Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-24


! runs. 1 didn't run the story down. but it
was current among the Americans IN the
| port and seemed to be believed on all sides
The umpire5 decision IL never questioned
by so much as shrug by the Jap players.
who. on the whole. are in every department
Of life about the best-dsciplined people in
the world Most of the umoires are Japa-
nese students who have spent years in the
| United States, and the Jap players take 1t
| for granted that these umpires. after their
long residence in the home of base ball.
simply can't go wrong, and abide by their
decisions no matter how rank some Of them
may appear to the unprejudiced observer
! from the outside.
In the Isles Of the South Seas.
1T doesn't seem to be generally known
that base ball is a good deal OF a bug In
Australia, too. but that's a lact. all the
same. and American memo wars men did
good deal toward starting the base ball
interest on the southern continent When
years ago. the visiting men-o'-war's men
used to play ball among themselves at Mel
bourne,-Sydney and such places the Aus
tralians who watched these performances
used to ridicule the game to a certain ex-
tent, but after a while they dropped that
attitude and began to look into the game
seriously. Now there are several base ball
leagues In Australia and New Zealand, just
as there are in that other British colony,
Canada. and the rivalry among the clubs Is
just as keen as it is among the clubs in the
states The Australian players haven't. of
course, the patience and discipline of the
japanese and maybe they don't rag the
umpire when they think they've got a kick
a-comng! 1t isn't any unusual thing for
an Australian imp. to have to take to the
best kind Of footwork he can put up or seek
the protection of the constabulary. Great
crowds attend the Australian games and
Australia. by the way. is a country that
knows how to turn out crowd. | wonder
what they'd think of it around New York IL
2J0,uUo people were to attend a Brooklyn or
a Suburban handicap? And yet a quarter
of a million of people. some of them coming
from points thousands of miles away, have
attended the running of the great Mel
bourne cup race. Next ~ the Americans.
the Australians rank and file. the dead
gamest sports in the whole world and gam
blerS from their hearts. They bet on any
old thing. and one OF the most curious hand
books l ever saw made was the rain book.
1t Is called. in which folks put down
their coin on their selection of the next date
when they think its going to rain. AS
Australia is a country of long droughts, the
fellows who make these books have nice
thing of it. but they've been raped good
and hard. at long odds, by bunch players on
the rain proposition. at that. The Austria
lians bet the ball games. which is an in
furious feature of the game played down
there and one which the people running the
game in Australia are trying to eliminate.
Cinnamon Suspicious of the Ball.
with scrub mines of bluejackets hastily
made up on ships which I've served. I've
played games of base ball in some queer
old parts of the world When / a
member of the of the ancient Mon
ocacy. the 'overander,' now gene TO the
junk-heap after Its long years of service
In Chinese waters, I was on one of the
mines that played a game in Annoy, away
up In the interior of China. William +. S.
Fales, the well-known writer. was then
the American vice consul at Annoy, and he
acted umpire, moseying about the
field in his long silken robes, for Mr.. Fales
adopted the Chinese style of dress while he
was In China. don't know how we'd have
come out with the natives If Mr.. Fales
hadn't beet participating In the perform
ance In the capacity of umpire, for ;ee
Annoy Chinese had picked up, Heaven
knows how or where, a most peculiar
idea with regard to our little game. One
of the favorite ideas of the ignorant
Chinese with regard to American foreign
devils Is that they just dote on killing and
eating Chinese babies, and the word got
around somehow or other that us bluejack-
cts, in playing the game of ball, used the
skulls OF Chinese babies for base balls. A
large bunch of the Chinks, very solemn,
were gathered about the field when we be-
gan the game, and we noticed that when
the ball was poked among them by the bats
men they picked the pellet up and examined
It most carefully. Maybe they came to the
conclusion that the Chinese babies skulls
were sewed up inside the leather sphere,
for the game hadn't been going on very
long before we heard a lot Of ominous
grunts and growlings from among them.
Then Mr.. Fales. umpire. in Chinese
toys. addressed those Cinnamon in their
own language. He seemed to be giving 1t
to them hot and heavy. but whatever he
said must have dsabused their minds or
that kinky notion they had about the Chink
babies skulls, for when he had fGNAieu
they all kow-towed to him. and the s-tua-
ton was all right.
Another Good Thing Went Wrong.
"A ship on which served stopped at CAL
lao, Peru, to coal the up trip from San
Francisco about ten years ago. and while
we were In the port couple of young
American chaps, shipping clerks in the EN-
ploy of American shipping firms In caiiao'
came ON board and asked us. up forard,.
IL there were any ball players among our
crew. We told 'em that we thought we
might serape up enough fellows to form a
/ nine at a pinch. You see. We preferred TO |
stay under cover on that point. AS mat !
ter of fact, our ship had the crack base
ball nine of the whole American navy, but |
we weren't saying anything about that to |
people who came providing around In |
strange ports with the probable Idea OF |
anr n n