Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1897-03-27
A CADDIE'S TRAGEDY

There is no use telling who his mas
ter was, for ii might vex some poor sen
sitive soul beyond the Styx and to no
purpose. Bnt, for himself, he was a
most familiar figure on the links-tall,
bent, somewhat one sided, an infirmity
that increased with years and rheuma-
tisin, with an angular face, clean
shaved twice week, with Scotch
Ionnet 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 a barelegged gossoon, scamper-
ing blithely with naked feet, and again
a time when he was n 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 "Slowback"
himself never referred to them.
1t was impossible to picture him 9th.
er than he was when first we knew him
stumbling in gait, crooked of aspect,
clad in long trousers and an inadequate
ly short coat, with wooden scarf about
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 he was to be seen sitting
on the bench that the other caddies oc-
cupied, smoking his piQe 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 "Slow back" made profession
either Of playing or Of carrying clubs
The maxims were substantially three,
"Slow back, - Keep your eye on the
ball" and Don't press To these
might have been added 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
fiuence on "Slowback S" life. There il
no doubt, Of course, that he had another
name than this sobriquet, but it hap
pened to none of MS 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 golflng art and especially to
that first quoted one of 'Slow back. -
He conceived that no had contracted u
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 its descent. Maybe he was
right. But i'll 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 backr' each time that he prepared
to raise his club fer the driving stroke.
Tho result, it has to be admitted, was
not wholly satisfactory. One can say no
more than that his execution might
conceivably have been worse in the alb
sence Of the warning.
Thus it went on for several wears. At
the end of that time it happened that
"Slowback IS" master-for already the
caddie had earned the nickname by
which alone we knew him-was called
away for three weeks or so by the death
of "a near relative. Then "Slowback'
carried clubs for another master. But
the habit that he had formed during
these years of circulating his monitory
"Slow backw as his master raised the
conclusion of each address TO the ball,
he uttered the solemn words, then found
himself covered with the most pitiful
confusion at the rebuke which his UNI
called for interference had merited For
stroke or two, putting great restraint
upon himself, he succeeded in keeping
his soul in silence, bat at the next the
inevitable exclamation broke from him
again, to tho distraction and despair Of
the sufferer to when it was addressed.
During the three weeks Of his masters
absence several golfers made trial of
"Slowback's'' services, for he was an
excellent caddie, saving his single lido
Fyncrasy, and regarded with a certain af-
lection as being somewhat of "charac-
:er' besides But none could suffer him
long. One after another had to give
him up after being reduced to impo-
tence and despair by his ravenlike
croak. At length his legitimate master
returned, and "Slowbaok" was man
again.