Omaha daily bee., 1904-11-27
SPORTING GOSSIP OF WEEK
New Home of the Racquet Club is Nearly
Ready to Enter,
IOWA HORSES AND THE AUTOMOBILE
Drivers of the wbiE wagon Find
Plenty 20 DO when whIriing
Along the Hnwkeye High
ways Nowadays.


ways Nowadays
Another straw indicative or the present
commercial growth Of Omaha is the new
Omaha Racquet club home, now in course
of construction on Eighteenth street, be-
tween Harney and Howard streets. The
new club house is being built at cost or
10000 and when completed viii occupy
niche peculiarly its own In local club-
dom. The building is Of frame construc-
tion. partly two stories and partly one
story. II will be equipped with tile plunge
baths. steam-heated throughout, lunch
rooms, billiard rooms, bowling alleys, three
squash courts and other appointments,
making Il thoroughly up-to-date and cosy.
There will be facilities for after theater
lunches and other social events incident to
the life of a club house. The building Will
be owned by the club and five-year lease
is held on the ground, with an option for
purchase at the end OF that time. The
club now has almost the limit Of seventy
five members. II was organized three
years ago with a membership of twenty
and has grown steadily since that time.
II is believed the game OF squash. an in
door tennis, will be popularized to an ex-
opening OF the new club house. This
game has been In vogue In many of the
larger eastern cities II will be one Of
the chief features Of the new club house.
II is expected the club house will be
opened on Christmas morning The present
officers of the Omaha Racquet club are:
Luther Kountze, PRESIDENT Frank Haskell.
vice PRESIDENT N. p. Dodge, jr., secretary;
Samuel Burns, jr., treasurer; T. S. Ken
nedy, l.. l.. Kountze and Frank Haskell,
executive committee
Omaha autolsts who have not made the
run to Missouri Valley should do SO at
the earliest opportunity Never mind IL
she weather is chilly, Just bundle up in
buffalo or fur coat. have foot warmer
comfortably installed at your pedal ex-
tremities and start out.
The topography OF the country traversed,
the broad fields mingling with the bluffs,
lends a scenic charm that is at once ap-
preciated by the chauffeur. And the mo-
toring traveller will find just enough hills
to make the level stretches of road the
more enjoyable.
Last Sunday c. f. wilkins took a party
OF friends ON a seventy -flve-mile trip in
his winton touring car into Iowa The
start was made from the Powell garage
at 9 a. M. and in n few minutes the car
was speeding along the road to Honey
creek, thence to Loveland. on to Missouri
Valley and into the country some miles
beyond. The vehicle. propelled by its un-
seen power, as It were, osclated over the
road as on the wings of the morning. Its
movement was the poetry of motion until
a skittiRh horse hove in sight, when the
car would stop in obesance of an Iowa
law, which is said TO be no dead statute,
either. The driver of a horse that thinks
an automobile Is a machine fearfully and
wonderfully made needs but to throw his
arm at a horizontal position as a signal
for the Chauffeur to stop his car. Then,
when the chauffeur has stopped his vehicle.
should the horse continue to take life
seriously. It would 4behoove the chauffeur
to dismount and cajole the equine past
the auto and thus. avoid the possibility of
q law suit.
Judging from last Sundays trip. Prof
Gleason, who recently pacifed wild horses
at the Auditorium, could find a steady job
for the winter in Iowa, introducing horses
to automobiles. About one out of every
five horses last Sunday looked at the car
as IL the animal was five stories from the
ground and about to jump. Some con-
sented to be driven by, while others had to
be led past the horseless conveyance.
- Seriously. however, 1t is the consensus of
opinion that the horse and automobile, the
horseman and chauffeur, are getting to-
gether in Iowa. A more friendly feeling
is being created and the future of the
automobile looks roseate in the Hawkeye
state.
Speaking Of the growing popularity of the
automobile, a writer in the st. Paul Pio-
neer Press has this to say in a recent
issue:
And the popularity of the automobile
is just begun. In the near future the
public Is to see it not so much as a racing
machine or means by which the rich can
rid themselves OF their money, but more
than every a utility.
Perhaps Il may solve the problem of
good roads. Centuries of horse using have
inflicted America with disgraceful public
highways. Since the coming OF the power
propelled road vehicles. there has been
more agitation for proper roadways than
ever before, and the entire country Is
bent on securing Improvement.
1T Is not too much to expect that some
day the farmer will carry his hay to
market on an automobile, that the milk
door. that the bulk of the country products
that are. now hauled In clumsy wagons
over humps and through ruts and sloughs
will eventually pass over macadam streets
in autos more simple and efficient than any
now In use. The automobile is no longer
a fad, but business convenience"
%
The big leagues WIN be holding their an
EAual meetings pretty soon, the National
coming together first, and q week later the
American. At these meetings the fate OF
the new drafting clause adoptesd by the
National Association OF Minor Base Ball
Leagues will be determined. 1t is alto
gether likely that the majors will turn
down the proposition with thump The
old clause was taken on by the majors
only after considerable time had been spent
in debate and then merely as concession
~ AR