Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1914 — Page 3

LOOKING DOWNWARD

THE GENESIS OF THE HOBBLE. Captain MacManus, master airigar tor, leaned idly on the pneumatic starboard rail of the great New York receiving float of the Five Continents & Australia Aerial line and gazed down at Manhattan Island, 5,000 feet below, as it was in the year 1962. Down on the caissons of the F. C. & A. ground terminal a tigy electrical depot-tender, all glass and wire, was taking aboard her quota of passengers, hound for the float to catch the 10:11 Express for Paris. The Express, > a monster 900-footer, that flashed her red hull across the Atlantic on the 10,000-foot level at the rate of 160 miles an hour, lay in her clips on the float, impatient to be released and tear herself away from contact with things near-mundane. Tiny 300-foot express packets from Washington, Chicago, Pittsburg and other near-by points were swarming to the float, discharging their passengers and mails for the big Express, taking their release signals and scurrying back whence they came. It was a scenfl that the captain had seen year after year, yet he never tired of witnessing the silent swiftness with which the thing was managed. A tiny bell buzzed near him and No. 10 Starboard Clip swiftly opened its great steel arms and awaited the coming of the boat that had signaled it. Down below the tender rose up from the terminal caissons, spiraled upward In long curves, and one minute later No. 10 Clip received it in its arms. Out of the tender came rushing Four boys in the white and green uniforms of the apprentices of the line. “Kids bound for the training grounds in the Himalaya’s,” grunted Captain MacManus. The boys Instantly made a respectful rush toward him, “What luck!” cried one. “We’ve got Just fifteen minutes to catch the

"And yet," he mused smilingly, “and yet, those old days were good days, after all."

Paris Express, and we want to get the Great Mystery unraveled before we sail.” "Yes, Captain MacManus,” said another. “Please, sir, tell ub what this is,” apd he thrust into the old man’s hands one of those antiquated card; board affairs which, in the long pass days of their usage, were designated as “cabinet photographs.” . “I found it in an old trunk I was going through,’ 2 gasped the apprentice in awe. “I was afraid to touch it at first. I didn’t know what it might be. Then I put on my germ proof and current proof glove and picked it up. it didn’t hurt me. So I brought it here. I know you could tell us what it is if anybody conld.” Old MacManus twirled his binoculars. * “Right you are, kids, in coming to me, ' said he. “If anybody can tell you anything about ancient relics I’m the man. Why, I can remember' back to the days when women, couldn’t vote.” » While the apprentices were recovering from thiß awe-inspiring assertion of antiquity, the captain was holding the object of the commotion* off at arm’s length and studying it care- — -—— “My lads," said he at last, “It’s'a photograph.”

6^ CL f 9 il ™

BY LEE MACQUODDY

"So we guessed,” said one of the boys. “We read about them in history books. But what it it of?” The captain studied longer. The figure on the photograph was different from anything ever seen or dreamed of in the year 1962. Apparently it represented some creature bearing a faint resemblance to the women of the day. The physiognomy was dainty and appealing to the eye, but it was almost surrounded by a great mass of material resembling hair. To the waist the figure bore some resemblance to the women of 1962. But here the resemblance ceased. From the waist down the figure was shaped like an elongated V, with the small end at the bottom, where the feet should been. It looked something like a woman who had been caught and tied so she couldn’t move. 11l “That,” said Captain MacManus, “is an old-time photograph of a woman in a hobble gown.” “What! Hat, ha, ha! Good joke, captain,” laughed the apprentices. “Fancy—a woman! But tell us what it really is, captain, please.” “I have told you,” said the captain. “It’s a woman in a hobble skirt of the age of 1912 or thereabouts.” “A woman!” the boys drew forward and gazed at the picture in amazement. “A woman—in a what did you say, captain?” “A hobble skirt,” said the old man. “You don’t know what that is, do you, kids? Never heard of such a thing? Can’t imagine such a thing, eh? But that’s what this relic of the past represents, and you can look in any ancient history and see that. I’m right.” “What do you think the woman had done, captain?” asked the apprentice. “What had she done?” “Yes. To make them bind her up in that fashion What was she being punished for," “Or maybe she was doing penance of some kind,” suggested another.

