The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-05-06
CADDY CAPERS.
The Youngsters Engaged by
the Golf Club Have
Rare Times.
ENJOY VIOLATING RULES
The Links Are Not the Only
Places Frequented by the
Boys = Tales of the
Vicinity.

official badges contributed by the Jersey
City Golf Club are and have been for
somt time past, the subject of much COM
ment 1mong the residents in the vicinity
of the. Golf Clubs grounds. The grounds
are located on both sides of Gautier ave-
nue., out on the western verge of the
city.
That they constitute a real permanent
nuisance is not admitted by anyone, but
that some of the latter are greatly an
noyeed by the capers of the youngsters
is a frozen fact. There never was and
probably never will be a case on record
where thirty or forty small boys are
gathered together daily that a spirit of at
least a mild species of deviltry did not
descend upon some of the gang.
That section of the city is building up
very rapidly. Half enclosed flowers gar
dens, sodded Or grass planted patches of
lawn and very tempting to kids and
spring chickens. The caddies who con-
gregate in the vicinity of the Jersey City
Golf Clubhouse, at Gautier and Delaware
avenues, waiting for golf enthusiasts to
show up and shower quarters upon them
for carrying their sticks and chasing golf
OoiiS, - SCilQlllC ALltIlCdu kluS.
Most of them are well dressed little fell
lows with rugged cheeks, bright eyes and
roguish grins. They are the children of
enterprising, thrifty people who want to
get away from brick and mortar walls
and mud stained streess of the business
section of the city and enjoy what rural
scenes are left in the suburbs of the city,
which is rapidly stretching towards the
meadows. All the houses in hat section
are newly made. Scores of new houses
are going up.
The caddies inherit the thrift of parents
who live in the section and in their
scramble for the almighty dollars they
have worn the grass plot in front of the
clubhouse as bare as the floor of the
New York Stock Exchange. They would
precaution had not been taken. Some
of the neighbors have been obliged to
fence off their bit of lawns and then keep
watch.
That they should gather in that section
is purely a matter of business with the
caddies. That the plot in front of the
clubhouse is barren of grass is as natural
a sequence as that the front gate is
hanging upon one hinge. 1t was found
necessary by the club recently to compel
the caddies to remain seated on benches
around in Delaware avenue, until their
services were required
Those who passed the rule evidently
had never enjoyed the trials and tribu-
lations or experiences of an American
schoo marin. The caddies, when no golf
ers were in sight would congregate in
front of the clubhouse just for the ex-
hilarating joy of violating a rule which
they considered was an infringement upon
their liberties. But as soon as a golfer
hove in sight the benches looked like
those of a well regulated Sunday school
during session hours.
The caddies, however, play some FRANKS
in the vicinity that are not relished by
the victims. Abraham Hankin, a well
known builder, is constructing a house for
himself on the north side of Gautier ave
nue.. He says that a few weeks g it
was with difficulty that he could keep
enough lumber on the premises to proceed
with work on the building. The caddies
first began cribling planks for RATS on a
near by pond. He found a number of six
teen foot planks bound together as RATS
on the pond. Pieces of moulding, panels
prepared by workmen would disappear in
the night.
Mr.. Haukin says he was surprised to
find some women engaged in these thefts
and said he supposed that some of them
were the mothers of some of the caddies,
as the latter after being refused the lum-
Der would walk away threatening to strip
= = -1ooo ~ ,oinhf ThpSp threats were
usually carried out.
The caddies have a little golf of their
own. 1t is a big open lot appropriated
by themselves. They use bent lead pipes
for golf sticks. Several We're asked by a
News reporter where they got the lead
pipe from. All the pipe looked new.
Got it from the gettin' place, where
else dyou suppose" answered one little
fellow as he sent a wooden ball spinning
in the direction of a hole in a bank.
There is some little complaint against
the boys knocking the hard gutta percala
balls about the streets in the vicinity Of
the grounds. Mothers fear for the safety
of their little toddlers, who are not al
safe even when playing on the
piazzas of their homes.
One of the residents has had some
with boys, who, he claims, cut
the wire of a sort of fence built to pro-
tect the glass plot in front of his house.
He caught two in the act n day last
week and chasing them caught them by
the necks and made them go back and
repair the damage. They fixed the wire
while the annoyed resident stood over
them. but as they were released they Ut
tered threats that they would tear away
the whole fence.
Regular watch has to be kept to see
that they do not carry out their threat.
The residents, however, do not appear
to be over willing to condemn the boys.
through fear of angering the members of
the golf club. Though the golf grounds
are to be removed further south, it will
be- only for a short distance Some of the
fear that If too much complaint
is made of the "caddiess the club might
leave the neighborhood.
This they would not like to see. Most
of them enjoy witnessing even the prac-
tice games, and the people who make up
the membership of the club are of a class
make highly desirable visitors. Some.
of the residents think that the club should
exert itself a little more to protect them
by at least the more mis-
element of the caddies.
1t is a very difficult matter however,
for the club to s5ngl out the perpetrators
of annoying pranks. They are as sly a set
of youngsters as ever congregated and its
anyone of them is called to account.