The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 26, 1899, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MARCH 26, 1899. 21 NE organ grinder in England seems about to come into an earl- dom and one of the proudest es- tates in the British isles. His name s Viscount Hinton and he stands a good chance, accord- ing to eminent attorneys, of proving that he is the oldest son of the late Earl of Poulett. In fact, according to the rec- ords, there is no doubt of this, and the only difficulty will be & matter of legal technicality. Taken altogether, the story is one of the strangest and most romantic that has ever been told even in England, that country of claimants of titles. There are several stories in circulation a8 to how the late Earl of Poulett came to marry ths mother of Viscount Hinton, claimant of the earldom. These e remarkably well in most particu- but ths one that {s mostly told and generally accepted as rellable is as is follows: In 1849 George Poulett (the late Earl) was a Portsea wi ment of E One nigh young officer stationed at the Twenty-second Regi- ish Infantry. e officers of the junior mess g merrily and got to joking , which they should have Poulett remarked: a girl will do for me.” For ever married and had no idea would ever succeed to a title. sald a young nobleman; '11 bet you £500 you won’t go out and t woman you meet.” said Po: He was o s not. He ly in debt, and feared that his rich Earl Poulett, who had ance with the not again forgive 3 18 “Any kind of no gh the oth .t the mess broke up Poulett t the man whose bet he had taken and sald he was ready to start. “I say, Poulett,” sald e ang it, you know, I n't in earn- ! I don’t mind losing the £ but’— “Are you trying to back out?"' sneered ow, the other man was trying to do very thing, and to his last day hed he had done it. But he bit his lip and satd, “I'm ready.” It was early summer. The two young t out, with a trail of others fol- wing at a discreet distance, to find Pou- lett's wife. It was very late, or early, &nd there wers few women in the street. At last they met one. “Iook here,” said Poulett to bher; #what's your name?” “Lizzie Newman.’ Poulett had heard of her. But he said, gfter a moment’s hesitation: “Well, I ent you to marry me, on a bet.” And on June 22, 1849, Poulett was mar- yied to “Miss Elizabeth Lavina Newman, @aughter of James Newman, & pilot, of Portsea.” HEHPHOUOHPUOHOHPAOH PO X O 4 O ROUOROXOH DX OKOKPH ....JHESE MEN HELPED STAEY IHE GARFE HE American game of baseball first sew the light sbout forty vears ago. At that pe- riod the population of the entire | State was less than half a million, and the leading industries were gold mining and cattle raising. San Fran- cisco was the center of population and everything new that came from abroad, ther it was a new game OF & new h, was always tried in San Francisco re it was allowed to reach the inte- few Englishmen from Canada and the fifties y gama of cricket, but the e kindly to it. It deemed slow in comparison with the popular game of rounders, which been imported from New England. Rounders was played with a rubber ball of great resflience and hard or soft to it the tasts of the plavers, experts pre- rring a ball almost as hard and as heavy as lead, for it afforded more fun when the unlucky runner between bases had to be “put out,” the process of put- Americans did not t w ting out being to hit the runner with the bail before he could reach the base to ch he was running. Consequently heavier and harder the ball the more inclined would be the put-out man to down and rest himself. There being 10 “soaking’ In cricket, there was no real American fun in it, and the game was ayed only by quiet, dignified Britishers. Out of the game of rounders as played in California and the East was evolved the game of baseball. The father of the onal game in San Francisco was John a well-known mining man, at nent member of the Ploneers. John L. Durkee had aob- ed an inkling of the new game as ved in New York, and they, with other 1l cranks, prevailed upon some of the der clubs to try their version of the game. Durkee and Fisher made the style of ball used in California for purpose, it being & sphere of rubber the wound around with yarn and covered with buckskin. The first regulation ball and