The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-04-27
WOODS USED IN GOLF.
Dogwood, Persimmon and Hickory Now
In Universal Demand.


simmon for heads and of hickory for
shafts into Great Britain. 1t is an old
story now that this season the Scottish
handmade golf clubs are ivaled on the
home market by machine turned clubs
from this country, but the importation
Of the woods named in rough blocks in
to Scotland has gone on for some two
years and is steadily increasing. The
first wood turner to take up the saving
and shaping of club heads in the rough
in this country has his shop in New
York. 1t is Oh an upper floor in fac
tory on the west side, q dingy, sawdust
filled room, in which the dust from the
whirling band saws settles on the cloth
ing like flour and titillates the nostrils
like snuff.
"It had been 20 years l had cut and
twisted wood before l heard of golf,
said the pleasant faced German boss
yesterday. "But now turn out many
heads and shafts, aber there is now op-
position; even the sewing machine COM
panies are now to make them for the
trade. Yet still get the best pay, and
my time is filled up, so it must be mine
are the best goods already"
Willie Dunn, then at Shiunecock
Hills, was the first golfer to give All Or
der to the German. TIE latter worked
on beech for Dunn, Sam Tucker and
others until some time in 1895, when
Tucker brought him some dogwood sent
from Tom Barker at Richfield Springs
Persimmon was the next wood tried,
and tho two, with hickory for shafts,
have since been in strong demand.
Greenheart is also used for shafts sue
cessfully, but it is apt to be too stiff.
The German boss now furnishes the
wood, supplying any sort of head or
shaft wanted by the gross. He obtains
the doswood and persimmon in Vir-
ginia, hickory in New Jersey and this
state, and greenheart from the West
Indies. He has made many experiments
with different woods for heads. Cedar,
California redwood, poplar, black gum
and maple were found to be too soft,
elm and ash too variable, and oak too
short grained and brittle. The old wood
turner has now in hand al experiment
in shafts that lie thinks may amount to
something. This is the use Of close
grained reddish African wood, sent to
him by Beveridge, the clubmaker at
Shinnecock Hills. According to Bever-
idge, the wood is called assegai, and is
used by the Zulus for their spears, as
the Indians formerly used lancewood for
arrows.
Apple wood makes durable and re-
silent head, but it is so apt to be knot
ty and hard that it does not pay the
wood turner to use it as staple COM
mcdity. a carefully selected piece of
apple wood, he admits, will make good
head. He says the same Of certain roots
brought to him by some amateur golf
ers. Both apple wood and roots have
merits, but they cost more time and
money than they are worth to Gull the
good from the bad blocks.
The wood turner's opinions, while
based only on the commercial side Of
the question, agree with the experiences
of American golfers. Hickory is incon-
parable for shafts, and in our change
able climate dogwood and persimEon
are more satisfactory than beech in the
heads. In the moist air CT Scotland or
England beech head will keep SO soft
aud springy that it will show the dent
Of the ball after the drive, and when
the face wears away the head is still
kept serviceable by refacing OF leath-
er. But in this country beech hardens
and chips or splits, and it cannot be de-
pended on. Dogwood, if we'll seasoned,
is as durable as compressed wood or
metal, and whether faced with leather
or not does not lose its resiliency on ac-
count of its hardness. Many players
hold that when a seasoned dogwood
head can be obtained for the second
play club it is useless to carry bras
sey, for where the dogwood cannot Ee
trusted it is time to use an iron.-New
York Sun.
If vcu are not feeling we'll why
don't you take Hoods Sarsaparilla?
1t will purify and enrich your blood
a ID do you wonderful good.
Society, says cynic, is composed
of two great classes-those who have
more dinner than appetite, and those
who have more appetite than dinner.
A steel arch is to be thrown across
t :e Niagara river near Clifton, " hleh
will be $40 span-a greater distance
than was ever yet spanned by an
arch.
A little boy asked for b' tile OF
get up IN the mo,nirg as fast as
you can, the druggist recognized a
household name for ''DcWitts Little
Early Risers," and gave him bottle
of these famous little pills fer copstl
patton. sick headache, liver and stom-
ach Il O lbles. J. +. ktutmann.
Its NJ use to f. e me wrist, dec
thor" said Pat, When the physician
began to feel his pulse; '''he pain is
net thore, surr-its in my Lid en-
tilely.
The men arc all alike" She was
a t.l'phore girl who said this.
She added, "Nhen l gay Line is
busy, they lways sure t. say awful
things"
All refined gold is not alike. Aus
trslian go d, for instance, is distinctly
redder Than that from California:
The Ural gold is the reddess fourd
anywhere.