Morris’s averaging 18.52 against both opponents necessarily made his general average 18.52 also.
Line Increased from 8:2 to 12.2. Central Music Hall, Chicago, January 26th.—$500 a side. Schaefer, 800—14.55—109; Slosson, 719—98.
Increased to 14:2. Philadelphia roomkeepers’ championship handicap tournament, begun March 2d. Ed McLaughlin, Wm. Rockhill, and Pincus Levy won, 6—1 apiece, and Rockhill won emblem and $100 in playing off, Levy taking second prize ($75), and McLaughlin third ($50).
There were about a dozen match-contests for the trophy. Winning it from Rockhill on May 28th, at odds of 300 to 200, McLaughlin would have made it his own had not James Palmer, on May 25, 1886, defeated him by 175 to 254 in a possible 300. Ed. Burris beat Palmer on September 23, 1886, and others later at intervals, among them McLaughlin twice (handicap 225 to 300), and finally became owner of the emblem by defeating Pincus Levy, June 2, 1887, by 200 to 126 in a possible 150. What is worth recording here is not in the play itself, but in the logic of the situation. That it was a handicap championship necessarily made McLaughlin the champion all along as the giver of the longest odds.
In December, 1890, at the Continental Hotel, the Philadelphia roomkeepers engaged in another 14:2 handicap (John Cline, Ed. Burris and Ed. McLaughlin first, second, and third on imposts of 225, 300, and 400 points), but avoided the championship contradiction.
First Public Match at 14:2. Central Music Hall, Chicago, March 25th.—$250 a side. Capt. A. C. Anson, 500—5.43—39; Frank Parker, 364—22.