The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1897-03-31
A CADDIE'S TRAGEDY.

ter was, for 1t might vex some poor SEN
sitive soul beyond the Styx and to no
purpose But, for himself, he was a
most familiar figure on the links-tall,
bent somewhat one sided, an infrmity
that increased with years and rheuma-
tism, with an angular face, clean
shaved twice a week, with Scotch
bonnet stuck awry above it and short
clay pipe insecurity held in the corner
of his mouth for lack of teeth. Presum-
ably he had not been always thus.
Doubtless there had been time when
he was barelegged gossoon, scamper
ing blithely with naked feet, and again
time when he was a spruce young
man, favorite with the lassies may
be, but if such times had ever been it
was extremely hard to picture them to
ones mental vision, and "Slow back"
himself never referred to them.
1t was impossible to picture him 9TH
er than he was when first we knew him
-shambling in gait crooked Of aspect,
clad i'll long trousers and an inadequate
4
his neck, and booted at such length that
it seemed absurd to suppose his toes
could reach the end Of their coverings.
He was reserved man and appeared to
be without relatives. We did not trou-
BILE to inquire about his lodging, but
every morning hew to be seen sitting
on the bench that the other caddies &C.
cupied, smoking his pipe and waiting
for his master to come with the clubs
from the clubhouse. Then he would
"carry" the two statutory rounds of
the links and disappear again until the
following morning How he spent his
Sundays we never thought of asking,
but no one has ever appeared to have
seen him on the day of rest.
All this was in the years before the
"boom'' in golf which led to the game
becoming the possession of all and sun
dry Books had not been written about
the game, and all the available maxims
were carried in the heads of those who,
like "Slowback," made a profession
either of playing or of carrying clubs.
The maxims were substantially three,
"Slow back, - "Keep your eye on the
BALI and Don't press. To these
might have been added a fourth, "Be
up" But this applied more particularly
to the short game, and it was the first
Of the maxims, concerned with the more
glorious business of the drive, that was
destined to exercise an important in
duence on "Slowback's life. There is
no doubt, of course, that he had another
name than this sobriquet, but it hap
pened to none of us ever to learn it, and
the manner in which he obtained his
appellation was as follows: His master
was never more than an Indifferent
player at the best. He was conscious Of
his deficiencies, but rather than attrib-
ute them to what were perhaps their
truer cause, Of faulty eyesight or made
quate muscle, preferred to refer them to
neglect of some of the important max
inns of the golfng art and especially to
that first quoted one of "Slow back.
He conceived that he had contracted
fatal habit of hurrying the club away,
In the back stroke, from the ball, and
that this initial error was responsible
for all the subsequent miss hits and top
pings with which the club visited the
ball on it's descent. Maybe he was
right. But in any case the means by
which he strove to cure himself of this
fatal tendency were to make his caddie
calculate the magic words of monition,
"Slow backP' each time that he prepared