Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-10-20
OLD WORLD RULERS SAW
OUR BASE BALL IN 1883
Stars and Cheagos Encircled Globe
Twenty-Five Years Ago-Gov. Tener
of Pennsylvania Was Pitcher
on One of the Teams.

his grave without ever having seen the
national game.
Those Sundays raised Ned with the
Spaiding program. If McGraw and
Comiskey will take warning they will
make 1t a point not to arrive at any
Pacific port on the first day of the week.
Spald ng was told that II he had got to
Auckland on Saturday he could have
played to 10000 or more. 1t was his
luck to be one day late. Result, no
game. If Honolulu had its missionaries.
Auckland had its Scotsmen and they
were the predominant element No news
rapers, no street cars running on the
Sabbath! What chance had game of
ball? None whatsoever.
There was no Sabbatarianism in Aus
tralia and the Spaldings found their
welcome ready-made for them: LIE ga
previous winter in the capacity OF adj
vance agent and worked 1t up pretty
thoroughly.
It was midsummer in Australia and
after redhot Christmas and New Year
ED Crane the New York pitcher was
sunstruck on New Year day. the Spald-
ings set sail for Colombo fourteen days
from Melbourne. 1t had been intended to
play some towns in India, but the advance
man was waiting with the intelligence
that there were no inclosed grounds and
no gate was to be expected. So Spald-
ing let 1t go with one game on the open
Ceylonese port, and went on his way to
Cairo, by way OF Alden and the Suez ca
nal.
Close Call for Arson.
The oriental attitude toward athletic
sports is distinctly antipathetic. No man
east Of Suex can understand why one
should run IL he Is able to walk or walk
II he can get q rickshaw The exertions
Of eighteen Yankee hushies hitting ball
and running for a base leave him cold.
Excited discussion with the umpire over q
disputed play is to him as the chatter
Ing of apes. If he must he will attend
near to the players as he is permitted
But ii he is hit by foul ball he is filled
with bitterness and Is restrained from
murder only by wholesome fear of the
superior race.
Some such incident actually occurred
near Cairo. where 1t was deemed worth
while to play a game on the desert in the
shadow of the Ghizeh pyramids for the
romance OF the thing and the edihcation
OF few Bedouin Arabs and a bunch Of
globe trotters. Arson knocked hot liner
down the third base line which found a
dusky In the bread basket II that man
still lives IL Ia good bet that he held II
was his duty on that day. as lord OF the
desert. to slay the white invader and scat
ter his fragments to the winds.
The team did not play in the Coli
scum at Rome. as had been intended,
because that historic Enclosure is sew
eral sizes too small and torn up by ex-
cavations in the interest Of science A
game was pulled OF Ito royal and dis
tinguished patronage" at the beautiful
Villa Bcrghese in Rome, another in
Florence and still another In Paris.
After q somewhat hurried trim from
Brindisi to Dieppe the Spald.ngs were
landed In England.
Here Was field, the biggest and rich-
est for base bali-or for any other snort.
ing novelty. So ] venture to predict
McGraw and Comiskey with find It Es-
pecially il they enter the country as
SpaIding was fortunate enough to do.
well introduced. they viii ind the
Britons ready to eat up anything that
will amuse or surprise them.
The players happened to be in Nice
during the carnival and there was the
Prince OF Wales. big as life, mounted
on the roof of a brake, conspicuous
figure in the Battle Of Fowers." As
the prince drove along the promenade
des Anglais he passed couple Of the
Yankee scoun-der-els armed with COM
pact balls Of Nice violets rolled tight