities among the invaders were appalling; billions of them were squashed; but for two weeks the dead and the dying, their number constantly increased by willing hordes from the ranks of the living, succeeded in smashing train schedules. There were battles daily between the big, powerful engines of the road and the tiny caterpillars, the former aided by skirmish lines of trainmen armed with brooms, shovels, and pails of sand, the latter aided by nothing but their ability to climb up on the track and grease it with their squashed bodies. If these two opposing forces —the big locomotives and the tiny caterpillars—had been left to fight it out between themselves, it is a grave question but what history would have had a different story to inscribe upon her tablets. Acting under hurry-up orders, however, from President Ralph Peters, H: B. Fullerton, the railroad company’s director of agricultural development, bore down on the invaders

Spraying Tracks Against Caterpillars.

with a couple of hand-car batteries manned by section gangs, and swept the field of action with solution of sulfocide and nicotine shot from hand spray pumps. Day after day Fullerton * and his hand-car batteries raked the battlefield yith their spray pumps, and day after day caterpillars and yet more caterpillars immolated themselves before any and every Long Island train that juggernauted that way. Then Fullerton bethought himself of the method by which mediaeval castles were defended. He ran a sixinch moat along both sides of the invaded stretch of track and flooded it with crude oil. Then did history repeat herself and tell over again the story of the French cuirassiers and the sunken road at Waterloo; rank after rank of caterpillars dashed into this moat of Fullerton’s, but not a caterpillar reached its other side. The Long Island railroad had won the war of the caterpillars. But though vanquished, they had established a record. Bugk and worms before this have crippled railroads, but never before has any army, either bug or worjn, succeeded in continuing its campaign for so long a time.

Railroad Cat's Long Life.

“Tiger," the remarkable cat of the Great Eastern Railway company’s freight shed at Peterborough, England, which is reputed to be about twenty-seven years old, is peacefully ending a life crowded with rat extermination and other happy incidents. Few cats live much beyond fourteen or fifteen years. During her long life Tiger has killed thousands of rats. She Is a light tabby, and came to the sheds for refuge during a fire at a timber yard close by ever twenty-six years ago, having been driven from her borne in a timber stack by the flames. Tiger has always been wild, and has obtained her own food, consisting almost entirely of rats, of which she would kill as many as fourteen and fifteen in one night Her custom was to bring all the rats alive to one of the men employed in the shreds, and would not eat one until she received permission.

Veteran Railroader Dead.

William Graham, one of the earliest settlers of Grafton, W. Va., who was born in Preston county, W. Va., died, aged eighty years. He spent fifty years in the service of the Baltimore 4b Ohio railroad, having been placed on the retired list in 1900. His family were among the first settlers to cross the mountains and seek homes in the western portiop of what was then Virginia. He moved to Grafton fn 1861, and entered the Union army, was discharged with honor and resumed work with the railroad.

peared in the newspapers under a big-type caption: "Caterpillars Lose "War on Railroad.” i There was no picturesque exaggeration in _that caption. One of the most offensive tactics of an

HONOR IS NOT STEPHENSON'S

Fifteen Years Before He Built the Rocket, William Hedley Had Produced Practical Locomotive. There is cause for wonder at the failure of the industrial world to commemorate fittingly the centenary of the locomotive steam engine. It is, of courae, still less than a hundred years since the building of StephenBon’s Rocket, and there are many who think of it as the first locomotive; but it was not, nor was Stephenson the original inventor of steam traction on railways. Doubtless his genius well deserves the fame which it has won, as does that of Fulton and Morse; yet it can scarcely be disputed that all &ree of those illustrious benefactors of the race did their great works in the successful adaptation and combination of elements which had previously been discovered and employed by others. ' , . - I'.:/

The germ of the locomotive was first displayed by Trevithick, at the end of the eighteenth century, but he lacked the genius or the persistence to bring it to perfection. It was left to William Hedley, chief engineer of the historic Wylam colliery, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, assisted by his colleague, Timothy Hackworth, to produce in June, 1813, a practical locomotive steam engine for use on the colliery railroad. This epoch-making machine, which was named Puffing Billy and which is still preserved in the South Kensington museum, worked satisfactorily and was the prototype of many others which were widely used for fifteen years, until in 1829 the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad company encouraged Stephenson to devise and build the Rocket.

It is doubtless true that it was Stephenson who gave the impulse to the marvelous development of the locomotive which has since occurred. It la equally true that it was Hedley’s great invention which gave the inspiration and the impulse to Stephenson. The Newcastle engineer’s achievement of just a century ago may therefore be regarded jlb the beginning of what must rank among the three or four most valuable and influential mechanical Inventions in' the history of the world. •

PENALTY FOR “BUTTING IN”

Insulted Passenger Got Little Sympathy From Conductor, and Really Did Not Deserve Any. An unexplained incident with a humorous side occurred at a rairoad terminus. A train was drawing out from the station when a man came running along the platform. "Smith! Smith!" he shouted. In a carriage at the rear of the train sat a passenger, who, hearing the cry, thrust his head out of the window, Immediately the runner on the platform Btruck him a smart blow across the cheek. Every moment the wheels were revolving more swiftly, and before the insulted passenger could call an official the train was clear of the station. He went at once to the conductor. "What kind of an outrage is this?” he demanded. "Here am I, an innocent passenger, sitting quietly Just as the train pulls out of the station. Suddenly a man runs down the platform shrieking ’Smith! Smith!’ I look out of the window, and he reaches up and almost knocks my head off! Now, I want to—” "Pardon me,” interrupted the conductor. "Is your name Smith?-" "No, it isn’t, and that is just- what makes—” “Well, then, sir, what did you look out of the window for? There wasn’t anybody calling you, waß there?” .

