The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-21

The Shakespeare-Bacon controversy is very mild affair as compared to Immortal Casey at the Bat. but if The Baltimore News is correct the fol- lowing Is a ciincher:
 Who wrote Casey at the Bat has threatened of late years to become as mysterious a conundrum as Who Hit Billy Patterson? But 1t won't. The mystery has been finally solved. and The News prints herewith an autograph letter of acknowledgement from its au- thor. MT. Ernest |. Thayer, who is now travelling abroad. Incidentally, Mir: Thayer's claims have been verified, and the matter may now rest for all time The author of Casey at the Bat IS in Worcester, Mass, but who now spends a good deal of his time on the other side of the Atlantic. He wrote the poem in 1888, while the Funny Man of The San Francisco Examiner, and 1t appeared in his column on June ofAthat year over his nom de plume. sPhin.'
 NO contribution to baseball litera- tSse tSe nonnlap wesref PcSse Casey wher ever it was heard it made hit, ana that was reason enough for De Woif Hopper to recite it, it is believed, first in Wang. So great has been and IS stili the popularity of the poem that many imposters have arisen. hoping to filch the fame of It's authorship from the man whose brain produced 1t. One of the compilations of humorous verse phy, while new claimant has re- gently arisen by proxy in the late Will Valentine, who, a theatrical man says, was on The Sioux City Tribune.
 Humorist of His Class.
 Early in the present year The News learned from Mir. Eben Sutton, who has recently removed to this city, that he knew positively that MT. Thayer &G .,uNk ny xF <t, sey Mir sutton knew MT. Thayer in timately; in fact, they were classmates and 'chums' at Harvard, class of 1885. and are members of the same Greek let Mir. Thayer was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Lampoon while at the Univer- sity, was the humorous orator at the class-day exercises, and was an &C., knowledged wit. After Mir. Thayer's s graduation he went to the Pacific Coast and took a position on The San Fran cisco Examiner as the Funny Man, signing his articles either with his ini- tials or Phin, as the hun1or seized him. He had plenty of money, as he Is the son of a wealthy hardware manufac- turer of Worcester. Mass, and when he tired of the Coast he came back East. Since then he has been dividing his time between his home and abroad, as has already been mentioned.
 With these allegations in it's posses sion, The News wrote to Worcester with the request that the letter should be forwarded to Mir. Thayer If he was abroad, and in due course Of time this reply was received:
 Author Discusses Claimants.
 Rome. Grand Hotel Du Quirinal. Feb. 3, 1905 To the Sporting Editor of The News;--Your letter of January IA, in- auiring about the authorship of 'casey at the Bat" has just reached me. have seen the story of which you speak and which attributes the A1 s1on al fNsA A The statement that it was printed by him in The Sioux City Tribune in 1882 is absolutely false. as an examination of the files of that paper will certainly show. Casey at the Bat was first published in The San Francisco Exam liner in 1888.
 T can not give the exact date, oi course. but it was sometime in the