The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1931-02-12
ON TRACK SPEED KINGS TO TEST METTLE AT PHILADELPHIA MEET
Dean Of Baseball Humorists Dies
Charles Dryden, Hopeless Para
Iytic for 10 Years, Dies at
Home Wednesday


Chicago, Feb. 12.-R-Charles Dry
den, first and perhaps the greatest O.
all baseball humorists, is dead.
The man who originated nearly all
the expressions used in writing base
ball today passed on Wednesday in
his modest little cottage In Ocean
Springs, Miss. after being q hopeless
paralytic for ten years. He was about
II years old.
Dryden, who worked on Chicago.
San Francisco and New York papers
up until about Is years ago, became
famous for the unique manner in
which he reported baseball games. He
always built his stories around an In
cident which struck him as hunlor-
Gus. He was nationally recognized as
one who could pick a nickname Tor a
baseball player and make it stick, and
make the baseball players like him.
He was the first to call Frank Chance,
late manager Of the famous Cub team
of 1906, the peerless leader" He was
the first to call a baseball park q ball
yard" He hung the name big Moose"
On Ed Walsh, the famous White Sox
pitcher, and once wrote Of Walsh as
the only mar in the world who could
strut standing still"
Regards Game as Joke
Dryden regarded baseball as a huge
joke, and always wrote humorously Of
the games. While employed in New
York Is or 80 years ago, the late John
T. Brush, then owner of the New York
Giants, took exception to the facetious
way in which Dryden described a bali
game, and had him barred from the
ball park. That made no difference to
Dryden. He climbed a tall telegraph
pole outside the park and proceeded
to report the games day after day
while perched atop one of the cross
bars. Finally Brush relented and Dry
den was later admitted to the park.
Dryden became a writer through no
desire Of his own. He vas an iron
moulder In Monmouth, ILL.,, and while
working in a foundry wrote amusing
incidents that came to his mind. A
friend, reading some Of Dryden's
sketches, advised him to quit the iron
moulding business and become an
author. Dryden wrote several humor-
GUS books, one of which was entitled
"On and Oft the Bread Wagon" 1t
was a story of his own personal ex-
p%eriences. Later he wrote a story of
the sea, after he had been shanghaied
off the docks of San Francisco and
forced on a trip around the world.
Dryden Gets First Job
When Dryden decided to become a
writer he went to San Francisco. He
hung around a newspaper office, and
when a big fire broke out and there
being no regular reporters available,
Dryden was assigned to the Job. He
wrote an amusing story about the fire,
neglecting to mention that several
firemen had been killed, but the story
made such a hit with the editors that
Dryden was given a permanent job.
Dryden was N of the unique char
acters of the newspaper world. Until
a few years before illness forced him
into retirement he always wrote his
copy in longhand. Then when he de-
cided to use the typewriter he labori-
ously began to peck out his story with
two fingers. When he finished his
story he would throw it over to the
sports editor, saying Here's another
piece about those silly eggs"