The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1891-06-04
BASEBALLCRANKS
Men Whose Particular Fad Is
the National Game.
GENERAL DIxwELL, OF BOSTON.

GENERAL DIXWELL, OF BOSTON.
Time and. Money Devoted to the sport.
Nick Engei, Dewolf Hopper. Digby
Bell, Maurice Barrymore and Others
Are uappiest When Gazing at the Dia-
nond.
The world is full Of cranks, and some of
them are dangerous enough TO be kept
under lock and key. But the crauks I
shall write about are of m entirely differ.
ent character. and they are mostly we'll to
do men, and Others who have, through the
nature Of their business, good deal Of
spare time on their hands. They all have
fad, and that fad is baseball. They love
1t ms a horse loves his oats.
There are various kinds of cranks.
There is the studious crank, there is the
quiet crank, there Is the noisy crank, and
he is sometimes the most disagTeeable. /
only know of one exception to the rule.
or course, the army of crunks who sit on
the bleacheries and shout their approba-
tion do not come under the ban of noisy
cranks. The species referred to is an al
together different bird
rs prize crank, for in their way the
cranks are all on level, with one oxcep-
ton, in their love of the game.
This one exception is n peculiar case.
He is n man who has nothing on earth to
do, and who seems TO have devoted him
self heart and soul TO baseball. 1t Is true
that he has some interest in business vent
ures, but they do not worry him in the
least. The man Is Arthur Il. DiXwell, of
Boston. lie is commonly known as Gen
eral Dixwell, but he is entirely innocent
of military glory.
Dixwell at one time was a minority
stockholder in the Boston club; and when
the Boston management declined one sea-
son to sell season tickets, DiXwell was very
indignant. He set up what he called a
"gen'ral petition" The old man bothered
everybody so much about this petition that
they got to calling him "Old' General Pc.
tition." This finally dwindled down to
General" and Mr.. Dixwell has since been
known as General Arthur Dixwell. Odd
ly enough he accepted the title with equa-
nimity, and thousands of people really
think he Is a general.
The general has always been great
friend of the ball player In the days
when ball players were glad to play for
800 month they often became short, but
always found the general n good lender.
The trouble was that many of them failed
to return the loans, and the general lost so
extensively that after while he closed
the bank. Tho general always presents
every new Boston player with Il new bat
bag; and every now or then, when the
bat bags get worn out or pretty well used
up, the general has set made for all
hands.
Dixwell is not a rich man. but he has q
good income, something like six or eight
thousand dollars, and when the Brother
hood revolt came he stood by the Players
and was persuaded to invest a large sum
of money. lie will probably get something
out OF the $4,000 now in receivers hands
in Cincinnati. The other of his invest
ments is stock in the Boston american
association club. 1t is doubtful il he will
ever get many dividends from that hold
ing.
DiXwell keeps books of records of all the
Association and League players. He even
has duplicates-one made from the scores of
| the Boston Globe, and the other made from
| the scores of the Boston Herald. He does
| this, he says, so that he can compare them
| at the end of the year. This alone shows
| the true simplicity of the man. lie spends
| great deal of time on these figures, and
| fairly revels in them. He goes to all the
games, keeps himself very quiet in front
seat, and it is only when the Bostons make
| a good play, score run, or win the game
| that he is heard from; then he lifts his
head and shouts, Hi hi! hill This is Dix
| we'll as he is--a good natured old man, al
most crazed on baseball, and yet, withal, a
| man who can talk intelligently with you
on many other topics.
The rest of my eastern cranks are intel
| ligent men, who love the game and make
a fad out of it. They never fail to go to
| the games, If they can do so without inter-
fering with business. The owner of one
| of our most popular racquet clubs, whose
name withhold, and another crank known
| as Mr.. Chapman, always sit together in a
| box, without any outside demonstrations
| of approval. They are my studious cranks;
| they never miss game, and they are al
ways figuring II there IS not some way to
| win game or improve the team Their
| calculations seldom pass beyond them
| selves. Both of them, last summer, got an
| idea that 1 knew pretty much everything
that was going on the inside frequently
visited them in their box and told them
| what knew, which was generally very
| little.
Among the enthusiastic cranks may be
| named Nick Engel, Digby Bell, Jimmie
Adams, DeWolf Hopper, and dozen
others of their class. There is an impress
sion abroad that Mr.. Engel, who is boni-
| face, is only crank for business purposes.
This is entirely untrue. know him pretty
well, have Travelled to Philadelphia with
him great many times to see games, and
know him to be u Simon-pure crank. He
would rather see a ball game than eat the
| finest dinner, and that Is saying a good
deal, for Nick is good liver. He never
| misses game Nick has another fad, and
that is the phonograph. He has an ele-
CANT machine, and he is ready to keep it
| grinding out tunes all day for you il you
| listen to them, He is n close observer of
| the games, and / only know of two haE~ler
losers than Nick. They are Hopper and
| Bell They never miss game where the
| New York team plays if they can help it.
Hopper watches the game closely, and
makes running comment upon the play
ing. In fact he talks SO fast that few of
those near him can understand what he
| says.
Bell is very quiet. He sits with his cane
| clasped in his hands up under his chin aud
watches the game intently. From time to
OiNiOAhiiutS SHdhSS VI ihhlhSs DSiA LndhcS
many cutting comments regarding the
game. His face is the best Indication of
his feelings He has one of the most ex-
| pressive faces of any actor on the stage.
When the Giants are losing, Digby's face is
intense in its unsPsakable regret, and
| sometimes disgust. When they are win
| ming and have dead sure thing, the moon
itself is not more refulgent than Digby's
round set face.