The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-16

HT1HERELL be no spitballs tossed out at Riekwood this season.
 That is, if the majesty of the
 law is upheld. Any trick twirler, visi-
 tor or Baron, who cares to test the
 virtue of our first paragraph will run
 afou1 Doc Bowling, head of the city
 and county board or health, with all the trimmings that go with the colli-
 sion, including a stalwart cop, big
 club, the jail, His Honor, the Judge, and
 cute little fine of seveSs4 simoleons. This state of affairs may agitate your framework, jar your equanimity and otherwise prove perplexing-but that's the situation. Doc Bowling told me yesterday that he certainly would be justified in prohibiting use of the sptball in city and county by amateur or professional He went further than that. He said he'd apply the acid test of Birmingham law to the first gink l who pulled this spitbal1 stuff-if caught And anybody who knows Doc Bowling isn't going to practice the ] spitball in his presence with any de- gree of impunity.
 Doc Bowling has more authority
 around this town than any other man l we know. Any man who can make em l dress up their soda fountain straws in 1 individual sanitary wrappers, cause a l barber shop to stop talking, compel a | Greek restaurant keeper to sterilize | his glasses, destroy a hind quarter of 1 tainted beef on the spot and do other
 equally drastic stunts-welr he'd make
 a department of justice agent in war l time look like a pilSer.
 l Of course, this may appear as an | ignoble irritation, as Pete Marzoni | would put it, to local fandom, but Doe 1 Bowling is like guy we once knew l around Battle Creel-he has a reason Splitting on the ball and then throw | ing it, to be knocked, caught and han l dled is one of the easiest means oi l communicating disease" he said. "It i; one of the worst forms of sanitary vio- | laton. The only reason the spitbal l has not been prohibited in the past, SC l few persons were involved in the risk I But 1t is a pernicfous piece of business 1 from the viewpoint of health official
 "The saliva that goes on that ball I to be peppered into the mouth. nostrils ! and eyes of some innocent player car ries deadly germs, if the splitter should be infected. It can communicate tuber- culosis, meningitis, diphtheria, scarle fever, infantile paralysis, measles
 whooping cough, septic sore throat, ty- phoid fever and syphilis And this spit ball practice should be prohibited uni versally"
 That goes
 1 This reminds us of 8 recent view | point taken by John B. Foster, former | secretary of the New York Giants, un- 1 occasionally a baseball authority o1 ] highest standing. He has come to the bat with a most unique explanation oi the chief objection to the spitball.
 ! Foster says mothers all over th' ! country are preventing their boys froI ! playing baseball because it was neces l sary to spit on the pellet-a nasty and disgusting requirement, not tt
 mention the unhealthful aspects of the proposition.
 Comiskey remarked that perhaps Foster is right in his contention, but ] if such really the case the magnates l who banned the saliva delivery did the game bit of good they never 1 dreamed of before. But Charlie want: 1 to know where Foster got his facts concerning the objection to the spit ball on the part of American mothers Maharajah-Hey, fellow; where's At | 1antaf
 Sannyasi-Atlantaf Oh. that's where the Birmin E ham-New York brass-bount rattler stops to take her sloppings.
 l Bird Day will be observed in all tho public schools of Alabama on Friday. March 26 according to official am