The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-12-14
THEY ALL TUGGED
ON THE BIG ROPE
The International Tug-of-
War Started at the
Sutro Baths.
America and ireland Proved the
Favorites in the First
Days Contest.
One Pull of Thirty Minutes, During
Which Neither Team Was
the Winner.

seem to have diminished in San francisco,
| Judging from the immense crowd that as
sembled in the Sutro Baths yesterday to
| witness the opening of the great inter-
national contest for superiority of strength
pure hard pulling for merit.
| The vast amphitheater was black with
| spectators, many of them being ladies;
the seats on the east side, which were re-
served, were well filled and the prom
enades were thronged with people.
Shortly before 3 o'clock triangular signs
bearing the names of the first of the COM
peting teams were hung over the one hun
d1ed and twenty-four foot cleated plat
form, which had been erected over the
smaller of the bathing tanks, "Denm mark"
was hung over the southern half of the
platform and Norway" over the northern
end. and as the band played the national
air of Denmark, the Danish team wearing
uniform blue shirts with the letter d in
white on the bosom, marched up to the
platform. and then to Norwegian air the
sons of Norway took their positions.
The teams were, Denmark-N. Larsen
captain; NJ. s. Madsen, anchor man; o.
johnson, e. Swan, NJ. f. Clausen, G. Lar
sen, n. Anderson, G. Jensen. Norway was
captained by ]. C. Johnson, and the mem
Choir man; Ole Johnson, Fred Olsen,
N. Wilson, II. Heirloom, ]. Hudson and
Louis Larsen.
When G. w. Freese, acting as referee and
timekeeper, fred the signal shot, the men
on each side buckled down to work and
for few minutes it was an even tug, the
indicator remaining as stationary as if it
had been nailed to the platform. Sud-
denly it moved, going to Denmark, but be-
| fore it had moved one cleat IL was hauled
| back. Then the captain OF the Denmarks
gave signal and his men gave one strong
! pull and Norway went south .wotleats.
| Then followed rest and theh another
tug hard and strong. Denmark gained
| the advantage and held it, the men
sliding backward until the top OF the
indicator knocked the distance bar off its
/ pins. The tug was an exciting one and a
| loud cheer greeted the winners. Time-12
minutes.
Next came the United States and Italy.
The teams We're: United States-Peter
Buckley, captain; Tom Nolan, anchor
! man; A. McCaffel, s. Pinkerton. Frank
Schade, Billy Morgan, James Manning
and George Brickedell. Italian team
| Joseph Merani, captain ]. Gabarino, an
chorman; G. Casper, It. Christie, g. Tor
Zero. &. Andrea, F. Parodi and Vic Vacar.
The teams were not evenly matched. for
the sons of sunny Italy were much lighter
u
States. Still they went to work with q
| will, and for time it was doubtful il the
stronger team was going to have a walk
over. But there came moment when the
Americans gained point and kept it, and
at the end of ~ minutes they had pulled
their opponents over the winning line.
Then came Ireland and Slavonia. The
Irish team was captained by James Herd
nedy and James Cameron was the anchor
man. The ether memb ers of the team
were: John J. Cameron, Walter Bantly,
John Rogers. James Smith, Jerry ODowd
and Arthur Mcmahon. The members of
the Slovenian team: a. Sandon, captain;
T. Edminster, anchorman; Joseph Kurn-
cocy, J. w. Huserck, o. M. Edminster, H.
w. Bastalta, L. Berry and Sieve Powell.
The Irish team had ai4lhe heaviest men
to the front and it was n0t long before the
effect of this arrangement was made ap-
parent. After few minutes OF heavy
Juggling on botn sides the Irish team
started their opponents off their feet and
in minutes and 10 seconds won the tug
The next was between Canada and
Portugal. The Canadians were captained
by George Duplissea. Robert Smith was
anchor-man and the mem bers of the team:
F. A. Martin, Dan Mcpherson, James
Jordan, Gus Hoffman, Joe Gibson and III.
M. Mcdonald. A. Bourguin was captain
of the Portuguese. A. Silva. anchor-man;
Tony EuOS, u JACKSON. fete oliver, ".
Furio, g. Angelo. ]. Chilico were the
workers. This was an interesting tug,and
the men seemed equally matched as to
strength, but CANADA proved to be the
stronger in s minutes and 35 seconds
Then came The last tug OF the afternoon,
Germany and Sweden. The captain of the
German team was Z. Weller; j. Kruger
anchorman; f. Gunter. A. Winter, s.
Grosman. w. Barth, ]. Wagner and Gus
Miller The team from Sweden, all men
who work at the rolling mills, had for cap
tain A. NJ. Panck. I'D Anderson, an
chorman; 6. Lund. III. Bloom, e. Nelson,
Ed Bloom. E. Forsell and Peter Anderson.
This was one OF the finest displays of
hard pulling. The indicator went from
one side to the other in the center and
what one lost the other regained. Then
the men from the rolling mills pulled with
a will and soon got the mastery. Germany
was forced 10 give up and Sweden won in
9:15
The betting was Denmark 10 and Nor
way 5, America 10 and Italy 5. Ireland 10
ana Slavonla 4, Canada 10 and Portugal 2,
Sweden 10 and Germany 2.
The first tug of the evening was be-
tween Canada and Denmark and was one
1t 49, &ol - 4