The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-05-08

Golf is but a foolish fad:
It's the chiefest of earth's pleasures
He that rails at golf Is mad
Golf is glorious. golf is royal.
Yet in getting to the hole
Pits and bunkers oft destroy all
OF the goodness in your soul"
With respect to this royal game the world is
divided into two classes, golfers and scoffers. Form
erly the latter so overwhelmed the former in umbers
and with ridicule-that the mention of golf, In this
country, produced a smile. The jokers classed It
with tiddlywinks, it ranked innumerable degrees be-
low crokinole. and the comic papers battened on it.
1t did in truth seem beneath the American citi-
zen to tog himself out in knickers and follow a ball
across the grass with a small boy hired to pursue
him. Especially did it seem beneath the average
Intelligence to be foozling on the tee-which is diff
ferent from gu8zling Seotch-and b~rassying over the
bunker. which Is even worse than lofting. No self
respecting person, it was thought, could be guilty OF
foeling with a niblick or puttering around with a
putter or monkeying with a stymie or a boyle, much
less Of boasting of these things in polite society.
The language Of golf was worse than that of a
Russo-Japanese war.
~ hat nonsenser!' men exclaimed. Golf for a
growl man! Give me an old-fashioned game Of
shiny" And others declared that that ancient
pastime played with a can and a stick, called by the
rather uncouth name of Old Sow" was SO far su-
perior as not even to be mentioned with golf. Others
maintained that marbles were a thousand times
more exciting.
But times have changed. The scofer is now
tremendously by the golfer. Many
things have contributed to the revulsion of senti-
ment. not the least of which. perhaps, is the bever-
age which additionally accompanies Scotch plaids
and knickerbocEers. The great ball with which
golf is played is not, as many suppose, made of
guttapercha. but of Il distillation of potatoes COM
bined with charged water.
independently Of its incidents, golf has been
found to be a wholesome and delightful recreation.
There may be a few old-timers who prefer baseball.
but golf is the growing game. 1t is the game for
all ages. We play 1t as hard or as easy as we
like. 1t is the soothing game, the game which re-
freshes the tired mind. It is the game of the athlete
and the old college 1 ,fessor.
Golf is not the whole, but is the predominant
feature, of The Republics Magazine for next Sun
day. Two single pages and the center doublepage
are devoted to reproductions in color of excellent
golf paintings made expressly for the number. Sew
eral descriptive articles of special interest to golfers,
numerous golf "stories," golf romances and golf
poems. and a front cover design by Cory Gilbert,
being the picture Of a caddy crying "Fore!" conf
plete this entertaining feature.
The leading fiction of this issue is a tale by
James B. Connolly, entitled The Race at Sea" and
has to do with a race in a storm between the smart
est vessels Of the Gloucester fishing feet.
Notable among the exhibits at the Worlds Fair
Is q liberal display from the Manhattan School for
Girls, of New York, which ranks as the first and
only girls trade school in the United States. In an
article which cannot fail to attract feminine readers
Ida Rose McCabe discusses Where Girls Learn
Trades This article win render particularly in
~teresting the exhibit of the trade school. which COW
es every kind OF work, from that produced by the
needle to the elaborate embroidery of the foot and
electric power machines, examples Of the expert
sample mounter, pocketbooks, library desk appoint
1enta notebook covers and novelty boxes; rep