davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-10-05
BATTING PRACTICE
SYSTEM WRONG
Players Drive Out Balls That
Are Easy to Catch.
SHOULD HIT ON Line.
Hard Grounder Is Much More Effec-
tive For Tuning Up Piayers-Sacri-
flee Fly Is Very Valuable-uP to the
Managers to Make Change.

In most ball clubs more time is spent
at batting practice than in perfecting
any other department, and yet such
time is, to Il very large extent, wasted.
Bail players love to bat, and they viii
spend any amount of time stepping up
to the plate in rotation and taking a
wallop at the ball. Yet, in spite of this
constant practice, batting is weak on
most bail clubs.
One Of the big reasons is the lack of
intelligent oversight of the practice.
When the team goes out for its bat
ting practice, as 4 rule, an inferior
pitcher is sent to the box, and lie sell
dom tries very hard 10 fool the hitters.
In most cases he is satisfied to lob the
bail up to the plate and the batter is
satisfied to make q swing at it without
trying any particular direction. It's
just a case of wallop ana that's all. AS
soon as he has hit fair bail, no matter
where it goes, he retires ana the next
hitter takes his place. OF real practice,
with Il firm purpose to drive the ball
to safe territory and Il sane study of
the pitching, there is almost none.
Few batters go UP there with the
strong intent OF meeting the ball right
ON the nose and, above all, of avoid
ing sending up ly bail. With Il sin
gle exception the hitting of fly balls
is the worst thing a batter can DO, ex-
ccpt perhaps to strike out. a ny bah
that a fielder can reach is caught al
most invariably.
y good fielder does not muif one in
600 that he reaches in time to Get
both hands on. The exception of course
is the case OF long outfeld fly with
a runncrson third, which operates as n
sacrifice ard scores { run. This is Il
valuable play, but it is the only case
in which Il fly ball operates to the adj
vantage Of the hitting side. \ hard
Grounder Is much more effective.
When a fly ball is sent out only one
man handles it, and it is the easiest
kind of a ball to handle. When a
sharp grounder is battcd three distinct
plays are necessary to get the batter.
The fielder must make a clean pickup
Of the bali. then an accurate throw,
and the man on the receiving end must
catch the ball.
If batters- svouldsmarks themselves as
incompetent every time they send out
a fly ball i'll batting practice and try
with all their might to keep their hits
low there would be a steady hitting
and therefore more run getting and
more games won.
The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-10-05
sEAMsTREss GIVES $4,000.
Miss Gamble Places Savings With
Montpelier Home.

MONTPELIER, Oct. .. = Mary Ann
Gamble, aged IS, a seamstress, yester-
day gave $1,000 in cash TO the newly
incorporated Montpelier Home for the
Aged. Miss Gamble s wages are said
to have never exceeded IS a week and
the money represented her savings of
a lifetime. Provision is made that she
viii never come TO want and that she
will receive the income during her life
time.
The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-10-05


SMILING GEORGE" Whitfield, PHILLIPS
CRACK oUTFIELDER.
team" ON the poor, defenseless Ma
tional league, the same being Grover
Cleveland Alexander. While we agree
that the marvellous Alexander is more
or less team in himself, still he is not
the whole show. Several other mem
bers Of Moran's squad are responsible
in Il way for the standing of the Phil
4, lies, notably Crayath, Luderus, Ban
croft and last but not least, George b.
Whitfield.
George was given to Moran at the
expiration of last season, along with a
youngster, Dugey by name, and u
bundle Of coin by George Stallings. and
NIL George got was Sherwood Magee.
Sherwood was supposed to strengthen
the Braves outfield, which he did, but
he did not add as much batting strength
to the Braves attack as it was expect
ed he would. Whitfield, on the con-
trary, has improved wonderfully both
in the field and at the bat. and he now
looks so good that Stallings would glad
ly give four players for his return.
The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-10-05
STANDING OF TIE CLUBS.
American League.

American League Games To-day.
Boston at New York.
Philadelphia at Washington.
The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-10-05
LEADERS OF
RIVAL CLUBS
Moran and Carrigan Have
Earned Right to Posi-
tiOns They Hold
RED SOX MANAGER
HAS ONE ADVANTAGE

Carrigan Has Been in Thick of strua
gle While Philadelphia Leader Has
Handled His Team from Bench-Fatc
Has Favored Latter.
The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-10-05
ational League.