the first set of rules- were brought to San Francisco from Boston in 1859 by Martin Cosgriff, who i8 now In the re- packing business on Battery _street. There arrived from New York at about e time a Mr. Gelson, who had the game in New York and was noeded to. be the only expert in Call- at that time. her, Cosgriff, Gelson and Durkee, to- gether with Dan Driscoll, of the Blue | they | Wing saloon on Montgomery street, ar- ranged & match between the Eagles and | 0ld feeling of FAITHEOL MWaEE L According to this story, which may be called the theory of the defense, Poulett 4ld not long live with his wife. A son was born to her on December 15 of the same year, who Is the present claimant. But there are those who hold that the tale of the drunken bet is too incredible, 2nd hint that Poulett had known the vbody knows everybody in & and had married her under compulsion and lived with her some five years. Still another tale Is that Betty Newman was a good and pure girl whom Poulett dearly loved and marrled, but of whom in time he tired. All this matters very little in fact. By British law, which is American law also, the boy was born in wedlock and Is Pou- lett's legitimate son. He is now 49 years old and puts in his claim for his father's title. hen Newman, as the claimant was called in his younger days, in accordance with the settlement the Earl made upon Betty Newman, came of age, he asserted his claim to the title of Viscount Hinton, which is derived from Hinton St. George, e of 29,000 acres, which has been 1mily since the fifteenth century. ri dented the clatm, but he asked man to call upon him in this s in evidence: . end will he him to-mon ria Mansions, Lord Hinton promptly obeyed. Arriving at Victoria Mansions he was shown up- stairs. In the entresol he met his father for the He was well dréssed, s was somewhat haughty sroke the jce by suggesting that Hinton should go abroad. Lord Hinton sald that he objected to do so. Lord Poulett then suggested that he should drop his title, remarking that titles were expensive to keep up. Lord Hinton demurred. ““Well, you will think it over,” sald the Earl. “You want some money?" ° “Yes. “Very well; g0 to Mr. Annesley, my so- licitor, and he will relfeve you.” The Interview lasted twenty minutes, and was not over-cordial. But Lord Pou- lett had by implication admitted Hinton's right to the title which he had asked him to drop for considerations of economy, and he had promised him an immediate supply of ca The reason for this first and only inter- view was this: The Viscount had become a professional clown and acrobat and had e kind enough to call at 11 o'clock at 11 Victoria street? and the the Red Rovers, in the year I in California | bases were marked out in old Butcher- town on the Potrero. It was an experl- ment for the boys, and they mixed up rounders baseball in the most ludi- crous w In running between bases expected to be hit with the ball as in rounders before being put out. When a man dropped the bat and started for > he made a home run, and to convince him that he 1 put out before he reached the base slmply because he missed the n under the coat tails, was the Infallible the first I it was a 1 d b first which In r symptom of f: For many ¥ LHOKORD XPHEEOROHONOHOROUDKOKOA O RS FOROHVXDAOAPROROXOKOAPAORDRORD %G | | only quality sought after by the pitcher | poor players when the runs on each side AN ORGAN-GRINDER WHO CLAING A BIG ENGLISH ESTATE. Strange Fatality That Has Befallen the Heirs of One of the Finest Peerages of Great Britain. o 1 AN VISCOUNTHINTON ELOEST 50N OF EARL POULETT THAYE ADOPTED TH1S RS | AMEANS OF EARNING ALIVING. MY FATHLR HAVING REFYUSED YO ASS1ST ME THROUGH, | NO FAULY OF MY OWN, 15COUNT HINTON_ THE \(/)EGAN GRINDER CLAIMANT HE METHOD By HE EARNED have provided for his.son. The Viscount has been befriended by many in the aris- tocracy, also, and his son and daughter have been fairly educated. made one Lydia Sheppy, a ballet dancer, Viscountess Hinton, and the Earl did nat wish them to remain in England. Hinton's carecr on the stage was un- doubtless reason that it is Lords will lucky. On the fifth night of his engage- mye tenants on the Hinton 8t. George useless to g coun t 3 g s ) : seles provide the younger disput ment at the Garrick Theater, White- ,gate on the other hand, favor the son with the seat without the estate to sur chapel, he fell down a trap. For three .o 4y third marriage, for obvious rea- port it. months he was kept alive by being fed o .