“My boys,” said Captain MacManus, “she was not doing penance, ahd she was not being punished.” “You don’t mean to say that she was wearing that thing of her own free will ?” “No; she was doing it because she had to; it was the style.” “Go on, captain,” said the boys, “we like to hear about thbse queer old-fashioned days.” “Well, Style was the absolute Boss of all women in those days, my lads. It was before they’d acquired the equal right with men to help worry about how the world should be run, and there they went along in the old, instinctive ways of their mothers — that have all been 'done away with now —and their instincts ruled them, and the Boss of the biggest instinct of all was Style.” “What was the biggest instinctr asked the group. “The desire to look pretty and make other women look plain.” “And what was this Style thing that you mention, captain ” , “Style was. a mysterious power that changed every year or so, pud when it changed women had to change with it One year Style would be for plump women, and all the women would be -plump. Next year it would be for thinness, and all the women would be

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

thin. Sometimes it said: *No hlpe,’ and the women promptly didn't have any hips; then it would say. ‘Let there be hips,’ and hips there were, lads, till you couldn’t rest. Now, you young fellows, who live in -this agewhen women, having finally won their bard-fought battle to get a finger in the world’s work, have got plenty of other things to worry about besides looking pretty and therefore don’t care so much for style, you fellows can tell just about what women will loolr'Tike one year after another. It was different in the old days; you had to be ready for anything then. “I remember one sad, sad case that came about through this, and it happened in this same age, about 1912, that this ancient lady in hobble skirt belonged to. There was a brave young explorer who’d gone down to take the temperature of the south pole. He had a beautiful young wife that he had to leave behind in a'little old-fashioned hotel named the Knickerbocker that used to stand at the coi« ner of Forty-second and Broadway, because this was before they had electric heat' and all modern inconveniences, including Turkish baths, at tbepole. ‘l’ll be waiting for you,’ says she. ‘Hurry back.’ ‘So long,’ says he; and away he went' and was gone for five long years. “You see, when he went away women were plump, and had hips and shoulders, and wore long skirts, with room enough in them to walk. When he came back it was the year of these hobble skirts and the women were altogether different. The young explorer goes into his apartments in the little hotel and something that looks like this picture leaped up to welcome him, and he steps back and hollers: ‘Gimme nay gun. There’s a strange animal like a seal in the room.’ And it was only his wife. The sad part of it was that he had to pay the dressmaker next day.” “But why did the women let Style boss them so?” asked an apprentice. “Would it punish them if they wouldn’t get thin or plump as it ordered them?”

“Would it! Indeed it would, my lad; it would let them Bee other women who were in style!” “But how did they ever happen to hit onto anything like this hobble BkirtC captain?” “Well, you see, ’twas in the days when the ladies, were fighting for equal rights with man. The men wouldn’t let them wear the trousers as yet, so the dear women did the next best thing. They couldn’t get the whole trousers, but they could get one leg. They took and made it into a skirt as you see in the picture.” The young airmen gazed at' the strange picture in amazement. “Why in the world did they think such things made them pretty, captain?” asked one. “Fancy one of our women today wearing (anything that would interfere with their stride!’,’ "The women of today are free,” said Captain MacManus. “They have thrown off the thrall of instinct. And yet,” he mused smilingly, “and yet, those old days were good days, after all. Douse my signal rays! I don’t know but what they were as good as the present era, so far as the women are concerned. Yes, lads, in those days I was once tempted to enter that ©ld-fashidned and discarded state of matrimony.” “What was the matter, captain?” asked one of the boys. “Wouldn’t the girl have you?” “Run along,” growled the old mai% “Get aboard the Express. You’re lik» all the boys nowadays; you’re too keen on ancient history.” (Copyright, hy W. G. Chapman.)

DENIES THEORY OF LOMBROSO

Equally High Authority Asserts That There Is No Distinct Type of, Criminal. Dr. Charles Goring is the lateht criminologist to combat the theories of Lombroso and to assert that there is no such thing as a criminal type. Dr. Goring admits that there are some persons who are naturally criminals, but he denies that their criminality shows itself by physical stigmata. Seeing that criminality is a purely artificial distinction, it is hard to understand why nature should aid in the classification. Our social system has seen fit to select a small number of the almost innumerable ways of being wicked and to label'them as criminal. The other ways are not labeled as critpirial, although they may actually involve a much greater moral turpitude. It is not the function of society to prevent people from being wicked, but only to prevent them from being wicked in such ways as are particularly perjudicial to the rest of the community. There was a time when it was criminal to read the Bible. It is still criminal to do some things of which the moral sense may highly approve. We can hardly expect nature to give her sanction to our artificial distinctions.

Robert Burns.