National League Games Today.
New York at Boston.
Brooklyn at Philadelphia.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23
THE PASSING OF A MINSTREL

From the Louisville Courier-Journal. 1" HE death of George Evans,
 leading light of contemporary
 \ minstrelsy, will be a surprise to the theatregoing world. and will cause widespread regret. The brief mo- tice of his death sent out from Bal timore reveals the fact that he was a sufferer from stomach trouble, yet he contrived to be while under the spotlight the incarnation of carefree gayety.
 The late "Bill" Nye wrote some of his most popular humorous sketches when he was i'll of stomach trouble--in average experience an affliction that robs the victim of his sense Of humor and for many years Mark Twain wrote voluminously while suffering severely from rheumatism.
 The late MT. Evans must have gone through many performances racled by pain and depressed by the knowledge that his illness was serious. Yet he kept everyone on the other side of the footlights in high good humor by his antics and facial expressions rather than by reciting for the audience what had been written for him. The minstrel cannot depend for success upon his 'lines," but must rely upon bits Of "business," the art of mimicry, the stimulation of merriment. His authors furnish him with nothing more than peg upon which to hang a performance that is a failure or a success in &C., cordance with the personality Of the actor.
 Honey Boy'' Evans died at 42 star of first magnitude in the Armament of
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23
Demand for Railroad Extension

During the last two years the rail- roads have done very little, almost nothing, in the matter of building new lines. About the only new construc- tion has been in double tracking and that has been on a limited scale. Transportation companies that had planned large double track work found they had to wait for more prosperous times.
 In many cases last years expendi- lures for ordinary betterments were held down to the lowest point and pur- chases of new equipment were few and far between; but the situation has inn proved. When the interstate com- merce commission reopened the rate cases and authorized the eastern car riers to advance their freight tariffs the roads which were benefited began to buy such material as was actually needed for the present. This created a demand for iron and steel, but not un- til the net earnings of the railroads show large increase will there be anything like old time progress in extensions.
 In every section of the country there is a moderate demand for in- creased mileage. In the now pros porous northwest there is a great de- mand. It is believed that before this year ends large start will be made in new construction work, and unless all signs fail, 1916 and 1917 will wit ness marvellous records in railroad ac- tivities. That will cause a boom in every industrial district; it will re- suit in record breaking prosperity from one end of the country to the other. In the meanwhile each month of this year will bring some measure of improvement.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23
ALABAMA PRESS

Mobile Register: Some paragraph CTS are born-others are killed,' says the Dothan News. But not always, the enc who got off the following in the Jackson, Miss, Clarion-Ledger was at last accounts still alive: If Thaw has not been sufficiently punished, he cer- tainly has been sufficiently Harryed.
 Shelby County Review: We won't be surprised now to hear of peace in Mex ico-not a single new President for a whole week.
 Selma Journal: Have you been in vestigated yet? Anybody travelling through this vale of tears without be- ing investigated or summoned these days is travelling some.
 Tuscaloosa News: The dumdum bis suit has a higher rate of mortality than the dumdum bullet.
 Progressive Age: We put our trust in that groundhog and planted the gar den. Now-we are looking for that Rroundhog with a bean pole.
 -Pratville Progress The agitation in- cident to the Blue-Back Speller bill has served to call attention to the fact that spelling is not properly em- phasized in the schools and in this re- spect has already served good pur- pose.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23
OLD MYSTERY PLAY

Marian Isabel Storm, in the New York Sun.
 Deep hid in dark wooded forest I built
 me garden
 Where pale. fragrant. flowers. too traiI
 for the sunlight. might grow, And round 1t. with shelterng arms. chung
 the wild grape, the woodbine; Yet ever with these flashed the bitter
 sweets bright berried glow. A still pool there was, with fair liiieU
 asleep on it's waters,
 It's margin af1ame with the cardinalu
 passionate red That warmly outgloried the sprays of
 white, faint meadow blossoms Dismayed at such ardor, their color had
 faded and fled. And close by the pool where low hem-
 locks, with purple-green tresses Shut out from all woodland intruders
 my own secret glade, A slight marble Love stood and laughing,
 cast sunshine around him; And all the dim place was aglow with
 the glory he made. Came tempest; the wind dogs rushed mad through shuddering branches, The flowers were snapped from their
 stems and the pool lashed to waves; The grasses turned brown and no bird
 broke the wintery silence; The hemlocks looked dark as tall cy-
 presses shadowing graves. And cold came, and fear, till the place was wilderness utter, A remnant of what to black ruin the whirlwind had swept, And wild in the passion spent wreck of my desoIate earden q IRNe st0Q4 and MlDfs > ... &.i..ss u
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23
BIBLE HIS STYLE BOOK

knowledged as one of the leading au thors of England, he remained a simple, hearty sailor, and he used to say that 'the world is brimming over with good people"
 Shortly before his death this author. who had been street arab, poor. i'll used, half starved. wrote that he owed his rise in life, and all that he had be- come, to the aunt who had taught him to love the Bible.
 Tn that book learned how to write, and if my style of writing is graphic and picturesque, as some folks say it Is, owe 1t all to the Bible," he wrote.
 John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe, who wrote books that have come down to us through the years and arc yet among the biggest sellers owed their fine literary style to the Bible, too. and 70 did many another writer of books that have lived.
 And the Bible did more than that for them-it gave them comfort and inspi- ration and helped them to that more abundant life for which we incurably long.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23
RUNNING A BLOCKADE
From Pearson s Weekly.