- And what an estate it is! One of the by a spoon, and a bad scar remains On .0 pooo Newman's son will be the finest in England; twelve miles long: with mlslr':ffswafigf;r m’f';,:: ‘:g;t"}{,mm., Earl Poulett and her grandson Viscount a model village upon it; with a special fisit babe . The Dowager Duchess Hinton in turn there can be little doubt. telephone service between its parts; In- rst baby came ger 8 ter pill. for the House of cluding portions of eighteen parishe: It will be a t 1 but law ild avenue of cedars; w one of the stateliest homes in England; with {ts great library and its art treas- ures by Van Dyck, Murillo, Corregio, Ru- bens, Res nd others, and its rent roll of £ d for the mortgagors Yes, it s a fine estate, and there is an- other fine one—Granville Hail in Hamp- shire, There 1s talk of a compromise, but Hin- ton’s solicitor, G. H. Hall, intimates that he has too good a case. SV wese The circumstances which brought abput the possibility of Viscount Hinton being a claimant for the earldom of Poulett are indeed strange. When the late earl married Billy Newman there were five lives between him and the sixth earl's title. He had no expectation of even get- ting it. But one after another the fifth Earl's three sons died, then an elder cousin, then the heartbroken Earl himself, a of Cleveland, Mrs. Poulett, a distant rela- tive, and other ladies were kind to the young parentd, and tided them over the bad times. In 1§72 Viscount and Lady Hinton or- ganized a stage troupe of their own, which fafled disastrously. It was after this, and after some adventures abroad which have been briefly referred to, that Hinton set up a barrel organ. And this he has con- tinued to play, because it was proiitable and ‘because it annoyed the old Earl. It @id annoy him! . To the day of his death Poulett came to London as seldom as possible, for he knew that when ha came the organ would promptly appear under his window, with the placard: *I am Viscount Hinton, etc.”” conspicuously displayed thereon and play sweet har- monies. It's a very good organ, too. The late Fugene Field, who interviewed Hinton some years ago, Wrote that it had five cylinders, played fifty tunes, and ‘“‘must with its sple nd the British ed, had not the known that nton would al- certainly inherit he would not have been in such haste to ruin himself. Years ago, when Hinton was in trouble at the Old Bailey, the main charge against him was that he had obtained money on his claim to the Poulett estates, knowing the claim to be invalld. The papers in defense were handed to the late Sir Willlam Charley, the Com- mon Sergeant, who was sitting as Judge. After looking them over, Sir Willlam said that instead of proving that the claim was bad the deeds seemed rather to afford evidence of its validity. He was ot a conveyancing lawyer, but he had seen encugh to show him that even {f the claimant did not prove his claim, upon the documents In evidence he had ample ma- terial for believing that his claim was have cost a small fortune.” Eocd. tain Poulett succeeded to the title. He was The Viscount ls a siightly built man, IR other words, no fraud had beeh COm- ;¢ tnen living with his wife. She died with rather good features marred by dis- Mitted. in 1870, first telling her son that he was stpation. The, Viscountess, who generally ~ So the organ-grinder may put on the yiscount Hinton. The young man had accompanies him, is a faded, bloated, ermine and get what good he can out of peen educated at Poulett's expense until B ace | woman, blondihed and the 20,000 acres of Hinton St. George, hg was 18 years old, at Portsmouth. flashy of a distinctly inferior type. mortgaged to its full earning capacity. The poor woman, who had, by all ac- The Hintons have made a good living His claim will be fought at every step, counts, been a true wife to Poulett, was with thelr organ. They are popular with but it is difficult to see how it can be de- not even allowed to die in peace. the London public because they are gen- feated in the end. When Viscount Hinton, then just of erous to those less