curtain.
[AN IRISHMAN'S PATIENCE.]
In a neat little white painted house up in Maine, a baby's gold ring hangs upon the wall tied with a bit of ribbon. The owner, an Irishman, a humorous scion of his race, when interrogated about it, told the following story:
While fishing one day in an adjacent lake, he accidentally dropped the ring out of his pocket, and slipping off the edge of the boat, it sank down through the clear water. As he watched it disappearing, a large fish darted through the water, and opening his month gulped it down. The Irishman sadly lamented his loss of the ring as it belonged to his little baby. He resolved to fish that lake until he found the rascally thief, and day after day he hauled in the shiny, struggling members of the finny tribe, and cut them open in search of his ring. Weeks went by, and grew into months, until the cold weather arrived, but with a fisherman's patience he continued in his task even to cutting holes in the ice to fish through. One day after a severe and long protracted struggle, he hauled in a fine fish, and some intuitive instinct told him he had at last caught the thief, which, on cutting him open, proved to be the case.
BY GASTON V. DRAKE.
II.—FROM JACK TO BOB.
Boston, June —, 18—.
Dear Bob,—Got your letter last night. Wish I was going to Hoboken with you, but most of all I wish you were going to be at the Mountain House. I got a letter from our old friend Sandboys the bell-boy, last month, and judging from what he says in it there's going to be lots of fun up there this summer with the bears. He says there never was such a lot of bears anywhere before. I hardly know whether to believe what he says or not, but there's one parrygraph in his letter that is very interesting. This is it. I've copied it off "verby tim," as Dad calls it. He says, "We don't know whether we can get the hotel opened this season or not on account of them bears. About two months ago the Colonel sent over for me and asked me if I wouldn't go up to the Notch with him and help unlock the doors and start things along and I said yes I would. You know in a big hotel like that with three hundred and forty rooms it's pretty hard work getting it ready for the summer season, and you have to begin very early to put things to rights, so along about April the Colonel generally sends for me and we go up there to see how things are going. So as I say I said yes I would and I got ready to go, but the day before the one we were to go on the Colonel sent me a telegraph message saying that he couldn't get away and asking would I mind going up alone. So I said no I wouldn't and went. It was about the twenty-first of April when I got there and the snow was pretty deep, but it was crusted hard enough on top for me to walk on, so I slid around to where the front door was, but couldn't get in there because the snow came up to the second story. Then I slid around to the back door and found the snow there had drifted up as high as the third story, but there was an open window that I could climb in through and through I clumb, exclaiming as I did so against the carelessness of the people that had left it open. Little did I dream how unjust I was, but later on I found out. I went through the room out into the hall, and thence down stairs to the office floor, where what did I see sitting in the Colonel's big arm-chair back of the counter but a huge black bear, his fore-paws folded over his chest and his head thrown back, blinking his eyes at the ceiling! I was transfigured with terror, being unarmed and little expecting to see a bear in that place. I turned quickly about and started to sneak back up stairs the way I had come when what should I see playing in the hall in front of your old room, the door of which was open, but two roly-poly cubs, having the finest time imaginable. As soon as they saw me they gave a squeak and rushed in head over heels into the room and would you believe it slammed the door after them! Well, I didn't know what to make of it, and my first, thought was to get away as fast as I could, but remembering that in my room on the top floor under the cupola I had left a book I had given me by one of last year's guests, I went up to get it, and really and truly, Jack, there stretched at full length on my bed was another bear. This time I was thoroughly scared out of my wits, and the first thing I knew I had given a cry of fear and of course that attracted the bear's attention. As soon as he caught sight of me he sprang up off the bed and chased me down the stairs along the hall to the East side, then down the next stairs along the lower hall to the West side, and so we went lickety-split up and down those halls like lightning. He could gain on me in the halls having twice as many legs as I have, but I could gain on him on the stairs, by sliding down the banisters, which was a trick he hadn't learned. Finally we got to the ground-floor, and I dashed along through the office, past the first bear who was still blinking at the ceiling in the Colonel's chair behind the counter. The bear that was chasing me was now gaining constantly. By the time we had got to the last flight of stairs he had learned, by watching me go down, how to slide on the banisters himself, so I couldn't gain an inch there, and he roared like a thunder-storm all the time, which was very destroying to my nerves. I tell you I thought my last hour had come, but I didn't sit down to cry about it. I just kept on and as luck would have it managed to jump into the elevator and slam the iron-barred door in his face just as he was about to grab me."
