Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-05-31
4,0OO YEARS AGO THEY PLAYED BALL Recently Discovered Tab lets Show Egyptians
 Tossing Sphere.

New York, May 30.-The chap nam ed Chadwick who claimes to have discovered or invented baseball abont 40 years ago, was a nature faklr' or something on. that order, according to a little booklet that came into our possession today
 After remarking that "archaeoligy contributes it's testimony to the an- tiquity of ball playing" the booklet goes on to tell us about huge num- Der of .ston slabs that have been un- covered in recent years to show :bat baseball became a popular pastime shortly after Noah's ark cast anchor on Mount Ararat.
 Some of these slabs 'tis said, show the picture of shortsop who had huge paws, was bow legged, and talked with a heavy German accent. The writer of the article did not say whether this picture was that of Hans Wagner or of his father.
 Forty centuries ago" seriously states this little booklet baseball was played on the banks of the Nile river. A leather covered ball was used I had sewed cover, and is on eX- hibition in the British Museum, il London, and is in a remarkable suate of preservation.
 The article failed to say whether it was a Reach or Spaulding ball.
 Further on the article states:
 "In the twelfth Egyptian dynasty, a Coptic artist sculptured on the Beni Hassan, large number of figures in the act of throwing and catching a baseball"
 In another bit of sculpture work that goes to prove that baseball is a very ancient game, it is said there are two figures, one standing in front, and the other behind, and that the figure ill the reat is in the act of soaking the fellow in front. That goes to prove that John McGraw didn't spring any original stuff when he began getting himself hit from behind.
 The article regrets that it cannot make known the name of the teams that won the penlant in 091 B. C. owing to the fact that the tablet tha, carried the league standings for that year, and also chronicled the world series stuff, is so badly blurred that deciphering the chiseling has been impossible.
 However, down near the bottom o the slab, and listed after a headina World Series Pitchers there arc some letter that stand out avobe the 1 blurr. There are "Be-' Mat and "Pl-." Many persons ma, think that they recognize these let ters as being part of the names O certain pitchers, who have indignant ly denied that they have been pitchin since the game began.
 Tn the sixteenth century" declare. the booklet, "the game of ball wa. very popular in the courts of tn, princes of Europe, especially in Ital, | and France. The Chinese have play | ed ball from remote antiquity, and th. | game had been known for centuries ir | Japan. The ancient Greeks prizet the game very highly because it gay, | them grace and elasticity"
 None of the tablets that have beei discovered showed whether Bill Klen | used to umpire back in the old days nor do any make mention of an um | pire. However, it is believer tha l they did have umpires in those days \ because one of the slaos shews al object. shaped like a beer hottla hurtling in the direction of the COG, of person who is gesn wearing
 blue cap and a blue sui, and who's pockets are bulgins the same Wa, that ones pockets bulge when ore
 pockets are filled with baseballs.