South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-06-30

Little Pill Was Once Mere Peb-
BILE, But Players Changed
Because Sting in Driving In
duCed Much "CuSSlng."
BY Frank G. Menke.


NEW YORK, June 30.-From pep
bles, to feathers, TO gutta percha TO
rubber core-thats the history OF the
evolution Of a golf ball.
Back in the dear old days that are
dead, embalmed and probably petri-
fed. the golhnS persons used TO swat
round pebble. Every swat used 10
produce a sting that was telegraphed
along the shaft of the club TO the
mitts of the golfer A sting causes
pain and pain usually provokes pro
family.
In the day and age the clerical per-
sons are inclined to look with horror
upon the average golfer because ne
cusses ever and anon. They think it's
the golfers fault and his individual
sin But IL isn't. The golfer can't
The cussing habit has come down
from his cussing ancestors. A fell
low can't duck heredity. can he?
Well. along about 1852 A. ID. a gof-
ing geezer, OF an inventive turn of
mind, decided to quit cussing. Prob
ably he was nearing the end of life
and was repentant. So he invented
the feather ball as the one way of
playing golluf without risking the
chance of getting a job in the here
after under the boss rule of a party
named Lucifer.
The Feather Ball.
The feather ball. a few samples Of
which are still alive, but returned to
museums and curiO collections, was
about the same size as the golf ball
of today and a trifie heavier. 1t was
made thusly: Three strips of leather.
which serve as the cover, were sewed
together. A small space was left un-
sewed. This enabled the maker to
turn the cover side out so as to get
the rough stitching inside.
Having been turned inside out the
ball was ready for stuffing. Feathers
were damned into the opening and
packed with a sharp stick. A two
quart measure of feathers usually
was required to stuff one of those golf
balls. One feather isn't dangerous
weapon A half bushel of feathers
loosely packed aren't dangerous, but
two quarts of feathers damned into
space the size of "A golf ball is
something else again. The feather
ball, in those days, when properly
propelled. could have knocked out
Jess Willard should be stick his con-
crete jaw in its feathery path
The feather ball continued in force
until about 1910. Then a Scot Caddy
revolutionized things again. He found
a discarded football shoe that had a
gutta percha sole. Business was poor
that day and not having any wood TO
whittle he carved away on the sole.
After a time it struck him that the
sole might be rolled together and
made into a ball.
Caddy Inventor.
The caddy soaked the sole. rolled
it together, tied it with a string ana
went golfing with il the next day. he
got some great distances on his
drives, the golfers took cognizance OF
ha mo
into existence.
The best part of the eutta percha
affair was that it's cost was only
about one-tepth of that OF a feathc.
one The next best feature was that
the wind didn't hamper the flight oi
the gutta percha affair as sometime
was the case with the feather BAH.
The Yankee Ball.
1t was IN 1898 that the rubber
cored ball came into existence in the
United States The golfers in this
land of the free and the neutral went
into raptures about its great improve
ment over the gutta perCha ball. But
jolly old England. y'nO. and Scotland,
too, couldn't see" the "bally. bloom
in Yankee device" until 1905. And
then a gent named Alec Herd opened
the Briton peppers. He used an
American rubber core ball in the
British open championship, and won
easily. because he was able 10 get ire
mendous distances in his drives.
Tom BendelOW of Chicago, owns
one of the feather balls. He bought
it at a relic sale in Scotland about 10
years ago. Bendelow picked ii up at
a bargain price Since then he has
refused offers of 500 and more,
made by golfing fanatics.
The ball that BendelOw has is
more than 100 years old-may be 200
years old-but il still is in good
shape. il is almost as solid az a
piece Of rock Bendelow often has
yearned TO take the ball on a course
and try il out in a game
The ball looks as If II still could
stand a lot more batting" said Ben
delow but / hate 10 take a chance
on it."