progperous than them- o far as a seat in the House of Lords age, was summoned to her bedside to re- Selves, because they- are always willing to s concerned, Hinton's success Is not o ceive her last blessing she sald to him: “appear for charity,” and because the easily predicable, as the House is.itself “I am not in pain, but’—then her volce people, with innate Pritish love of falr the judge of the qualifications of its own sank to a nervous whisper—there 1s an Play, belleve that Earl Poulett should members. Still, In the end the noble cye that sometimes stares through a OF B ,der Gelson's tuitfon until they had the game letter-perfect, and then, there be- ing no_opposing club to play with, they split M two for the purpose of having competition—the offspring of the Eagles being called the Pacific. The preliminary matches between these two attracted conslderable attention from players in this city and in Oakland, and in a very | short time the rounder clubs went out of gloves or masks as at the present day, and there was no wall or backstop be- hind the catcher, so that it he let a ball get past him with men on the bases it was “all day" with him. The pitcher was not the king-pin of the lot as now, and all the players had frequent opportuni- ties to distinguish themselves, no matter in what part of the fleld they might be stationed. The trial game between the Red Rov- ers and the Eagles was so satisfactory that a baseball club, the first on the Pa- |cific coast, was organized shortly after- = ard. It was named the Eagle Baseball One of the best clubs in the State In the ub, and its first president was Expert | early days was the Clty College Club, jGelson‘ They practiced for & while un- | composed of pupils of that institution, underhand instead of overhand, as at: present. There were no such things as curves or erratie twists, speed being the and the philosophy of curves being an unknown quantity. Owing to this fact, the scores of runs were large; without this explanation it might be thought that the boys of forty vears ago were very were in many noted games allowed to mount into the eighties and nineties. Be- cause of the mode of pitching the batter was enabled to knock the ball all over the fleld, and the flelders were kept on the move at all stages of the play. None of the players was allowed to wear here and In Oakland, which latter city at that time was a college, a vegetable garden and a milk ranch. PBILLINGALL AT Orite s HiINToN HousE | SEAT OF THE EARLS | Stockton and John Fisher took the boys in hand and in- | | posed of boy existence and baseball clubs were formed | RN OF POULETT crack In the door and it troubles me, it do.” “It must be a delusion, mother,” sald Lord Hinton. “No one would come and glower at a dying woman through a crack in a door.” “It's true, seen that ey when I let on t8 be asleep. Lord Hinton went out to ask the land- lady said the dying woman. “T've e too often, I have; times " she sald, after some hesttation, true. Emma Johnston comes down from Ros ank, Waterloo, to find out how ccon ma is going to die, and she has peeped through the door. What a picture! Emma Johnston was the lady who, six weeks after the first Lady Poulett died, became the second Countess. She died without {ssue in 1876. In 1579 Poulett married Rosa dé Melville, daughter of Alfred Hugh de Melville, and her son was recognized by Poulett as his heir. -t Viscount Hinton, the claimant to the earldom, has something of & reputation in America, and from all accounts it is nothing to be proud of. Just when he came to this country seems to be a matter of doubt. But while here he played many parts. He is a man who has been by turns a tramp, a circus clown and a mountebank; who has been arrested In Louisville, Ky., for fraud on the Latonia race track and driven from Chicago- by the bare recognition of his fact. Later, after he got out of this country, he served six months in a military prison for desertion from his regiment in Indla after having swindled Calcutta mer- chants; he was locked up in Port Said for attempting the life of a croupier in a gambling house. He then escaped to Eng- land and was soon sent to prison for nine months for defrauding jewelers, gun- smiths and others; and has for years the streets. corner of which was