"My! Didn't I sit down and pant and wasn't I glad that elevator door was made of iron, for as I sat there the roaring and raving of my particular enemy seemed to summon bears from everywhere. They rushed in from all sides. Three came from the writing-room, one from the Post-office, five from the parlors, and no end of 'em, big bears, little bears, and middle-sized bears, came tumbling down the stairs to see what the trouble was, and then I saw what had happened. Every blooming bear in New Hampshire had deserted his den to come and live in the hotel! I gave myself up for lost. I knew if I tried to get out of that elevator they'd pounce on me, and if I didn't get out I'd either freeze or starve to death, and it was sickening to think of, but all of a sudden an idea came to me. The elevator was one of these hydrahaulic lifts and it occurred to me that there might be enough water left in the tank to make it go up if I pulled the rope. It was worth trying anyhow, and I did it. As I had hoped, it worked and to the astonishment of the Colonel's unexpected guests, I and my room shot up to the third story, where, all the bears being down stairs, I got out in safety, and rushed down the hallway to the room with the open window. Then I closed the door quickly behind me and locked it, as a precaution in case of pursuit, and jumping out of the window I escaped.
"It was a terrible experience and I've found one or two white hairs in my head since. The Colonel was very angry about it, but of course it was nobody's fault. The window was opened by the bears themselves. It must have been, because the housekeeper says she closed it herself, and as for locking it, she says she didn't think it necessary to lock a third-story window to keep out bears.
"Just what is to be done about getting 'em out nobody seems to know yet, but it is probable that the Colonel will call out his regiment and go up there and engage them in a long and bloody conflict as the historians say. If he does, I'm going with him, but I'm to have charge of the provisions and not do any of the fighting, because the Colonel thinks I've had escapes enough for one year."
How's that for a tale? I think it's great, but I don't want to go to any such place as that alone. If you were going I wouldn't be scared of a thousand bears, but all by myself I don't even care to fight one of 'em. Can't you get your Dad to change his mind?
Yours ever, Jack.
For several years past there has been considerable ill-feeling among the schools of the Boston interscholastic organization against the Cambridge High and Latin School. This feeling has arisen from the fact that the High-School and Latin School of Cambridge are two separate and distinct institutions, presided over by separate officials, and yet the scholars of the two schools join forces in athletics, and appear upon the field with teams made up from the strongest and best material to be found in both bodies. In years past, when the participation in out-door sports was not so general among the student body as it is now, there may have been good reason for allowing these two schools of the same town to join forces in athletics. But as matters progressed, and more and more of the students became trained in the science of football and baseball, it seemed manifestly unfair toward the smaller schools in the league to allow the Cambridge team to draw upon so much larger a field for material.
The question of having the Interscholastic Football Association step in and interfere with the combination has been agitated for some time, and the opposition at last came to a head at the meeting of the executive committee last week. On this occasion a specific charge was brought against the football management of the Cambridge High and Latin football team, and as a result the following resolution was formulated and adopted:
Whereas, Cambridge High and Latin played a man through the entire season who was at no time a member of either school;
Resolved, That Cambridge High and Latin be dropped from the Association, and that no member or manager of the 1895 team be allowed to play in league games, except at the request of the head-master of the school he may attend; that the Cambridge High and Cambridge Latin schools be admitted separately to the Junior Interscholastic League.
