HIGH JUMP NO. 1—THE RISE.
The value of the club’s property amounts to about $45,000, and its income reaches $18,000, a sum large enough to allow considerable addition each year to its possessions, besides paying current expenses. The membership, which has a limit of 650, reaches 625. The original object of the club has been fully attained, for it has added greatly to the social life of the city. An element of its success has been the absence of internal dissension; all work together for the common good, sinking personal differences, and never allowing them to hamper any public project. The rules are strict: no liquor can be brought into, sold, or drunk in the house; no gambling or games of chance are allowed by the State laws, and are also prohibited by the club rules under penalty of expulsion.
The bowling team is the club’s joy and pride. At the close of the season of 1886–7, however, the team was last on the list, having won only four out of twelve games. This was to be expected, as the alleys had been in use only a few months; but in the season of 1887–8 the team won ten out of a possible fourteen games, and gained thereby the championship of the Amateur Bowling League. This league is composed of the Jersey A. C., New York A. C., Orange A. C., Brooklyn A. A., Roseville A. C., Elizabeth A. C., and Palma Club. Of these the Elizabeth Club had never been beaten on their own alleys until the Jersey City Club lowered their colors, rolling the highest score in the tournament upon their alleys in contest with them. The tournament commenced in November, 1887, and the twelve scheduled games were finished with a tie for first place between the Jersey City, New York, and Palma Club. The Jersey team won the deciding games in good style, defeating successively the Palmas and the New Yorks, and winning ten out of fourteen games.
HIGH JUMP NO. 2—OVER.
After the tie was made, the three clubs drew as to who should play first, the J. C. A. C. drawing the bye. The New Yorks played the Palma Club, the latter winning. This left the J. C. A. C. to play the Palma Club upon the alleys of the N. Y. A. C., and it was a game worth recording. At the end of the third frame the Palma score was 102 pins ahead, and it looked as if the game was won. Neither score changed much until the end of the sixth frame, when the score of the J. C. A. C. began to show a little improvement. By this time the excitement was growing, and the spectators began to be interested. All eyes were strained upon the pins at the end of the alleys as one of the crack bowlers carefully poised the huge ball in mid-air, taking careful aim, when suddenly, with an eerie screech, a wild-eyed, consumptive cat, with arched back and bristling fur, darted like a streak of darkness diagonally across the alley. All the boys shouted, and were convulsed with laughter at the strange apparition, coming from nowhere and disappearing as mysteriously as it had come. The claims of the rival clubs were loud as to the significance of the visitant, the Palmas claiming it as their mascotte, the J. C. A. C. boys claiming it as a “hoodoo” for the Palma score, and so it proved. By this time the excitement had spread all through the house, and the men swarmed down into the alleys.
Slowly the score began to change its aspect, until, by the final frame, when the Palmas had finished their play, they were eleven pins ahead of the J. C. A. C., who had one more man to roll. When on the first ball he made a “strike,” counting ten, he was seized by the enthusiastic team and carried around upon their shoulders. Each of his following shots proved to be a “strike,” and brought up the score of the J. C. A. C. to a total of 43 pins above that of their opponents. A large model of the cat, done in cotton, five times the size of the original, with heroic verses telling of its famous run, and its “hoodoo” influence, is one of the proud possessions of the club, and adorns its rooms.
Among other trophies are the prizes for a match contest between the Orange A. C. and the J. C. A. C. The team is composed of Messrs. A. M. Ryerson, captain, F. Cavalli, J. H. Curran, O. D. Stewart, A. H. Brown, E. R. Grant, G. E. Hogg, J. A. Davis, E. Klein and H. W. McLellan. Bowling tournaments between the members of the club for prizes help to promote good play and develop champions.
The baseball team has won a number of local victories, and interests a large number of members. Having, however, no regular grounds to practice on, the team contents itself with playing against local club nines.