After several weeks spent in observing the work of young players in the minor leagues throughout the country, Arthur Irwin, the veteran scout, of the New York Americans, has come to the conclusion that the left-handed pitcher is dying out.
“I’ve combed the bushes this year as never before,” said Irwin, on his return to New York, “and never did I see such a scarcity of southpaws. They are not to be had.
“My experience is the same as the experience of other scouts with whom I have talked. I cannot account for it, except on the theory that left-handed persons are getting rare in all walks of life.
“In my travels this season I saw very few left-handed pitchers—fewer than I ever saw in all my years in baseball. I’ll venture the prediction that next season there will be fewer new southpaws in the big leagues than in any season in twenty-five years.”
Italy Wants Porter Charlton for Lake Como Crime.
The long wait of Porter Charlton behind the bars of a New Jersey prison for the final word as to whether he must return to Italy to answer for the murder of his wife at Lake Como, two years ago, is drawing to an end. The supreme court will take up Charlton’s case.
Charlton’s appeal is the most-noted murder case before the court. Diplomatic officials of Italy and the United States have become involved in the matter. The decision of the court will be looked to as a guide in diplomatic intercourse.
The twenty-three-year-old prisoner, through his father, Judge Paul Charlton, of Porto Rico, will challenge the right of the American government to surrender him[{60}] to the Italian authorities. This right is claimed on account of the peculiar circumstances under which Charlton was arrested.
Immediately after Mrs. Charlton’s body was found in a trunk in Lake Como the search for her husband began. He was arrested at the request of the wife’s brother, Captain H. H. Scott, of the United States army, as he stepped from a steamer at Hoboken, N. J. He had committed no crime in America, but confessed to having murdered his wife who, he said, had refused to obey his order to be quiet one night on their wedding trip.
Under the treaty between the United States and Italy, Italy has repeatedly declined to grant requests of the United States that Italians who committed crimes in this country and escaped to Italy be returned. Italy has responded that she would punish them.