After adopting these resolutions, however, the executive committee decided that if the head-master of either school should so request, they would reconsider their vote. But as matters now stand the Association no longer recognizes the Cambridge High and Latin School as an athletic organization, and if sportsmen of either school desire in the future to enter any interscholastic football contests, they will have to apply for membership in the Junior League as separate institutions. But even if such application should be made, and were it accepted, as it probably would be, neither school can play upon any team it organizes any man who had any connection, either in a playing or a managing capacity, with the football eleven of last fall, except, possibly, at the special request of the head-master.
At the present date of writing I have been unable to secure full and exact confirmation of the charges made against the C. H. and L. team, but I feel perfectly confident that the executive committee, doubtless acting under the advice of the B.A.A. and of graduate members of the schools, made a full and careful investigation, and had thorough proof of the guilt of the player referred to. An extenuating circumstance seems to have been that the Captain of the C. H. and L. team attended the Latin School, and the alleged non-member claimed to attend the High-School. The Captain doubtless argued that he took the man's word for his connection with the High-School, and the committee no doubt seized upon the argument as a very sound pretext to separate the schools, probably ruling that although a Captain ought to know positively whether or not his players are bona fide students, it is perhaps too much to require him to be familiar with the roster of more than one institution.
The punishment inflicted upon the players—if the charges have been proved valid—strikes me as being the best possible solution of a very unpleasant situation. It frequently happens that players who are not strictly amateurs get on amateur teams. We hear of this continually. It is always very hard to find out whether the Captain of the team or any of the other players were aware at the beginning, or at any time, of this player's actual standing. It is impossible to prove whether or not such knowledge existed. But if you make the penalty for such infringement of the law so severe that every Captain and every player will make it his business—for his own sake—to know all about every other man on his team, you will be purifying sport at a rapid rate.
It is useless, unwise, and unnecessary to expel an entire school from an athletic organization because there was a non-amateur on that school's football team. That does not help the cause of sport. On the contrary, it injures it. But if you place the responsibility upon the players themselves, upon the men who are looking forward hopefully to a successful career among other amateurs, then every one of these fellows will be looking out for his own skin, and the moment he hears there is something crooked about his companion he will investigate for himself, and if he finds there are good grounds for suspicion he will soon see that the evil is remedied.
This may sound as though I were advocating a system where selfishness rather than a just sense of honor must be the controlling motive; but that is not the idea I intend to convey. No one recognizes more fully than I do how greatly young men dislike to put themselves to any trouble, especially in matters of this kind. I fear the average strictly honest sportsman on a school team would do nothing to rid his eleven or nine of a player whom he was fairly sure had no right to be there, simply because it would necessitate his putting himself to some trouble, and possibly subject himself to some unpleasantness.
It is for this reason that I so strongly approve of any honest incentive that can be given to youthful energy, even if it has to work through selfishness and "the first law of nature." Therefore I repeat that the plan adopted by the executive committee is most excellent. It is like cutting out a cancer. By removing all the players who were in company with the guilty man they get rid of the possible good with the surely bad, but they make room for new material that will certainly profit by the lesson given to its predecessors. It seems to me that if this year there is found on any New York interscholastic baseball team any player who has no right to play, as was the case last year, the wiser method will be to blacklist the whole team rather than to expel the school from the association. Then, the following year, the school body will see to it that there are no dishonest fellows wearing the school colors on the field of honest sport.
The proposed in-door track-athletic meeting, to be held next month at the Madison Square Garden under the auspices of the New Manhattan Athletic Club, will be the first real interscholastic in-door meeting that has ever been held in this city, and will consequently establish in-door interscholastic records for the New York I.S.A.A. At present the in-door scholastic records for this city are as follows:
Sixty-yard Dash—6 3-5 seconds, P. W. Simpson, Barnard, 1893; Junior, 7 2-5 seconds, D. M. Armstead, Berkeley, 1895, and G. Mayne, Barnard, 1895.
Seventy-yard Dash—7 4-5 seconds, T. H. Hall, Jun., Yale, 1895; H. Moeller, Columbia Grammar, 1894; H. L. Patterson, Wilson and Kellogg, 1892; boys under fifteen years, 8 4-5 seconds, P. W. Simpson, Barnard, 1894; R. Thompson, Columbia Grammar, 1894; boys under thirteen years, 9 seconds, G. G. Soper, Berkeley, 1894.
