His work has been such as to win the respect of every sportsman, whatever his opinion of the desirability of the change of management, but with individual players of the first class might not another manager be able to attain better results was the argument. He is to be succeeded by a man who worked with him as a fellow-member at one time of the Chicago team, a man of experience in base-ball affairs, and who it is believed will continue the work which the veteran has done for the best interests of the game. Whether or not he will be able to make the club work together better than Anson and whether he can secure better results from the material he has to work with remains for the coming season to show.
But whatever be the future success of the team, it will owe a debt to Captain Anson, for to him is due the credit of being one of the greatest of base-ball generals. He has done a great work for the Chicago team, and can now give way to another, resting on the honors which he has already won and which the base-ball public gladly concede to him.—Chicago Tribune.
The former captain-manager of the Chicago base-ball team has just replied to a proposition to offer him a testimonial in such terms as do him infinite honor. Mr. Anson had held his position for many years. He had done the work and discharged the duties of the place faithfully, laboriously, and ably, and he had received for his services a salary which be accepted as sufficient. When it was, thought best to depose him and to employ another captain, he gave way without protest. He had done his best, he had been paid, he had nothing to complain of, and no favors to ask. The proposed testimonial was offered, perhaps, under the impression that he was needy or that his feelings were hurt, and the idea seems to have been that in giving him a benefit they would placate any resentment he might harbor and at the same time proclaim their own generosity. Anson, however, declined to be put in the position of a martyr or a suppliant. He replied: 'I refuse to accept anything in the shape of a gift. The public owes me nothing. I am not old and am no pauper. Besides that, I am by no means out of base-ball.'
We think that everybody will applaud Mr. Anson in this attitude. There is no reasonable doubt that the projected benefit would have netted him several thousands of dollars—it is not too much to estimate the result at $10,000. He has long been a favorite with the Chicago base-ball lovers. He enjoys a high reputation for courage, fairness, honorable methods, and professional ability. But he refused the well-meant offer of the Chicago Athletic Association, and we feel sure that all right-minded men will give him their sympathy and approval. He prefers to occupy the position of one who has served his employers zealously and received full consideration for his work, who has no complaint to make and no pity to invoke. He is not superannuated, has not been ill-treated, and is quite able to support himself for the future. It is a manly, modest, self-reliant, and self-respecting position and it raises him infinitely in public estimation.—Washington (D. C.) Post.
Our illustrious fellow townsman, Adrian Constantinus Anson, has given to the New York Sun a few reflections concerning the duties of womankind, with a comparative review of the charms of the ladies of Chicago and New York. It is Mr. Anson's deliberate opinion that woman has a most beautiful sphere of action in this pleasant life which is likely to be jeopardized by an association with clubs. Mr. Anson thinks that the average woman cannot attend to her regular knitting and to clubs at the same time, and he facilitates himself that the ladies of his immediate family have been restrained by his influence and his arguments from wasting time in society work that should belong to the needs of the small and sympathetic domestic circle. We congratulate Mr. Anson on the ability he has shown in the presentation of his argument, and we turn with confidence to his discussion of the ladies who have come under his observation. "In Chicago," says Mr. Anson, "the ladies dress very stunningly, just as well as they do here, if I am not mistaken, and they are certainly just as fine looking. I'll admit that the New York men dress a great deal better than those of Chicago." Mr. Anson is right. The Chicago man gives little thought to the morrow, wherewithal he shall be clothed. He has his charms, his graces, his many fine points, but as a fashion plate he is not a success. He is content to know that his wife and his daughters are keeping up the standard of Mr. Anson's expectations, and to feel that in providing them with gorgeous raiment he is contributing his share of the beautiful, the true and the good in the world. We have believed for some time that the shopping ladies on the east side of State street constituted a panorama of feminine loveliness unexcelled, but we are glad to have this opinion corroborated by 40 eminent an authority as Mr. Anson, who has a critical eye for the feminine toilet and has been in New York often enough in a professional capacity to exercise a just and accurate judgment.—Chicago Post.
The announced retirement of Adrian Constantine Anson from the management of the Chicago base-ball team marks the end of a career that is without parallel in America. For nearly thirty years Anson has stood among the foremost representatives of the national game, and for half that time. He has been a popular hero whose name was more familiar on the lips of the people than that of any statesman or soldier of his time. Ever since professional base-ball became a feature of American life, he has stood in the front rank of its exponents, and as long as it shall continue to be played his name will be remembered. He reflected credit upon his calling and helped raise it to a plane which made it creditable to him. A certain measure of true glory cannot be denied to such a man. In all his long publicity no charge of dishonorable methods, no rumor of the buying and selling that are too common in athletics was ever laid at his door. He possessed many of the qualities that make leaders of men, and his continued success was due to the same study and application which bring triumph in more highly esteemed fields of activity. Base-ball owes him much, the public owes him something and Chicago owes him more. He is entitled to an honorable discharge.—Detroit Tribune.
The passing of Adrian C. Anson from the position of manager and captain of the Chicago League base-ball club is deserving of notice by everybody. While it is not our purpose or custom to comment on athletics, in general, we deem it proper to drop a few thoughts concerning this man and his life.
For twenty-six years he has been playing base-ball with prominent clubs throughout the country, twenty-two years of this time being spent with the club which just disposed of his services. Five different times he brought his club out at the close of the season as a pennant winner, a record which has not yet been equaled by any manager. Besides being a bright star in the ball-playing constellation, Anson was an expert at cricket, hand-ball, billiards and shooting.
He has ever been temperate in his habits, and his long period of service in this line proves what a man may do by taking care of himself. No better lesson can be taught the young man of to-day than the observance of this man's life. After all, is it not a mistake made by the temperance people that they don't teach the physical as well as the moral effects of intemperance?
The name Anson means athletics. Honest, honorable, clean, pure athletics. No man has done more to place outdoor sports above reproach than he has.—Springfield (Ill.) Sun.