Evening star., 1924-10-10

play the game" A few days ago
5000 Washingtonians assembled about
the Union Station to gaze upon the
returning ball playerS-who had lost
a game. Play balI!' win or lose!
The man who is a real sport honors
| the champion who has fought square,
though he lose today because, with
! the right stuff in his soul, he is going
10 win tomorrow.
There was another real sport who
arrived in Washington the same day.
He had played ba1P' and had won,
most gloriouSly, in the greatest
world series of all time. Yet coming
back from such a triumph his ar
rival was witnessed by comparatively
few. What was it Einstein said
bout RELATIVELY? What is the reIa-
tive value of goals? And of balls?
The ball Ezra Meeker, the pioneer.
had hit was the mundane sphere
but what d fly, He knocked the
erandest home run that ever scared
over the outtield of the plains and
over the Rocky Mountain fence. 1t
landed away off where rolls the
Oregon
Shout ye fans. That's worth going
crazy about!
By the Great American Eagle.
a.
his today of "a years of youthful
punch, with his prophet-like flowing
silver hair and beard, with his keen
mentality and humor, with his dare
devil spirit which mockS the pru-
dence of younger aviatorS and sleeps
in calm content while the airpIane
rises 5000 feet over the mountain
peaks. with his whimsical remark
that he doesn't like to be walked out
- r1a h1r or
dropping him suddenly 100 feet and
jolting his dreams-Ezra Meeker has
played BALI and WashingtonlanS
scarcely know his record!
What sort of sportsmanship is ours
Maybe our game is marble for funny
keeps" checks or Switchboard, or even
croquet. Maybe we are not in the
Ezra Meeker class. We didn't raise
our boy scouts to be world series
pioneers, fightin' Injuns and racin'
oxen over mountains, or the whole
scout army would have gone up in
airplanes to cheer the best eagle
scout that ever camped on q trail or
burst through the clouds, coming $50
miles an hour from Oregon to the Dis
trict of Columbia. the guest of Uncle
Sam. He is young yet or he would
have speeded up-20O miles or faster.
He complained daily en- route that
Lieut.. Kelly. his sky pilot, lacked his
endurance, and wanted to come down
and rest for the day after every thou
sand miles or so. even though there
were yet hours of daylight. With his
oxen it had taken him five months on
that first trip, 1852, to cross from the
Mississippi to Walla Walla but on
| this airplane comeback. it had taken
only 231a hours of flying from Oregon
to the National Capital. Yet the OK
mobile was easier riding and less sus-
ceptibIe to air pockets.
x X x
How did you feel, going up in an
airplane, Mr.. Meeker?
why, 1 felt like Ezra Meeker, OF
! course
The plane reached Dayton in the
midst Of the great national air races.
and after it had swept down into the
field, surrounded by $4,000 fans the
pilot requested the picturesque pas
sehger to sit upon the deck of the
machine Mr.. Meeker did not know
why he was left up there on that Slip
pery perch, while the hubbub was 60
| ing on, with acres of people yelling.
He felt uncomfortable and rather re-
! sentful at the slight to his natural
dignity. Then the pilot, Lieut.. Kelly,
asked him why he did not respond to
the cheers Was it so commonplace
| to him that $4,000 throats were burst
| ing in his acclaim?
| At last the great, historic person
| age, the dauntless hero of the OK
team of 72 years ago, of the trans
continental railroad Of so years ago,
! of the automobile of 80 years ago
] and OF the airplane Of today-the only