Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-22
HOW FAST DID BALL TRAVEL
George" and Mabel Tackle the
Pestiferous Problem
WITH CERTAIN INTERRUPTIONS
When Star With Exclusive Story of
Successful Stunt Reaches Ball
Yard Crowd Cheers Catcher.


ington Monument. as published exclusive
~ in The Star, was the general topic of
conversation all over town yesterday. be-
fore. during and after the game with the
Detroit Tigers. The great playing OF the
Nationals against Detroit. the latters
hard luck recently, the way the High
landers are getting their bumps and the
fine. cool weather-all faded into insig-
nificance when that great catch OF
Charles was mentioned. Fans, near
fans and people who are not fans at all.
ate it for their dinner. put it under their
pillow slept on 1t, had 1t for breakfast
and chewed it all over again at business
this morning.
Don't Think Twas Easy.
That it was a mighty dangerous feat is
known to all. Others tried it and failed
These Others too, can be counted on the
fingers of one hand. Very few men have
had the nerve even TO attempt the task
And those few either didn't come within
gunshot of the ball or weren't able to
hold it when 1t struck their hands. But
Charlie, who really doesn't look strong
enough to catch cold, not only got the
ball in his NIT, but held on to it like
grim death to an India famine sufferer.
He was only Jared a little bit at that
1t didn't affect his catching OF the game
between the Tigers and the Nationals yes
terday afternoon, and very few people
knew of his performance until The Star
came out to the ball park. When the
readers had digested the story there was
a buzz of excitement.
Yes, He Did Do It.
Did he really do it?" was the ques-
ton asked on all sides.
IF he did, will he be in shape to catch
the full game this afternoon"
To see Charlie scampering around the
home plate, throwing to the bases, catch
ing high fouls and doing other stunts it
was hard to believe that he had just done
a trick that never had been performed
before and that ne.ci may be per-
formed again.
When Street went 10 the plate at the
opening OF the game he was given a
great round of applause. Some people
wondered why, unless 1t was because OF
his splendid throwing in the three pre-
viouS games.
But Star readers started the compli-
mentary racket. They had read in amaze
ment of the great feat. and they cheered
to the echo as the nervy and popular
catcher took his place behind the plate.
The players themselves were rather
reticent at first, not because they didn't
want Street to have all the glory and
honor that went with the catch. They
were just StupcHco Will WOliuSi at tliC
daring of their team mate. Later on,
when they had recovered from their as
tonishment, they gathered around the
young man and showered him with con-
gratulatiOnS.
Everybody around town with the mathe-
NAUTICAL bug spent last night trying to fig
ure out just how fast the ball was going
when it struck Streets hands. There
We're forty-seven answers to forty-seven
questions, and still there's nothing def
mite. Most folks didn't allow for windage,
that cheerfully unknown quantity.
Hear His Phone Ring.
"Gabby" Street was busy last night.
His telephone rang constantly, and Gabby
spent most of his evening answering the
plaintive calls of highbrows who were
anxious to work off their pet theories of
ballistics and dynamics and specific grav-
ity and all that kind of thing. Charles
says it sounded something like this:
Hello, Oh,-Hello. Is that Mr.. Street?
Mr.. Charles Street? Delighted to make
your acquaintance in this way, Mr..
Street. Perhaps you know my son. Mr..
Street. He always sits in the rightfield
bleachers and has a loud voice. 1t was
a wonderful catch you made yesterday.
A most interesting experiment in several
phases of dynamics and ballistics. In
working this out, Mr.. Street. in order to
obtain the impact of the globule. there
are some very we'll known formulate to be
employed. There are also some marvel
Ously minute and intricate corrections to
be made, especially with regard to the
effect Of atmospheric drift and DETECTION.
Now If you will extract the root of two
pi r and use the observation-disclosures that?
Why 1t sounded like some one choking.
1t was some one choking.
1t was Charles "Gabby" Street choking.
and he will choke again rather than take
such a verbal inslloot as that.
There were many pencils busy last night
and many high school books dragged out
of dusty corners and laid open at the
page headed Laws regarding falling
bodies" Up on Florida avenue near 18th
street there were father, a daughter and
the daughters young man, all busy on
the question of how hard that base ball
hit Mr.. Charles Streets mitt.
George Wouldn't Behave.
Now, George said the young lady.
who might just as we'll be called Mabel
the window ledge in the monument is
just 500 feet from the ground. Put that
down, George. Now the book says-let me
see, where Is ii? Oh, yes, here 1t is. Take
half a pound Of lard-oh. George. amt
You foolish, that's the cook book. Where's
the physics book? Now stop! Gimme
that book, George.
the second power. Got that? George.
papa's looking. Then the square root
of that. divided by the constant, which
is thirty-two and two-tenths, would be-
oh. dear. I amt good at figures
1T would be err, ah, five and five
sixths." suggested George. who works in
an expert accountants office and is proud
of it, by thunder
ooh, papa. George just did it i'm his
head. You couldn't do it in your head
could you, papa? Then five and five
sixths is the number of seconds the ball
required to fall. oh. it's just coming out
fine, and We didn't have to look in the
back Of the book for the answer. did We?
Now. George. don't sit so close! Then
the velocity equals half the time multi
piled by the constant. Let's see, Four
times five is twenty. and three times six
is eighteen. Put down three and carry
Now, see what you did. You made me
break my pencil. Here it is-one hun
Observation-Disclosures and nine
inches.
That's the rate the ball was going
the last second. Now, George. you figure
out how many miles an hour. Amt it
just grand? When school opens I'm 60
in to show my High School teacher.
Hurry up George. Have you got it yet?
How much? One hundred and twenty
six miles an hour. Why, that's faster
than a train.'
Father Dear Butts In.
Then father took hand. After many
weighty interviews with the encyclopedia,
he took Mabefs figures and began to con-
vert energies and ounces into foot