Seventy-five-yard Dash—Boys under fifteen years, 8 3-5 seconds, T. H. Hall, Jun., Yale, 1892.
One-hundred-yard Dash—10 3-5 seconds, T. H. Hall, Jun., Yale, 1895; Junior, 11 1-5 seconds, W. Wilson, Barnard, 1895.
Two-hundred-and-twenty-yard Dash—25 4-5 seconds, R. W. Moore, Barnard, 1895, and P. W. Simpson, Barnard, 1894; Junior, 28 seconds, W. Wilson, Barnard, 1895.
Four-hundred-and-forty-yard Run—54 1-5 seconds, C. Martin, Berkeley, 1894.
Eight-hundred-and-eighty-yard Run—2 minutes 14 2-5 seconds; C. Martin, Berkeley, 1894.
One-mile Run—4 minutes 55 4-5 seconds, L. Tappin, Cutler, 1895.
One-mile Walk—7 minutes 37 4-5 seconds, G. L. Berget, Berkeley, 1892.
One-mile Bicycle Race—2 minutes 46 seconds, W. H. Blake, Harvard, 1894.
Sixty-yard Hurdle Race—7 3-5 seconds, S. A. Lyme, Barnard, 1894, and Von Bour, Barnard, 1895.
Seventy-yard Hurdle Race—9 seconds, H. F. Willney, Harvard, 1894, and W. B. Rogers, Barnard, 1894.
Seventy-five-yard Hurdle Race—9 1-5 seconds, E. W. Brooks, Harvard, 1892; Junior, 10 2-5 seconds, J. D. Pell, Cutler, 1892.
One-hundred-yard Hurdle Race—13 seconds, S. A. Lyme, Barnard, 1895.
Two-hundred-and-twenty-yard Hurdle Race—31 4-5 seconds, E. M. Brooks, Harvard, 1892.
High Jump—5 feet 8 1-2 inches, S. A. W. Baltazzi, Harvard, 1895.
Putting the Twelve-pound Shot—37 feet 5 inches, E. Bigelow, Wilson and Kellogg, 1895.
Pole Vault—9 feet 4 inches, E. F. Simpson, Barnard, 1895.
These are the records, therefore, some of which we may look to see broken at the big meeting in March. The rules that are to govern eligibility of contestants are, as I announced last week, to be those of the New York I.S.A.A. They are as follows:
"Art. XI. Sec. 1. No one shall represent any school as a competitor in any athletic contest who has not been a member of that school from the 1st of January of the school year in which the contest is held; or who has actually been paid wages for services during the school year; or who has been enrolled as a member of any college; or who has attained the age of twenty years; or who is not in good standing with the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States. Sec. 2. Having been a member of the Sub-Freshman Class of the College of the City of New York does not debar a scholar from competing.
The game of basket-ball is a comparative innovation this winter, but in many sections of the country it has sprung into great popularity. In New England, especially, is this the case. The reason for the game's success is that it offers to those who wish to keep in training during the winter months an ideal recreation, affording a greater variety of exercise than any other kind of gymnasium work. It furnishes an opportunity for all-round physical development such as cannot result from even a systematic use of dumbbells, Indian clubs, and pulley-weights.
Another reason why basket-ball has become popular is that it may be played upon any kind of a ground, in-doors or out-doors, in a gymnasium, a hall, a back yard, or a ten-acre lot, on a dancing-floor or a stubble field. I have seen the game played in a room 12x20 feet, and I have known it to be played on a football field. Furthermore, it is allowable for any number of men to join in a game, although the regulation number of players for a team is five on a side. Where a match is not being contested the number on a side may be increased to the capacity of the field, and two balls may be used. This adds to the fun, perhaps, but, of course, the true science of the game is then lost.
