Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-07


natl But they said more. They made it known
that they will continue to trample under
foot the national agreement and decline to
recognize the National League except the
latter get out of Cincinnati And still
more. 1t is stated that they devised plans
for the engagement of old and new players
for next year Now isn't all this interest
ing? Who has been asking them to rejoin
or recognize the National League? Ger
tainly no friend of the N. L. But surely
there must have been something more to at
tract these men to Cincinnati than to merely
repeat what they had already said about
the national agreement and the National
League. Certainly there was; and sure
enough the great cause of their meeting was
to discuss their very great difficulties.
Those Crooked Trotting Races.
yet, but what little of it we have had has
not been very satisfactory; indeed, it is
some time since the season opened in such
questionable way. What with the rumors
of crookedness at Homewood and the facts
of questionable work at Baltimore a very
great injury is being done branch of sport
that has been growing in popularity to a
remarkable extent during recent years. /
i
had other fish to fry that week; but some
very shrewd people assure me that there
was something rotten in the State of Den
mark" out there, and whether there was or
not do not say, but the judges of the Bal
timore races tell us that there was certainly
| something very rotten there. There were
many of the persons who took part in the
Homewood races prominent at the Balti-
more meeting. At any rate / am thor
oughly convinced that this new circuit, this
Southeastern affair, has been tainted
from top to bottom. Tricksters,
schemers and frauds of the rankest
kind are following it round, and the wonder
| is that something has not been done ere
now to stop this system of public plunder-
| ing. Track authorities must be aware of it;
they must see, or if they don't they are not
at all the proper persons to take charge Of a
race track But the national authorities
should take hold of this matter, because if
such frauds are to go on trottlng meet
| ings will soon become thing of the past.
OF late years trotting and pacing have be-
come extremely popular and profitable, be-
cause of the honorable people who have be-
come identified with the sport, and also be-
cause of the honesty of the public transac-
tions connected with it. But here is all the
good work of years threatened by few pub
| lie pilferers. Surely stop should be put to
the swindling. The American public will
stand great deal, but it won't stand to be
swindled when it knows it.
Our Young Scullers.
Ihave noticed during the week challenges
| from young scullers, that is, scullers who
have never rowed in public race. One Of
the challenges emanated from young man,
rbn 20
youngster who has not rowed in a race. I
refer to the matter to point out that after
all there is some hope of a revival of boat
rowing; certainly one ofthe best branches of
sport that know of. 1 have been informed
that there are several youngsters in and
about Pittsburg who give promise of being
great scullers and am also told of another
young man named Craig, who resides near
Monongahela City. What is worthy of note
in this matter is the fact that in every in
stance these young men to whom my atten-
tion has been drawn are youngsters of the
most powerful build, 1.-THE and athletic.
That is the material we need to place us in
the front rank again. But we also need
considerable more honesty than we
have been accustomed to during the
last eight or ten years. 1t is quite safe
to say that no matter what kind
of race would take place among our present
class of prominent scullers the public would
have very little confidence in it. There
must be new generation of scullers in this
country before ever the sport can become
popular again. There is no denying this
fact, and it is entirely because of this that
wish to give every encouragement
possible to the development of the young
rowers. see no reason why we, in Amer
lea, should continue to play second fiddle to
- I'll iva 4ha
matter of sculling, particularly. We have
the bone and sinew here and also the intelli-
gence. All that is needed is a careful de-
velopment of our talent, and, most certainly,
we have plenty of good men to do the de-
veloping part. trust that we will soon
see some Of our young men contesting for
supremacy, and as soon as they begin to
tackle each other we may expect some good
scullers as a result.
slayin and Kilrain.
On Tuesday night Frank P. Slavin will
try and knock Jake Kilrain out in ten
rounds. / have made the statement that he
will ''try" only on the strength of the pub
lie announcement regarding the conditions
of the contest. Whether or not he will
''try'' is matter of which I have no def
mite knowledge, and this leaves a great
think cannot better explain this feature OF
"trying" than telling of two cartoons
once saw in comic paper. No. was a
horse in stall the horse was entered for
the Derby, and the picture represented q
tout quietly asking the horse if he could
win the race. 81 can win it easy" said the
horse. No. 2 picture represented the same
horse, after the race, in the same stall, and
the same tout with look of utter
misery on his face. The horse hadn't
won the race, and the tout had
"gone broke" on the result Said the
tout to the horse: 81 thought you told me
you could win the Derby easily?" eyes, -
replied the horse; but you didn't ask me
if was going to try" That settled the
matter, and depend upon it nowadays al
most everything in every contest hinges on
whether or not the favorite is going to try.
I am inclined to think that if Slavin will
| do the trying part he will soon settle Kill
rain. Both men have been prominent pub
lie performers, and if public form has to go
/ for anything at all, don't hesitate to say
that Kilrain has very little show indeed OF
standing ten rounds before Slavin-and
public form is almost the only thing that
can guide US; but when the enot trying
feature is introduced unknown to us why
We are all at sea-
An Old Timers Opinion.
1t is my intention of discussing the Sla-
vin-Kilrain event at length this week, be-
cause, assuming that it is on the square, Z"
it is very important affair. take pleas
ure in recording the opinions of very old
friend of mine regarding Slavin. This
friend has just returned from visit to the
Australians training quarters, and know
| of no better Judge of a pugilist than this
friend The other day he said to me:
Crank Slavin is one of the best formed
men have met in my life, and I have seen