Electric Freightyards.

One of the most difficult problems in connection with railway electrification is the electric operation of switching yards for freight service. Where the third rail system of operation is employed, it will be conceded, probably, that operation of a freightyard by electric power is out-of the question. The work of yard men is dangerous enough at the present time; and if we were to add to present dangers the necessity of keeping clear of a labyrinth of highly charged third rails, extending all over the labyrinth of tracks, it may well be expected that the result in casualties would shortly result in a public outcry mid consequent legislation compelling the abandonment of the system of electric distribution, however, such as is now in use on some lines, it becomes possible to equip a freightyard for electric operation by suspending a network of electric conductors overhead. This has now been done for the New Haven railway at its Harlem river terminal in the northern part of New York city. This terminal covers an area of two hundred or three hundred acres, and its tracks have a total extent of eighty■lx miles.

Full Crew Law Upheld.

The supreme court of Pennsylvania affirmed a lower court upholding the constitutionality of the "Full Crew Law." Thp Pennsylvania railroad, which sought to restrain the state railroad commission from enforcing the law, asserted It would Increase the road's expenses nearly one-half million dollars annually without providing additional safeguards for the traveling public. The law is similar to those of Ar kansas and Indiana, which ..have been passed upon by the United Btates 8u preme court It requires an extra brakeman on all passenger trains of more than three cars and all freigkf trains with more than thirty cam

The QNLOOKER HENRY HOWLAND A VALUAVLE DISCOVERY

Once I was prone to be voluble, thinking I had been splendidly blest la some way. Fancying others were glad to sit drinking In all the words that It pleased me to say; j Once I supposed I had knowledge wortlii airing. Once I thought others were bulging! with glee Because of the chances they bad to be' sharing The wit and the wisdom Imparted hr' ■ ms* rV.' . I have discovered that people who beardJ me Bcoffed at me, said I was boorish, ta< fact— Failed to partake of the gladness that! stirred me. Pitied me, even for wit that I lacked; Since I have learned how to listen se--datety People appear to believe I am wise; No man can talk all the time and talk' greatly, But a fool can by listening team*. It h» tries. :'~y: —— - )

Getting at the Truth.

At twenty-three he thought fate was making a special effort to keep him down. At thirty-five he thought he might have done great things if his wife had not been such a handicap. At forty he believed he would have been a great man if his children had not made it necessary for him to cling; to the sure things, A At fifty he was positive that therw was a conspiracy against him cn the part of his fellow men. At sixty he felt that if he could have been thirty-five again nothing could have stopped him. At seventy he began to believe that he had failed because of a lack of courage and inability to make tha most of his opportunities. , At eighty he was almost sure of ft.

Useless.

"I suppose,” said the beautiful girl, “you must experience all the emotions you so vividly describe in your poems?” "Not at all,” replied the poet “When I write of the emotions that are stirred within the breast of a man who become the heir to vast estates I never get wrought up in the least Long ago I learned that deep emotion in such circumstances merely caused useless wear and tear to the system.” t

Extraordinary Actor.

"I can't understand why you should refer to Rantinghara as an extraordinary actor.. I saw him last night, and he seemed to me to possess very little real ability." "It is not his ability that makes him extraordinary. The fact Is that ha be* never been sued for divorce nos gone into bankruptcy."

Trying Moment.

"Colonel,” aaked the beantifnl girt, "what was the most trying moment of your lifeT’ "It was when I went to my wife’s father for the purpose of asking him to let me have her. He was very deaf and I had to explain the matter before about 20 clerks."

Heredity.

He started out to claim the earth. He tolled by day and schemed at nlgnt; He sot a few tv Inga at their worth And took for nothing what he might Within its mouth hts child at birth, ‘ They tell ue, had a golden spoon; I He started out to get the earth. Hts boy Is crying for the moon.

Waiting.

“Have you named your baby yetf* “No.” * “HeVi getting pretty old to be without a name, isn’t he?” "Yes; but my wife wishes to call him Percival, and we’re waiting to find out whether he is going to have • li*P-” y

Evidently.

"It was too bad that Miss Buuley was too hoarse to eing last sight" “Evidently you have never met Miss Btusley when she was not too hoarse to sing.**

Her Age.

A woman may be as old as she looks, but it is seldom possible to gsf her to admit It * s' ", . ■ .vJ, <,‘\v*