Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-07-26
TALK OF BASE BALL
Ex-Umpsre Burnham Discusses
the Great Game.
HOW PLAYING CARDS ARE MADE
Girls Are chiefly Employed in the Work
and Many Uniqus and Special
Designs Are Made.

George W. Burnham OF New York
was guest At the Morton yesterday.
MIR. Bornham WAS formerly an umpire
In the National league ana later Was
manager OF the Indianapolis team dur
lng It's titful career OF bali playing.
IL dou't know much about base ball
now" he SAID mournfully to reporter
tor The HERALD yesterday. There
isn't any sucn game any more he c n
nnued. "It's dead-practically dead.
The teams clam they are playing the
best ball ever played and are making
money; but that's a little piece Of nc
ton designed TO deceive the public IN
reference to the true condition OF al
fairs- They are all losing money, every
blessed, unreliable one OF them. Base
ball is dead and the brotherhood 10 10
blame for it. Ever since the days when
il made its grand bluff public interest
in tie game has been steadily on the
decline. Base ball 10 no longer
the national game and 1t
may never be restored 10
the prestige 1t once had. tell you,
my boy, in those good old days Ne had
ball playing. From the fret To the last
inning il Was worth straining your eyes
to look at. l umpired the greatest
game of ball ever played. Ii WAS that
great nineteen inning game between
Detroit and Providence at the Prov
dence grounds. For eighteen innings
not a single run WAS made by either
side. In the last half of the nineteenth
Radbourne got hold of one OF Weld
mans out shuots and lifted il for .
home run. That WAS bail playing.
Weidman and Trvtt were the battery
for the Detroits, and John Ward
pitched for the Providence team. Rad
bourne had been put In right teid to
relieve Ward If he gave out. 1t Was
good thing for the Providencs team
that he was, or the game might have
gone the other way. Those were the
days when the great game was IN ats
zenith, and never expect 20 look upon
Its like again."
How Playing Cards Are Made.
Mr.. Burnham 10 . member of New
York firm of playing card manufac-
turers. Speaking Of the industry he
said: "There are two things on the
market that always lind . ready sale.
These are Bibles and playing cards.
Funny, ISN'T II? But it's true. You
take city IN which there are, say. 100
600 families. Now. At least 10000 of
those homes will contain Bibles. no
matter whether the inmates ever zee
the inside of church or not. At least
20 900 of those families own decks Of
cards, and some especially unrighte0us
cusses own twelve or fifteen. A deck
of cards isn't used very long before it
gets soiled, and all the best of Us buy u
new deck a. soon rs the old one begins
to get dog-eared.
1--WE make any number of designs IN
fancy cards. One particular feature Of
the business is making cards especially
TO order fer clubs. We put the mono
gram of the club on the back of the
card and design = special emblem for
the Joker. We have made several de-
sigus for business houses. For instance,
we made q design for the C. B. & @.
road that especially exalted the beau
ties of that line. For the Brunswick
Bake Billiard company We got out .
card, the design of which represented
the Brownies playing billiards. 1t 10
very neat and catchy.
"Most OF the work In card manufac.
turing is done by girls. We employ 1853
girls and about so men. The men do
the lithograph,ng work and the girls do
the sortlng and packing. The price OF
playing cards varies all the way from
10 cents . pack to $3.50 Wholesale"