The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-24

wife, I made up my mind to chuck my
job and go ball-huntin'. That was
over a year ago, and I've never re-
GREETED leavin' the lathe. This BUSH
ness pays me quite as WELL
He certainly was we'll informed in
his new line of work. He knew all
the links near New York. He knew
their good points as golfers criticise
them and, what was more to the point,
he knew how many caddies We're en-
ployed on an average each week in
the season on each. He grew more
communicative when he found he had
an interested listener, and gradually
he let his auditor into his method of
collecting the balls.
My territory is in Jersey" he ex-
planned, "and l has somewhere about
$500 caddy boys to look after. They
keeps me jumpin', them boys does.
but it amt half so hard as it was
year ago for the boys knows me and
knows where TO find me- They knows
when I'm comm around and it really
is astonishin' how they does come
troopin in to my headquarters.
They turns in the balls and gets so
much for each ball, right then and
there, and off they goes. Are the balls
all old ones? Well, no; can't say they
are.
Some of 'em looks quite fresh and
new; maybe they haven't been used
butfhe once; but how should I know p
And the fat man winked slowly and
with much eloquence
The Inference from the wink and
from the subsequent conversation was
that the crafty collector of golf balls
pays the caddies more for the balls
they find than they get from the mem
bers of the clubs. The premium is
apparently sufficient 10 lead many of
fhz
in watching balls while play is going
on, at the same time marking them
down for future reference.
II half of what the mechanic told is
true there is a well-o-ganized system
for finding lost balls on the golf links
all over this part OF the country. and
the links are kept clean OF them
throughout the season. A golfer after
an afternoons sport. in counting up
the balls in his caddy bag. finds he has
left three or four behind him some
where on the links. He has had a good
afternoons sport and he charges the
missing gutta percha spheres TO profit
and loss.
Unknown 10 him those same three or
four balls are soon on their way to the
grand mOgul Of all the collectors in
New York, and within a week are on
the market again, very likely.
Some OF my boys" said the me-
chanic just before the ferryboat reach
ed Hoboken, are very successful in
deed, and they draws considera BILE
money from me every month trackin'
down balls There is half a dozen of
EN- that has trained their dogs to
find balls
Only yesterday a boy told me when
he handed over a dozen good ones that
his dog had found CT he
morning before. You see they trains
their dogs to hunt until the little pups
is astonishin' expert at it.
The boys knows after the afternoon
is over just about where the most balls
has been lost; in fact, they comes
pretty near to KNOWN where every
ball is that isn't in some mans caddy
bag. In the mornin', except on Satur-
days and Sundays, the boys gets out
ball huntin when the greenskeepers
is very likely gone to town, and when
there's pretty certain to be no one
wantin to play. They'll clean the
links of every stray ball in an hour or
so.
The boys that has the trained dogs
usually makes out better than the rest.
The dogs amt anything much on
breed; just plain mongrels, mostly; but
they can hunt balls as if they was
quail and they We're genuine bird dogs
themselves with mile-long pedigrees.
"They are a little too flip, them dogs
is, sometimes, though. One put us out
of business on one set of links not
long ago, just one little yellow dog.
The boy that owned him didn't pen
him up tight one Saturday, and the
dog follied him to the links when the
grounds was full of players.
He see the balls bOundin' and roll
in here and there, and, not KNOWN
these weren't workin' hours, be let out
and started gatherin' the balls up. OF
course there was trouble right off .
The boy was foxy for a while and
didn't own to the dog: but the dog
owned to him, and at last the golfers
got onto the whole business. They
fired the boy and the dog, too, and
both is out of a job now.
II suppose some day golf clubs will
take a tumble that they amt gettin'
all the balls that are found on their
links and then our business will take