From Pearsons Weekly.
 A ITHOUGH. their operations are
 "A drastic and unpleasant. block ades and blockade runners have always been among the most pie turesque and dramatic aspects of a great war
 There are many people alive today who remember the four years block ade of the ports of the southern states of America by the federal govern- n ent during the American civil war. During that period a big trade was carried on by swift steamers which owned Glasgow as their port of origin. They traded to such blockaded ports ss Wilmington and Charleston, the har- bor of which had been obstructed by sunken ships and huge stones; and they made huge fortunes.
 Thus one man sold in Wilmington for 12 shillings corsets which he bought in Liverpool for threepence. And when he got back to Liverpool he sold cotton at half crown pound which he had purchased in Whining ton for twopence. Still, the risks of a blockade are great. Out of SC ves- sells that engaged in this traffic in four years 40 were captured.
 Blookades can be applied either to an enemy's town or fortress, or to a port or series of ports on an enemy's coast. It has, in naval sense, two effects It brings pressure to bear on an enemy within their own gates and aids at preventing the import or ex- port of provisions, articles of trade, ammunition or endorsements. It also makes it unlawful for neutrals to trade with those particular ports.
 As a consequence, certain precautions are usually observed. It is, for h. stance, held that for valid blockade not only should state of war exist. but that the blockading party should
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23

minstrelsy. First a printer, then a re- ported he found himself' upon the stage, where his work was we'll done up to the time at which illness forced him into hospital. The grit of the humorous writer who can continue tc maintain in illness the standard of achievement set in happier days, and that of the comedian who can conceal the suffering of dying man behind the mask of the clown, set examples of courage which should be interest ing, and even profitable. to tho many who are ready to say that @ man can not do good work unless he is feeling physically fit.
 The man who sets out deliberately to win the laughter of the world gen. orally wins little else of the worlds attention. He forfeits all claim lo sc- rious regard. The harlequin is always just a harlequin. The role of the jester has thus it's melancholy side. There is no more pathetic department of literature than the old English and French stories of "the other side" or the harlequins life-the loneliness and isolation of 1t. The fool may own the court for an hour. but let him not enter the hall without his cap and bells.
 Yet a man who has wits enough to be a good fool probably is wise enough to appraise things rightly. He will see that for all his bells and folly the final estimate of things must place a serious value upon his role. Here is a source of consolation for Harls- quin's melancholy moments. It Is well that he has this to remembsr--;u a world that is too apt to forget it.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23
Gorgas in Much Demand

Baltimore is organizing mos Quito-fighting campaign, and Surgeon General w. c. Gorgas, U. s. A., has accepted the mayors invitation to visit that city and help staft the work.
 As head of the army's medical de- partment Dr. Gorgas' duties are ex- acting, but he finds time to go to the relief of such communities as feel es- pecial need of his experience in sani- tary engineering. He receives no pay
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23

maintain a force sufficient to prevent access to the bloclxaded port, or. at all events, powerful enough to render the passage of a relief ship extremely haz- ardous. Further, it is essential that neutral nations should have proper notice of the existence of the block ade either by official notice or by warming given to neutral vessels on their arrival outside the prohibited zone
 Nations differ as to what constitute. an effective blockade. and until the present outbreak of war in Europe oc- cured, England and the United States always took the easiest views of what was valid blockade. All countries however, agree that a b1ockading force may seize any vessel with It's cargo trying to trade with a blockaded port and can send it home for condemna- ton. Even if a vessel succeeds in breaking through blockade it can be pursued and, if possible. captured.
 A vessel may, for the sake of hu- manity-suppose her crew is starving or she is in danger of sinking-he allowed to enter a b1ockaded port Mail steamers also, if they do not carry contraband, are permitted to go in and out. Thus in the recent United States war with Mexico British mail boats sailed regularly to Vera Cruz
 Any wholesale destruction of life by the sinking or burning of trading ves- sels is not a blockade. Piracy" Is the word used for that kind of slaughter by International lawyers. and 1t dates back to the time when inconvenient captives were made to walk the plank and gentlemen of the Will Atlxing type flew the skull and crossbones. Article AS of the declaration of London (which was signed first by the German Elm peror), says plainly Ia neutral vessel which has been captured may not be destroyed by the captor."
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23

