Evening star., 1925-05-24

America, between the sons OF
men who carry a dinner pail
Il and the daughters of men
who have had money and
power and place for generations
The only question is what, precisely
the barrier is
Jimmy Mclean was the son of a
Scotch stone mason who had come to
America as a young man, settled in
the old Connecticut village of Deep
Harbor and built himself a cottage of
the native stone with his own hands
Jimmy learned the difference between
good masonry and bad as he grew.
At 10 he wanted to be a mason like
his father; at Is he decided to be a
contractor and builder besides But
before he was 20, he walked down a
lane, in May, between two rows of
ancient apple trees with Cynthia
Wainwright. And nothing in his life
was ever the same again.
The WainwriGhts lived (when they
weren't in New York or London
Paris at Round Hill, in white house
that overlooks Deep Harbor, house
with tables by Duncan Phyfe, and
early y-eiShteenth-century silver, and Il
te-nineteenth-centur butler named
WigSin. Cynthia S reat-grandfather
had owned clipper ships; her grand
father had been Ambassador to
France; her father had died in Tibet,
in one of those early sporting at
tempts to climb Mount Everest. Her
brother Hugh. who had become head
OF the family on his fathers death,
had two hobbies: Arab horses and
tennis.
Jimmy was the fair haired boy of
Deep Harbor, the sort of boy other
boys follow and older people admit
has something in him--if he ever
settles down. But he was the son of
man who worked with his hands
and he might have lived all his life
in sight of Round Hill and have be-
come the towns leading contractor
and builder without ever handing his
hat to Niggin save for chance.
The chance was that he was born to
keep his eye on a ball and his weight
moving forward while making full
swing with his right arm and so he
never had to learn the lesson that
makes all the difference between the
kind of tennis you see everywhere
and the kind you see at Forest Hills
or Wimbledon or Cannes.
x * X X
HUGH WAINWRIGHT saw Jimmy
playing one afternoon on the
high school court and stopped his
roadster to watch moment and
stayed to introduce himself.
Look here" he said to Jimmy
al wish you'd come up to Round Hill
tomorrow afternoon and play with
me. I think l could teach you to
beat me-"
That was the highest compliment
Wainwright could pay anybody.
Jimmy blushed, stammered and
said, I'D like to-"
Jimmy walked the long 2 miles
up to Round Hill the next afternoon
up to Round Hill and through the
great iron gates and into another
world.
Jimmy got only one game in his
first set with Hugh Wainwright. He
was still awestruck and the unfamil-
lar bound of the ball off the turf dis
turbed him. But he worked hard,
running his head off back and forth
along the base line and making i'm
possible gets. He held Hugh to 6-3
in the second set and 6-4 in the
third
You see," Hugh told him, you're
really a better man than l am. You're
a natural-born tennis player and I'm
not How old are you?"
"F,ighteen-nearly nineteen" Jimmy
said.
I'm twenty-three," Hugh said. I've
PLAYED at least five years longer than
you have and l have to work to beat
you"
Jimmy was still breathing hard: he
could feel the sweat running down his
cheeks: one knee ached from a spill he
had taken on the slippery turf; the
grass had stained his white ducks from
hip to ankle where he had struck. He
glanced at Hugh, immaculate in
white f1annels, looking as If he had
just dressed.
Let's have a shower" Hugh said.
You'll stay to tea, won't you?''
I'D like to- Jimmy said, but l
think I'd better be getting on home"
What he really thought was that he
couldn't go TO tea in that house in the
clothes he had on.
will you come again tomorrow
afternoon" Hugh asked.
I'D like to-" Jimmy said.
I'm playing in a tournament over
al Brixton on Saturday" Hugh ex-
planned, "and l want TO get in all the
practice l can. Would you care to
drive over with me Saturday morn
ing?"
I'D like to-" Jimmy said.
He tried to remember, walking
home, if he had said anything except
I'D like to-" all afternoon. He could
have kicked himself for being so inept;
and kicked himself again for caring so
much whether he was inept or not.
Why was ii people with money made
you so self-conscious? 1t wasn't the
money, really. 1t was the things that
came from always having money. 1t
was manners. Hugh wasn't a Snob.
Or if he was a snob he was too much
of a snob to show 1t. Jimmy wished
fervently that he had never met Hugh
Wainwright, and thanked his stars
that he had The devilish part of it
was he liked the man and wanted to
please him.
Jimmy played at Round Hill the
next three afternoons, managing each
time to decline tea. On Saturday
morning Hugh called for him and
drove him over to BriXton. 1t proved
to be an important day in Jimmy's
life. 1t was the day he got his idea
of the sporting thing.
HUGH happened to draw his only
serious rival, a man named
Sharp, in the preliminary round.
Sharp took the first set at IL.
Hugh took the second at IL. BY
that time the gallery was intensely
interested and Jimmy wanted to yell
every time Hugh made a placement.
Hugh broke through in the ninth
game of the third and final set. The
score stood 5--4 in his favor and he
was serving Twice he aced Sharp.
The points stood at 30-love. And then
a linesman made one of those incred-
ible decisions that are the despair of
tournament players. He called Hugh's
shot in when it was out. The gallery
groaned.
the points stood at 40-love. If
Hugh took one more point he would
win the game, the set and the match.
He deliberately served a double fault.