Let us consider basket-ball merely as an in-door game for the present. It is probable that wherever the game may be taken up it will be played in a gymnasium. The floor should be well cleared of all apparatus, and if there is a running track around the building the baskets may be hung upon it, or, if there is no track, they may be suspended from the wall, ten feet above the ground. The "baskets" now most generally used consist of hammock nets of cord, eighteen inches deep, suspended in metal rings eighteen inches wide. Any kind of basket of that approximate size, however, will answer just as well. The ball is round, and made of an inflated rubber bladder covered with leather, and it should be between thirty and thirty-two inches in circumference. It may be just as well to insert at this point that the object of the game is for the men of one team to put the ball into their opponents' goal. This may be done by tossing or throwing or batting the ball from any part of the field with one or both hands. Boundary-lines must be drawn around the room several feet from the walls, and when the ball goes outside of these lines it is out of bounds.
The game is started by the referee, who throws the ball into the middle of the field. It is then in play—as in polo. The energies of the players are exerted toward getting the ball into their opponents' goal or basket, but no player may kick the ball or run with it. He must throw it from the spot on which he catches it, although allowance is made for momentum in a running catch. Shouldering, holding, pushing, tripping, or striking is, of course, not allowed, the penalty for such conduct being a foul called, with disqualification for the second offence. A player has the right to take the ball at any time while it is in the field of play, but he may only touch the ball, and not the opponent.
The ball goes out of bounds when it crosses the line drawn about the field of play. When this happens it is returned by the side first holding it. The man who "throws" it in may do this by bounding the ball in, or by throwing it to some one on the field, or by rolling it in. He is allowed five seconds in which to do this, and if he holds the ball longer, it goes to the opposing side. If the referee is in doubt as to which side first held the ball, he throws it in himself.
A goal is counted when the ball is thrown or batted from the ground into the basket directly, or by a rebound from the sides, and stays there. If it bounces out there is no goal; but if while the ball is on the edge of the basket the basket is moved by an opponent, a goal shall be scored. The time of play is forty minutes, divided into two halves of twenty minutes each, and the side scoring the greatest number of goals in this time wins.
The officials of the game are a referee, two umpires, a scorer, and a time-keeper. The referee is judge of the ball, and decides when it is in play, to whom it belongs, and when a goal has been made. He also appoints the time-keeper. The umpires are the judges of the men, call fouls, notify offenders, and have the right to disqualify players. A foul called by one umpire may not be questioned by the other. A great deal of responsibility thus rests upon the umpires, for it is in their power to keep roughness out of the game, and to see that science rather than brute force becomes the chief road to success.
It is evident that basket-ball is a game capable of great scientific development. It is by no means child's play. It is a sport in which team-work counts fully as much as in football, and where individual brilliancy must become secondary to concerted effort. This very season, in several important games, the value of team-play has been made evident, and its superiority has been conclusively shown. Basket-ball is certainly a game to be favored. It is the ideal competitive sport for gymnasium recreation; and for dwellers in cities, who must nowadays get most of their exercise in a gymnasium, it ought to be welcomed with enthusiasm.
At Andover there seems to be some hesitancy about joining the interscholastic league newly organized by Lawrenceville and the Hill School. Andover's objection seems to be valid, being based on the fact that she already belongs to the New England I. S. A. A., and is in a dual league with Worcester. This brings Andover also into the National Association, and a large faction in the school considers that those applications will furnish all the opportunities for contests that the team will be able to accept.
The Graduate.
This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp and coin collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on these subjects so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor Stamp Department.
H. Wangelin.—See Round Table, December 17, 1895. The cent you describe is worth 5c.
M. H. Horn.—It is a Hungarian stamp, worth 1c.
British.—The coin is Portuguese, not Spanish. The English coins are not collected in this country.
W. J. Kerris.—Your stamp is a counterfeit. No rule in stamp-collecting is more rigid than that not to buy rare stamps of any one except of responsible dealers, unless you are an expert, and are acquainted with both the counterfeits and the genuine stamps.