From the Kansas City Star
 TN the life of Frank T. Bullen, who died the other day in London. there
 II is a lesson for everyone who has
 charge of the training of children. In his childhood Bullen lived with a pious aunt, who taught him to read and to love the Bible. She died when he was years old, but before that she had read the Bible aloud to him from Genesis to Revelation, and he had read it aloud to her a second time.
 Then he fell into the clutches of a cruel taskmaster. and in place of-the aunt's goodness there befell him hun gar, blows and exhausting labor from in the morning till II o'clock at night, and an atmosphere of vile language. To escape this he became a gamin in the streets of London. He ate scraps of food that he picked from garbage cans. He was ragged and wretched. For two years he did not sleep in & bed; i;
 but through all his miseries he carried, tucked in the folds of his tattered
 blouse, small Bible. which he read when he could.
 The Bible went with him when, at 12 years of age, he shipped as a cabin boy and went to sea. The captain was so cruel to him and beat him>so unmerci- fully with ropes end that the sailors threatened to mutiny unless 1t was
 stopped. They were rough men, those | sailors, picked up from the waterside slums of many ports of the seven seas,
 but they loved the pale-faced little fel-
 low who was trying to make man of himself.
 For 23 years>h he roved the oceans of the world, climbing slowly until he be- came chief mate of big ship; and in all his sailoring the early training of
 the aunt clung to him, and he was never
 without his Bible. In those years upon
 the sea he read the Bible through from
 cover to cover 25 times.
 | He had married when he was 22.
 Three daughters were born and to be
 with his family he retired from the sea
 at 35 years of age and lived in London.
 His wage ashore was only $10 week,
 and it was hard for him to get along.
 To help out the family expenses he
 wrote down some of his sea adventures, and sent the manuscript to Rudyard
 Kipling, asking that great author to
 make a book of 1t. Klipling was struck
 with the charming simplicity and com polling interest of the narrative and he returned it to Bullen with letter tell ing him to have 1t published.
 | "You have done it better thab could. 1 I wonder where you got your fine style.'' wrote the master spinner of good yarns. | q got my style from the Bible; it
 was my only university" wrote back the sailor, who had never been to school. | The book, "The Cruise of the Cacha- Hot" was printed and Bullen got $500 | for it. It as . tremendous success. one of the best stories of the sea ever writ | ten. He followed 1t with other books, i"With Christ at Sea-" The Call of the Deep" The Log of a Sea waif," and many more. all great successesr and he became famous and rich. The King and Queen of England had him come often to the palace to tell sea stories to the lroyal children.
 Ills success did not spoil him .-Ac,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23

1 The Andes are destined to become
 one of the great tourist centers of the
 western hemisphere and should take the place of Europe's present war
 bound Switzerland So said pr. Bailey Willis, in lecture in Washington.
 D. C. few nights ago. pr. Willis was
 consulting geologist to the minister of
 public works Of Argentina in 1a11-1s The subject of his lecture was Areen-
 tina and Chile and it was delivered under the auspices of the National Geographical society. In referring to the Andes he said: This rarely beau tiful country with deep blue mountain lakes. the peers of the famous lakes
 of Switzerland and the Tyrol, is ravish- ing" The lecturer spoke of Buenos
 Aires as one of the few Spanish at- tempts to establish a permanent col-
 cny in the newly discovered hemis- rhere rather than the establishment or a temporary base from which to sap the lands resources with the. greatest possible expedition. The col onists who founded Buenos Aires, now Argentina's capital, came with their women folk and with the earnest pur- pose of founding new homes Their course was looked upon with little fa- vor by the government In the mother land, and for hundred years trade was diverted around the city to other Spanish ports by drastic laws. Bnenos Aires today is one of the most import ant commercial cities in the southern hemisphere, Dr. Willis said, and 1t is one of the new worlds great centers of progressive thinking and effort
 The Parana, Argentina's Mississippi, which flows past the capital is commercial artery of an importance relatively as great as the North Amer ican river. Dr. Willis told his hearers that the Argentinos have expended much money in works to make their river serviceable to navigation Tn concluding his lecture he expressed the opinion that Argentina and Chile have governments as stable as that of the United States.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23
LUKE MpLUKE SAYS
From the Cincinnati Enquirer.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer.
 We will say this much for the girls; Most of them are not half as bad as they are painted.
 And the ones who use peroxide are not the only light headed girls in the world.
 They have made lot of improvements in automobiles. But they haven't tn- vented anything that will keep motor car from sma shing itself and it's occupants when a man takes few cnicAens out for a joy ride.
 When friend wife describes her idea of an ideal man, the description usually fits her husband just like a girls shoe would fit an elephant
 The old fashioned woman who used to crawl under a feather bed when thun- derstorm came up now has daughter who won't have a feather bed in the house because they are unsanitary.
 During the honeymoon she believes that the earth saga down every time takes a step. But later on she believes that 1t would take about 14 mutts like him to outweigh a feather.
 After a woman has been married long enough she discovers that the later man has to stay downtown and work at the office" the less money he has on pay day.