Robert Burns belongs in the very front rank of the world’s great men. Ab a song writer he stands along with Goethe, Heine and Beranger, and as a satirist be ranks well up with Juvenal and Pascal. Hlb “Coter’s Saturday Night,” his “‘Tam O’ Shanter” and his “Holy Fair” are simply inimitable, great in their line, as the most consummate masterpieces of the world’s greatest writnrs. Burns was original in the best sense of that word, and his. songs, satires, epistles and many of his more serious productions stand forth unique, and fresh, and powerful as the tints of Titian or 'the chiseling of Phidias.

GOTCH DEFEATS MAUPAS AND TIN WHISTLE

Gotch Breaking Leg Holds of Joe Rogers.

IN THE season of 1905-6, Gotch won the championship in the great international tournament in Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa. More than fifty of the best wrestlers in the world competed. The American champion attacked these mountains of beef with a vengeance, but in flattening the big specimens on their backs had some of the most thrilling and yet humorous experiences of his mat career. > The Greco-Roman style of wrestling is prefered to the catch-as-catch-can in the Canadian cities. In the matches of this tournament the Canadians had a special code they called the French Greco-Roman rules. The strangle, hammerlock and all other holds below the waist were barred. v One peculiarity of this code was that a whistle was blown at various stages of a match to give the wrestlers intervals of rest. Gotch says he observed that when his French opponents were getting tired there was a blast from the tin 1 horn. The best of them was Emile Maupas. It was in Montreal on Dec. 27, 1905, that Gotch met and defeated Maupas after a sensational match lasting nearly an hour and a half. When time was called Gotch rushed Maupas to the edge of the mat and the Frenchman extricated himself with difficulty. Coming back to the center of the mat Gotch again rushed his bulky opponent and the Frenchman came near going off the stage into the crowd. Gotch caught him and pulled him back. Gotch rushed in and secured a leg hold with which he finally worked Maupas to the mat. The Frenchman fought desperately to avoid being thrown. Gotch fastened on a half nelson and waist lock and was turning his opponent gradually but certainly to his doom. The crowd was hushed with suspense. Was Maupas to go

JESS WILLARD AFTER SMITH

Efforts Being Made to Arrange Match With Gunboat Figher to Settle Heavyweight Title. It is a hard matter to dig up a white hope who is worth while. Jess Willard and Gunboat Smith are the two leading candidates for the championship in this class, but neither stands very high -in the estimation of the fight fans. Willard has recently beaten Carl Morris and One Round Davis, but did not show anything startling. His bout with Morris was a very tame affair. A match between Willard and

Jest Willard.

Smith will be pulled off, in all probability, before long and this may settle the question of supremacy- They met once before, but the battle was a very ' unsatisfactory one. Willard towers up into the air for something like Bix feet and. a half and if size and strength count for anything should be able to take down the championship without any trouble.

Harness Rating in New England

New Zealand js taking to harness horse racing '

down to defeat so soon? Not at allJust as the shoulders of the Frenchman were nearing the mat there was a shrill blast from the whistle. The tin horn had saved him. There was applause as Gotch relinquished bis grip and the men went to their corners to await the signal for a resumption of hostilities. Wheta the match was resumed Gotch again assumed the aggressive, sending his big opponent sprawling toward tbe footlights. Maupas came near going off the stage. The Frenchman rushed at Gotch and put him down, but the lowan was up, after breaking a waist hold. Gotch dived for Maupas’ legs and threw him heavily to the mat. Gotch again had Maupas near a fall after fastening a half nelson and arm lock to the big fellow, but a timely blast from the trumpet again saved him, and the gladiators rested. Time and again Gotch had Maupas near a fall, but the whistle was always present, batting 1.000 in the pinches. Maupas went behind Gotch for a time and had him near a fall. For some mysterious reason the whistle failed to blow, but Gotch escaped unaifled. Finally Gotch brought the Frenchman’s shoulders to the mat with a half nelson and reverse body hold, after an hour and one minute of fast wrestling. “I guess some fellow must have etuffed*a bit of paper in that whistle,” said Gotch. “The referee was red in the face. He must have had a terrific struggle with the tin instrument" Gotch pinned Maupas for the second and deciding fall in twenty-two minutes, winning a belt emblematic of the Greco-Roman championship of Canada. It was not the fault of the faithful whistle that Maupas Was deprived of this trophy and the accompanying title. (Copyright, 1913, by Joseph B. Bowles.)