M. H. Stiles.—The 2-cent U. S. stamps are printed in sheets of 400 stamps, four "panes" of 100 each. On the outside margins, between the panes, are "guide lines," showing where to cut the sheet apart.
H. Haspers.—1. Any one can buy or sell stamps without a license. 2. Most collectors now keep all the shades of the current U. S. stamps. 3. English stamps are usually printed in sheets of 240 stamps. Some collectors make up entire sheets, but that is unusual. 4. Pomeroy, Boyd, etc., are U. S. local express stamps, all used before 1882. 5. Wuher, Corea, etc., are not worth collecting. 6. Escuelas are school-tax stamps.
H. Moorhead.—It is a token, not a coin, and has no particular value.
G. E. J.—The cents can be bought at a dealer's for 5 or 10 cents each. The $3 gold piece has no premium, as it is one of the common dates.
Hall King.—All collectors avoid cut postal-cards, and most collectors refuse the Seebacks, unnecessary issues condemned by the S.S.S.S., and many will not collect surcharges, but this last is a matter of choice only.
A. G. S.—The 5c. piece without the word "cents" is quoted by dealers at 10c. The 1834 cent, small letters, is worth 50c., the other two varieties of 1834 are 10c. each. All the other dates mentioned can be bought at about 5c. each.
F. Buttman.—Dealers ask 50c. each for the Columbian quarter.
E. Stramberg and L. McHugh.—No premium.
J. O'Neal.—U. S. $3 gold pieces no premium. 1809 half-cent is worth 10c.
Mrs. Park Child.—See Round Table, December 17, 1895, for value of coins.
N. Martin.—Address the Dorchester, Massachusetts, Stamp Exchange direct. I do not know any more definite address.
Amy Rogers.—The 5c. Playing Cards, U.S. Revenue, are sold by dealers at 50c. each.
J. Sugden.—The 3c. U.S., 1869, is worth 2c. The 7c. U.S. with Stanton's portrait is worth 30c.
H. Marsh.—The 5c. nickel without "Cents" is very common.
Mary H. Hartman.—We do not buy or sell either coins or stamps. The coins and stamps quoted in the Handy Book are the prices asked by dealers. Age has nothing to do with value. For instance, the 1804 dollar would be cheap if bought by a collector for $500, whereas a 1798 dollar would be dear at $3. Old foreign coins, as a rule, are worth their weight in metal only.
L. G. Varney.—The English coin is worth face only. For value of cents and half-cents, U.S., see Round Table, December 17, 1895.
A. L. Poisson.—The three-cornered Cape of Good Hope shilling is worth $2.50 if with good margins, etc.
F. R. Sabine.—The stamp is the U.S. 3c., 1851 issue, worth 2c. The original color was red, but it has oxydized.
Correspondent, Barrie.—The stamps are not very valuable. They would answer very well for exchange purposes with any of your friends who are collecting.
Adele B. Cramer.—It is impossible to identify the stamps from your description. I should advise you to purchase a stamp catalogue from a dealer.
C. H. Treat.—For list of U. S. coins see Round Table, December 17, 1895, and January 14, 1896.
H. W. Knight.—See answer to C. H. Treat.
H. Bernedelo.—No! Dealers sell it at 5c.
J. Radburn.—The guinea is worth $5. It is not rare.
F. French.—The revenues are worth 1 cent each. The 3-cent postage due, buff, is worth 5 cents.
C. Armstrong, Pre-emption, Illinois, desires to exchange stamps.
M. S. Mayer.—Honduras, Nicaragua, Salvador, Costa Rica, etc., use Seebeck stamps.
Conner, Florida.—No name signed to letter. I would advise you to buy a stamp catalogue.
P. F. Lisk.—List of U. S. coins from 1 cent to 20 cents will be found in the Round Table dated December 17, 1895. The dollar gold pieces are sold by dealers at $1.50 each.
A. Hall.—Fashion plays a great part in the value of stamps. Just at present the fashion is for old West Indian and British North American colonials. Consequently the rarities are advancing in price very rapidly.
Philatus.