Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1905-05-19

This is the time of year-while the
baseball clubs are I'm training, and
there is 4 yearning look at the calendar
nv the loyal baseball fans-wl1en the
| annual dispute over the authorship or
Casey at the Bat" is due. There IS
hardly a newspaper IN the country that
is MOI asked at least once a year to
reprint Casey" u also settle the
question OF its authorship. The facts
regarding the verses and the author re-
Gently came into the possession OF the
Baltimore News, and they are of such
q character as TO seem to settle FOR
ever the question as TO authorship or
the poem.
The author OF Casey at the Bat is
Ernest l.. Thayer, whose home is Wor-
cester, Mass. but who is now travelling
abroad. where he spends much of his
time. He wrote the poem in 1883. while
acting as the Funny Man OF the san
Francisco Examiner, and IL appeared
I'm his column OF JUNE 3 of that year
over his nom de plume "Phin.
The News was able TO get its infor-
nation through a resident Of Baltimore,
Mr.. Sutton who was a member of the
class OF 1885 at Harvard, n a chum
OF Mr.. Thayer. They were both MEM
bers OF the same Greek letter fra
terntty. M. Thayer was editor in chief
OF the Harvard Lampoon while at the
university, and was the humorous ora
tog at the class day exercises and was
an acknowledged wit. After gradual
ing Mr.. Thayer went west and engaged
In newspaper work for a short time,
and then returned home. Since then he
has been dividing his time between his
home and abroad, his father being a
wealthy manufactures of Worcester.
The following letter from the author
was recently received from Rome, In
which he gives full information as to
It's writing:
Rome, Grand Hotel du Quirlnal,
February, 1905.-Since writing YOU the
other day other facts about Casey
have occurred TO me which perhaps will
be OF interest TO you. Except as origi-
nally published In the Examiner,
Casey has never been correctly printed
barring one or two cases in which j
have furnished the copy. The reason
for this / will explain. When the poem
was first copied into an eastern paper
II think by the New York Sun-the
clipping editor cut off the opening stan
a and began where Casey advances
to the bat. Later on DeWolf Hopper
began to recite the complete poem as
1t was given to him by Archibald
Gunther, who saw 1t in the Examiner.
Some one who heard Hopper's recita- |
ton wrote out the first five stanzas
iIOlH HlSIloI S-ahu a very ,Udu ileflOTy
he must have had--tacked them to the
mutilated version as 1t was printed in
the u and many of its exchanges,
and then published the combination
which has been printed up and down
the land as Casey at the Bat III
think that If the matter were of any
Importance the easiest way to estab-
fish the authorship would be To let the
different claimants furnish a copy
which might be conn lred with the
poem as il was first printed in the Elk
aminer.
II may say, I'm conclusion, though
some of the mutilated reprints of
Casey have my name on the title
page. / have never authorized them. /
have left the poem to its f~ate-except
that once / had a few copies printed
for circulation among ny friends, and
only recently, when I was charged
with falsely claiming the poem, has 1t
seemed TO me my duty TO say some
thing OF my connection with it. Final
~, while a certain VIII Valentine may
have written a baseball poem I'm The
Sioux city Tribune before 1888. il could
not have been Cas-. at the Bat. and
IL any one is anxious enough to search
the files of that paper his fact will be-
come patent. With pologies for trou-
ling you, very truly .ours,
Ernest l.. Thayer.'
The Original Poem.
The original Casey at the Bat is as
follows: