Evening Star Newspaper, June 28, 1931, Page 79

should know, for he was none other than the Arthur P. Gorman, who later became cele- brated as one of the greatest Senators Maryland ever sent to the United States Congress. He was born in Woodstock, Howard County, Md., and was educated and spent his early boyhood “days neaf Savage, in the same county, a small manufacturing place about three miles north of Laurel on the Baltimore-Washington Boule~ vard. In 1852 when 13 years of age, he was appointed a page in the U. 8. House of Repre- sentatives, being later transferred to the Senate side through the influence of Stephen A. Douglas, subsequently serving as messenger, assistant postmaster and postmaster, until September 1, 1866, when, probably for political reasons, he was removed. After holding various State offices, on March 4, 1881, he took his seat as one of Maryland' United States Senators, his home given as Laurel. Having spent so years in Washington he knew the a book, and was always alert to its interest could be d:pended upon for justice . Many will recall his death in Wash. ington in 1906, and his hospitable home at 1432 K strcet northwest, where his daughter Bessie was married June 24, 1896, to Wilton J. Lambert, the wzll known Washington lawyer. It is very fitting that Senator Gorman should be buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, for there was no place he loved better than the Federal Capital. URING the Civil War base ball took quite a slump, since many of the best players were scattered throughout the Northern and South- ern armies, but whenever the troops were assembled a good game could be witnessed nearly every day or so. Particularly was this s0 in the White Lot grounds and in Franklin Square. Upon many occasions President Lincoln wit- nessed the sport in both places, and referring to the latter place what Walt Whitman said in 1863 is intcresting: “I see the President almost every day, as I = happen to live where he passes to or from his lodgings out of town. He never sleeps at the guard was against his . wishes, but he let his counselors have their way. The party makes no great uniforms or horses. s . cut lines, the eyes, always to me tent sadness in the expression. We have 30 that we exchange bows, and very cordial ones. Sometimes the President goes and comes a barouche. The Cavalry always accompany with drawn sabres. Often I notice as he out evenings and sometimes in the the Secretary of War on K street and holds conference there. If in his baroche I can see from my window he does not alight, but sits in the vehicle and Mr. Stanton comes out to attend him. Sometimes one of his sons, a boy of 10 or 12, accompnies him, riding at his part of the afternoons out in a baroche on a pleasure ride through the city. Mrs. Lincoln was dressed in complete black, with a long crepe veil. The equipage is of the plainest kind, only two horses, and they nothing extra. They passed me once very close, and I saw the President in the face fully as they were moving slowly, and his look, though abstracted, hap- pened to be directed steadily in my eye. He bowed and smiled, but far beneath his smile I noticed well the expression I have alluded to. None of the artists or pictures has caught the decp though subtle or indirect expression of this man’s face. There is something else there. One of the great po:trait painters of twe or three centuries ago is necdzd.” 'O this, Allen C. Clark in his story for the records of the Columbia Historical Society, entitled ‘“Abraham Lincoln in the National Capital,” adds: “When in front of Secretary Stanton’s, Mr. Lincoln now and then saw a large crowd—and enthusiastic—arranged in a circle in Frankln Square. Great shouts rended the air. Mr, Lincoln knew the aH but daily occurrence was not a raising on a mighty staff the national colors. The shouts came when a brilliant play was made or a clout over a ficlder's head in the national gam2. Very likely he was close to the ‘amusing and exciting scene’ in June, 1862, when the Jefferson and th: Monitor dBase Ball Clubs con‘ended with the close and exceedingly small score of 44 to 43.” It is a hard job, even theoretically, to put an old head on young shoulders, and it is quite beyond the range of vision to see Franklin Square at the time of which Mr. Whitman and Mr. Clark speak, but occasionzlly we read a description, which to some extent at least gives us an idea of what some parts of Washington looked like back in Civil War days. During the pcriod of the Spanish-American War a Civil War veteran when visiting this city said of this square: “‘I little thought when I cut the initials of my name in the tree in Franklin Park 3¢ years ago that I would ever see them again,’ said an ex-officer of the 12th Regiment, New York Volunteers, to a Star reporter, ‘but it has come to pass. Our regiment was camped, or housed TIHE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 28, .1931 ° e e e eee—————————————— The Nationals of 1882. In foreground: William E. Wise, pitcher, and Phil Baker, catcher. Sitting; Frank Shriner, third base; William Warren W hite, short stop; Thomas Evans, second base; Clay Barclay, outfielder; Aloysius C. Joy, first base. Stand ing: Maurice Pierce, pitcher; Charles H. Kalbfus, outfielder; George Noble, flelder. I should say, in Franklin Park, for we built nice v Creek, Pennsylvania. After 12 ew York Volunteers, left Franklin Square the United States Infantry was barracked in quarters we built there, and I saw plenty evidence in looking up in the same tree that there were some young men in that regiment also, for as any one can see they carved their initials on the back of the upper limbs, as well ; their company letters and regiment num- PTER the Civl War was over and things began to adjust themselves, there was renewed interest in base ball; new clubs were formed and new players were developed, and the game became even more popular than ever. Soon there were a number of base ball clubs in Washington, and i was not unusual to see simflar anmouncements in The Star to the fol- lowing one which appeared on July 11, 1866: “Base Ball—At a meeting of the Gymnastic Base Ball Club held at Brady's Gymnasium last evening the following officers were elected: President, Abner 8. Brady; vice president, Frank Myers; secretary, Amos W. Abbott; treasurer, Thomas B. Nolan; directors, Thomas C. Lebo, George A. Schriver, Frank B. Keys. The grounds selected by the club are near the terminus of the Seventh Street Railroad and are the best in Washington and the same as oecupied by the Olympic Base Ball Club. The club, composed of the best athletes of Brady's Gymnasium, has been organized within the last 10 days and has already over 30 members, and will no doubt give a good account of them- might be said that Brady’s Gymnasium was on the south side of old Louisiana avenue, between Ninth and Tenth streets, now being cleared by the Government of all of its buildings, and was next to the famous old guard house, well known to the early residents. At that time the Seventh Street Railroad ran to its barn be- tween T strect and Florida avenue, and was the only line to run that far north, the Ninth street line running only as far as M street, while the Fourteenth street cars stopped at S. BY 1867 Washington had developed a team that made real base ball history. It was the National Club, quite likely a reorganization of the one which played so well seven years before. Its players were composed mainly of Govern- ment clerks and included: George Wright, shortstop and team captain; W. F. Williams, pitcher, law student; ¥rank P. Norton, catcher, clerk in Treasury; G. A. E. Fletcher, first base, clerk in third auditor’s office; E. A. Parker, second base and left fleld, Bureau of Internal Revenue; George H. Fox, third base, graduate (1867) Georgetown College; S. L. Studley, left fleld, clerk in Treasury; H. W. Berthrong (said to be a brother-in-law of John Edson), center The team made its first tour im 3 - club was led by Arthur P. Gorman and the of the eclub, Col. Frank Jones, and lenry Chadwick, the official scorer, accom . After this they returnzd home, accompanied by Messrs. Hodges, Cronin, Brown, Patterson, Munson, St. Clair, Ewer, Gramar, Dorsey, Stewart, Corvan and Price, who left Washington with them. The expenses of the trip amounted to $3,000, which was defrayed THI writer has before him three eomplimene tary cards of admission given his father when city editor of the National Republican. All are for the season of 1868. One is issued by the National Base Ball Club, and its grounds are given as “Corner Pifteenth and L Streets, North.” Another has on it the name Olympic Base Ball Club, and its grounds are given as “White Lot, South of the Executive Mansion.” The third is the card of the Union Base Ball Club, and it ghyed at the Union Grounds. By 1878-79 Warshington had what it con- sidered a very good ball tcam, not of champion- ship timber, although it did have some very good players in its line-up. Mike Scanlon, Bob Drinkard, Horace Bennett, Charles White and Jim Ragan were its directors. Iis players, so far as known were: Jim White, second base; Babe Trott, catcher; —— Mpyrtle, first base; Oscar Balaski, right field; —— Derby, pitcher; John Hollingshead, left field; Phil. Baker, center and catcher; Jack Lynch, pitcher; —— Elliott, third base, and McClellan, short. It was this team that Billy Wise (William E. Wis2) joined along about 1880 after having pitched for the Patriots. “Sadie” Houck, “Mammie” White and Aloysius C. Joy also having once been members of this club. Of course the writer has recollections of Billy Wise’s ball playing, and he has known him, too, for a long while, and the ote¢:r eve- ning he had a nice talk with him about old- time base ball. Billy said he sort of drifted into the big league when he substituted for one of the National's pitchers, who at the last moment was taken ill, and he being in the crowd-of on-lookers was invited to go in and pitch, an:! from that time on for five years he playes IlL.; Jacob Dixon, profestional ball, being with Pittsburgh, Bestos and Philadelphia Athletics in addition to ow own Nationals. His picture is here with tha Nationals of 1882, and it is a good picture ot him today, and to ses him and talk with him no one would ever believe, without knowing ot ecourse, that he played professional ball as far back as 1880. He has been for years employed in the Govermment Printing Office and durin; his spare moments gives some of his time to the position of assistant secretary of the - mm«mmmumumtootm th 3 Auomzn player the writer met in his quest for information was Aloysius C. Joy, who has charge of the Knights of Columbus Hall, 920 Tenth street northwest. You will recognize him as being the youngest looking player in the picture of the Nationals of 1882, which, by the way, he loaned for this story. Mr. Joy played first base and gave up professional ball in 1885. He, too, shows evidences that time has been very good to him. Few of the men in this picture are living today. Charles H. Kalbfus of the City Post Office, son of the late Thomas B. Kalbfus, a well known Washington newspaper man, is still much in evidence, and perhaps others that the writer does not know of. It might be inter:sting 1o look back to the time when the present park was first opened— April 13, 1891. That year the Washington team was in the American Association, and upon this occasion was playing with the Bostons, who walked away with the game, 6-0. Being th- thirteenth of the month, it was certainly a bad starter for the grounds. Maybe some of the readers were there upon that occasion. Carscy and McGuire were Washington’s battery, and Haddock and Farrell looked after Boston's interest. The Nationals’ full line-up was Mc- Query, Smalley, Halfizld, Beecher, Dunlap, Visner, Hines, Caisey and McGuire, THE Washingtons have had some good man- agers in the past, but perhaps none the equal of Clark Griffith, and they have had some fine ball-tossers and managers, too, in days gone by, but none quite as good as Walter Johnson—at least that seems to be the con- sensus of opinion. Among the managers w might mention James Manning, Tom Loftu:. J. Garland Stahl, Joseph Cantilion, Jimmie Me- Aleer and the present manager. All these have been since the club joined the American League. But of course we must not leave out Bucky Harris, who piloted to a world championship in 1924 and the American League championship in 1925, It would be hard to pick out the best players in past years, but every one will agree that Win Mercer, McJames, Farrell, Hines and Mec- Guire were unexcelled in their day. If we go back into the “dark ages” we will find such names as Jim Bangs, Dick McLean, for many years with The Star and a great catcher with the Junior Nationals, and the Doyle brothers—Joseph E. who played first base with the Forest City team of Rockford, lieutenant comwander, U. 8. N, retired, who played with the Junior Nationals and then went with the Jeffersons, and John Hadley, who played with the Creigh- tons, and who told the writer that Jim Bangs was the first curved ball pitcher in Washington, but Billy Wise also told him that this honor was due to Homer Cater of the Washington Eagles and that after him came Delaney gnd Pete Bannon. Of the great players of the past whom we regard as our own boys none will stand higher than Pan) Hines, Joe Gerhardt, “Sadie” Houck, Charlie Snyder, Arthur Develin, “Doc” White and “Babe” Trott. Eowever, lzt's ell root now for another championship!