The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-10-18
CUPID DEFEATS CHAMPION
ROMANCE OF MISS BESSIE ANTHONY,
EXPERT WOMAN GOLFER.
Told Her Fiance that Ceremony Would
Have to BE Postponed Unless She
Won the Championship.

When Miss Bessie Anthony. of Chicago.
won the women's national golf champion
ship she made possible the completion of
a very pretty romance in which she is the
heroine. without being obliged to exercise
woman's prerogative and change her
mind.
Miss Anthony has been engaged to be
married for some time but no date had
been set for the wedding. Why, no one
knew, but now that she has become the ma
tional title-holder it is said that she was
determined to win the championship before
marrying, and that she had told her fiance
that the ceremony would have to be post
poned unless she became the champion.
Now thatrshe has done so, she will be mar
red in very few weeks.
Golfers throughout the entire length and
breadth Of the country have been keenly
interested in the betrothal of Miss Bessie
Anthony. the famous young golfer, and Mr.
b. s. Horne, player not so skillful or fam
Gus. it is true, but nevertheless bonnie
romance of the links" for Mr.. Horne was
first introduced TO Miss Anthony on the
links, of the Allegheny Country Club of
and Mrs. o. d. Thompson, few months
ago. The reasons that Miss Anthonys en-
gagement has aroused such great interest
very prominent in the golfing world for
more than three years. In the next place.
her father, Charles e. Anthony, is now a
very prominent lawyer in Chicago, was
one of the most popular men and best ath-
letes who ever sported a Yale Y, and,
thirdly, because she has demonstrated in
every single contest in which she has ever
comepted that she Is one of the most gen.
erous and sportsmanlike opponents who
ever swung club. mo one" said a COM
petitor once who he'd just been beaten by
Western cha
play around golf links with Miss Bessie
Anthony without loving her." and so
strongly does she impress every one with
this feeling that no one was surprised when
Mr.. Horne announced that it was neces-
sary for Miss Anthony to become Mrs.
Horne for his happiness in life TO be COM
plete. and when Miss Anthony whispered
Yes all Pittsburg rejoced with him. for
that is where he lives, and Miss Anthony
is duly appreciated in that golfing town.
These the reasons which make this
golfng romance of interest to all who know
the young lovers, but there Is another
and stronger reason for all those who
live in the West and who have the welfare
OF women's golf west of the Atlantic sea-
board al heart.
To Miss Bessie Anthony. and to her alone,
practically is due the fact that after nine
years of entreaty and prayer, demand and
supplcation, the women's national gold
championship was decided i'm the West
If any one had said that a sweet. shy
and modest little girl could, merely by her
craftsmanship her splendid skill and her
pluck arouse such feeling of admiration
and respect in the minds of the prosaic and
businesslike gentlemen who control the
destinieS of the United States Golf Asso-
citation, which body decides the question of
where the annual tournaments shall be
played as TO cause them to vote for the
place she wished. he or she would have
been called insane.
Nevertheless, this is what Miss Anthony
accomplished and accomplished Ii more
over in the face of active opposition on the
part Of almost every other woman who
had ever had an important position in the
gofing world.
test with the best players of the East that
the West could develop as skillful feminine
golfers as could be brought forward in the
East.
Now she has been beaten by Cupid, but
it is the first defeat she sustained I'm the
West for nearly three years. For more
than that long period she has been the
acknowledged champion of the West and
whenever she has entered a tournament
her opponents have started with the feel
ing. not of 'have / q chance TO win" but
of how little can i manage to be beaten
by"
Miss Anthony's first appearance in a
national tournament was in 1900. She made
some phenomenal scores in practice, but
the sense of loneliness and q feeling that
she was sort of stranger and outsider.
combined with her natural modesty and
timidity worked on her nerves to such an
extent that in the qualifying round she
failed by many strokes to play up to her
ability and so was ineligible for the match
| play. The next year she lasted to the semi
| finals, when, although beaten. she stamped
herself indelibly with the hall marks of
| genuine golfing ability that every one pro-
nounced her a coming champion. That
| these predictions were correct she demon
| strated last year when she forced the
| champion, Miss Genevieve Hecker to play
| the most brilliant golf ever shown by a
woman in America to defeat her by the
narrowest of margins.
| But. like the true golfer that she Is. Miss
Anthony would not allow love to interfere
with the game. With all a lovers impa-
| thence Mr.. Horne urged an immediate mar
rage, once he was accepted, but Miss
Anthony refused to distract her mind with
| the necessities OF trousseau until after
| the championship.