River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-06-05
The Row in the
Berkshire Club
By JOHN II. BATTERY

NOBODY knows just how the Berk-
shire club first split into fac
lions, but it did, and when the an
nual election of president began
to be discussed "Tuck' Jackson be-
came the natural candidate against
Roswell POsthorn TOlliver, present
incumbent and leader of the ruling
clique. Tuck, whose name is in the
blue book as Tucker Devices Jackson,
capitalist, had personal reasons for
wishing the downfall of Tolliver, and
they dated back nearly two years,
or to the time when Tuck tried to
get his cousin Harry into the club.
Tolliver, who was an unmitigated
snob, set his stubborn head against
letting Harry in and tried to reason
Tuck out Of the idea of getting the
boyle was only 21-into club
which was quite beyond his means.
OF course, Harry took umbrage at
this line of talk and gave the OBJ
jector the retort sarcastic. Then Toll
liver went among his friends to such
good purpose that Harry was black
ballet when his name came up for
election to membership.
AS matter of fact, Harry Jackson
was poor enough, but the chief OBJ
lection against him was his personal
appearance and general makeup. Not
over five feet tall, red-headed, skinny,
treckled and bow-legged from con-
tinuous horseback riding, the can
didate was regarded as quite de trop
in the sanctified and ultra smart cir
Gle of the Berkshire Country club.
Furthermore the little fellow dressed
like a country jockey, and not all
his cOurtly punctiliousness, not all
his ready wit and acknowledged SUI
periority as a crOss-country rider,
polo crack and marksman could off
set in the eyes of the fashionable fac
ton his gaucheries of dress and his
perfectly ludicrOus physique as
they described it. However, Tuck's
row with the Tolliver clique over
Harry's defeat had been almost for
gotten by most of the members, and
the opponents of the SnOb element
were quite content to wage a war
of ballots upon the single issue of
Tuck's popularity with the real sport
ing element of the club.
Converts had been won to the re-
voting faction, but careful canvass
of the life members revealed the fact
that the election for president must
be so close that tie was the best
that Tuck could expect. Nobody but
life members could vote, but as near
ty every man in the organization had
that standing there was no trouble
in forecasting the vote. May 81 was
the day set for the election, and a
programme of many field sports was
arranged for the purpose of bring
ing out full attendance of the mem
bers and their families. The chief
feature of the sport was to be the
inauguration of a new half-mile race
track, then nearing completion, and
the horsey element of the club were
training their thoroughbreds for six
weeks before the event. Tuck Jack
son, as chairman of the board of
stewards, had charge of the sports,
and as his associates belonged to the
anti-TOlliver faction there was much
chagrin when the snobbish president
entered two of his best thorough
breds in the Life-Members' free-for-
all. The announcement that Tolliver
was in with his cracks discouraged
the younger sportsmen, many of
whom were eager for a chance at the
first prize, which was nothing less
than life membership in the Berk-
shire. Most of them were ''horse
poor" and couldn't raise the $4,000 re-
quired for the coveted certificate, and
none had racer that could hope to
beat Posthorn, the Lexington gelding
that had already walloped every gen.
tleman-ridden horse in the county.
''The old crouch wants to win that
membership for Roswell, thatchuclzle.
headed son of his" growIed Tuck.
er to the stewards. He's too close.
listed to buy him one''
But Tolliver was obdurate to their
objections. Under the rules any eli
gible gentleman in or out of the club
could compete, he said, and he, fo1
one, didn't propose to have the rich
prize carried off by an outsider. 1.-THE