Notes of Sportdom

Harry Payne Whitney won $93,000 on the turf. r —_ r: - —— ; • * • k . Ben Tincup, the Indian ball player, is not a dipper but u pitcher. * • • Frank Kramer, the cycling champion, has gone to Europe for a seriefe of matches. * • * Change the football rules, it is suggested. Better do it before the experts solve the present set * * • Roy K. Thomas resigned as coach of the Ohio Wesleyan rowing crew and will return to the University of Chicago. • • • It has been announced that Notre Dame will play Yale next fall on 0?t. 15. Dorals Eichenlaub Rockne Smith —God help the Blue. * * # Minnesota’s board of control has declined by a majority vote to meet Carlisle on the gridiron next year. The Indians asked for the date. • • * A. G. Ward, center on the 1912 Ohio State university eleven, has been appointed athletic coach at Christian Brothers’ college for the coming year. * * * Williams hap stuck persistently to its attitude. It has refused to meet Harvard in addition to Yale because the date supplied came too early In the season. • • # Manager Jennings announces that his Tigers will start training at Gulfport about February 5. Jim McGuire and Jimmy Burke will be in charge of the first squad. * * * George Estabrook, owner of Colorado E., has determined to race the holder of the world’s three-year-old trotting record over the Grand circuit next season. He had decided to sell the horse but his price was qevsr ■met —rs

RETIREMENT OF TOM LYNCH

As President of National League He Handled Umpires Without Fear or Favor of Any Club. The throw-down given Tom Lynchi who for four years has bossed the N&-> tional league umpires without fear or favor to any club, was only about what should have been expected. Lynch did not seek the position, having been, called to the chair as a result of a deadlock over Ward and Brown, which tied up the 1510 meeting for several days. Lynch has been faithful and honest to his trust His election has never been for more than one year at a time and his power has been limited, so limited, in fact, that regulating tbe work of the umpires has been his chief responsibility, says the New Orleans Picayune. He made one very important decision during the season, but was both called down and overruled. Lynch overruled the umpire who stopped the game on the Phillies grounds and declared the Giants winnero because spectators occupying tbe center flqld seats waved things, with the evident intent of bothering the New York batsmen. The score was Bto 6, in favor of the Phillies, at the time, and one man had been retired in tbe ninth before Brennah stopped the game. Because the Philadelphia club management did not'drive tbe crowd out of the seats on a line with the batsmen the New York team was awarded the victory—9 to 0. Lynch promptly reversed this ruling and gave the game to the Phillies, 8-6; but the league directors decided that the game should be played to a finish on the New York grounds as a preliminary to a double-header between the two teams late in tbe season. This established a precedent for transferring an incomplete*! game started in

Tom Lynch.

one city to the grounds of a rival club in another city. Lynch’s plan was the best way out of the difficulty, for, while the game ended with no further scoring and went as a victory for the combinations might have arisen that would have given the league a great deal of trouble. The American league directors would not have thought of attempting to overrule Johnson under like circumstances, and if the National men expect to profit by Tenor’s election they must learn early to abide by his decisions.

FOOTBALL AND THE PUBLIC

Doubtful If College Game Will Ever Become Anywhere as Near as Baseball to Bportdom. While football ranks next to baseball in the appeal that It makes to the general public, it is doubtful whether it will ever come anywhere near the popularity that has been obtained by jthe national game. It is extremely 'gratifying to note, however, that the new style of play inaugurated several years ago and perfected more recently has cut down the number of accidents. Coincident with the change to the more open style of play, the smaller colleges have been developing elevens that have made the “big four,” consisting of Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Pennsylvania, look to tneir laurels, says the Washington Post. Colgate, a small college, which had never figured before in big company, provided the football sensation of the year by beating Yale to the tune of 16 to 6. It is far better for football that the smaller colleges shall come to the front If the purpose of college athletics is to improve the students physically, the more who engage in the game the better. The trouble with both baseball and football as national games is that the phyiscal benefit is limited to the relatively few men who can play each season. Forty men turn out at the beginning of the season, but not more than 20 remain at the finish. T&e great majority of students are not benefited at all-

Davis Helpful to Athletics.

Connie Mack believes the success oC his weld’s champions is due in no little degree to the wonderful tact of his field general Harry Davis. Davi* formerly played first sot .the Athletics and later was manager for the Cleveland Americans. The year Davis wart away the Athletics finished in third.; But Connie saw a chance to again' sign his former lieutenant this year and the Quakerites finished in position one.

Frisco Sends Swimming Team.

San Fransico will send a team of five swimmers to participate in the events that will be held at Honoialn from February 18 to 22.