Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 203, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1916 — CLEANLINESS OF LIFE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CLEANLINESS OF LIFE

Waiter Johnson’s Only Vice it That of Chewing Gum. One of Explanations of Big Fellow's Remarkable Climb From Gem State Bushes to “Higher-Ups”—De-veloped in Idaho. “And his worst habit is to chew gum.” The Idaho fans were wont to say this of Walter Johnson, the wizard pitcher of the American league, after he had gone from the Gem state “bush” to the “higher-ups.” Briefly, it is one of the explanations of the big fellow’s remarkable climb and is a strong argument fftr the “form player” in baseball. „j Of course, hitting the pepsin is not a bad habit, and, other than winning games, it was, in Johnson’s day of baseball infancy, his only regular custom —perhaps still is—for we hear of the California youth doing things on the diamond that none save a man in perfect condition, could accomplish, and it is no secret that mingling with the big boys changed Johnson not a bit. Egotism will never get him. Walter Johnson is another achievement of the great West, where we do more than exist —we live, writes a Boise (Idaho) correspondent in the Detroit Free Press. What if the “phenom" was overlooked around Los Angeles—his own “diggin’s?” He developed in Idaho, and that’s some state, too, for developing, also for things that have their growth. It was there that Mr. Success brought out his ladder for Walter Johnson to climb. It was not of the ten or twelve-rung va-

riety; it was of the extension sort, and it did not take long for the California lad to extend it to its limit. Lest we forget —it was Waltei Johnson who broke the world’s record for shutouts by pitching 72 innings without a score against him. In truth; it was in a sagebrush league, for if ever there was such it is in Idaho, where they make the native -bush serve even-to- the-length-of growing hair on bald heads. But it mitigates from the record not one whit, for anyone ‘ familiar with baseball kinks knows it would be just as jnucb a record if made in the big leagues. It is a rare combination that figures in the success of Walter Johnson, and it offers a strong argument for cleanliness of mind and body in sports. Johnson keeps in perfect physical condition, and his mind is one of those open books that any might read with profit. Always fair, he never “crabs” nor “lays down,” but gives his best at all times. Popular? Well, the word hardly is big enough to fit his case.

Walter Johnson.