situated on Veteran Geary Structed them In the mysteries of the game during the lunch hour and after the close of school at 4 o'clock in the af- ternoon. This club played a memorable game with the Live Oak of Oakland on April 20, 1866, The Live Oak club was com- who are to-day prominent in the political, business and professional worlds. The pitcher of the Live Oaks was Charles Garter, ex-United States At- | torney for the Northern District of Cali- fornia; ex-Congressman John R. Glas- | cock was catcher; D. N. Arnott, ex-Supe- rior Judge of Alpine County, was second | M.F.COSGRIFF, | this city; Second Hon. WM Jor LYDSTON POULETT, DECLARED TO BE THE TRUE VISCOUNT HINTON,.BY THE LATE EARL . played a hand organ upon the streets for pennies. ‘And now this man will in all probabllity succeed to one of the proudest names in the realm and estates derived from Her- cules, Lord of Turnour, in Picardy, who under Henry I founded the house of Pou- lett in England. — ee———— A Literary Find. A correspondent of Literature has found a poem by Willlam Cullen Bryant which does not appear in any collection of the poet’'s works. The poem appeared origin- ally in the Literary Souvenir, an English annual for 1831. It is one that seems at least worthy of preservation: I Oh, no, it never crossed my heart, To think of thee with love, For we are severed far apart As earth and arch above; And though in many a midnight dream Thou promptedst fancy’s brightest theme, I never thought that thou couldst be More than that midnight dream to my 1L A_something bright and beautiful Which I must teach me to forget, Ere I can turn to meet the dull Realities that linger yet. A something girt with summer flowera And laughing eyes and sunny hours; While I—too weil I know—will be Not even a midnight dream to thee! RO £ O X O LOLOXOKOAOHOKOXOAROKOKDUOKOHENCOROH O ¥ O X OHOKOAROKOXOROKORDX O %K ASEBRLL 1N CRLIFORBIR. .. baseman; D. T. Fowler, right fielder, be- came professor of agriculture in the Uni. versity of ( fornia; First Baseman Walker Is a hardware merchant of Oak- land; Eldridge Durbrow, the first base- man of the City College club, is now an officer of the Anglo-Californian Bank in Baseman Charles G, Yale, now an employe In the United States Branch Mint, is an acknowledged authority on mines and mining. The third baseman was Parker Crittenden; Pltcher Dutton is the president of the Fireman's Fund Association; Fred But- ler, the catcher, is a well known artist; Tony Farrish, the short stop, {s A. L. Farish, office 'deputy for the United Btates Marshal, and Center-fielder Levis- ton and Right-flelder Dodge are well- known attorneys. The score stood 48 runs for the Live Oaks and 46 for the City College. In the succeeding match Dr. Keeney played right field for the City College Club and the club resigned at the end of the eighth inning, the score standing % runs for the Live Oaks and only 3% for the College boys. But it wasn’t altogether the fauit of Dr. Keeney. The boys who graduated from the City College organized the Cosmopolitan Club, of which ex-State Senator Charles de Long was pitcher, Lawyer Leviston left flelder, Lawyer Land first baseman, Charles Le Breton second baseman, Tony Farrish third baseman, Lawyer G. Levis- ton center fielder, A. Rising right flelder, David Allison left flelder, and G. Newhall shortstop. Dave Allison, now a prominent commission merchant, was known as the ‘‘one-handed batter.” He never took hold of the bat with both hands, and for that reason stipulation was made before the beginning of every game whereby Allison was allowed to swipe the ball with the bat held only in his good right hand. In the sixties the Eagles and Pacifics were the champlon clubs and contained such crack players as Pitcher Kerrigan, Catcher Calvert, Right Fielder Dunn and Left Fielder Gunn for the Eagles and Customs Broker Bellingall and Martin F. Cosgriff in the Pacifics, Cosgriff playing under. the name of Russell for sabbata- rian reasons. The other celebrated clubs of those years were the Active, the Mis- slon, the Independent, the Atlantic, the Irvington, the Excelsior, the Athletic, the Nlantic, the Lone Star, the Vigilant, the Broderick, the Brannan and the Golden City. —_——————— The Great Barrier reef along the coast of Australia is about 1500 miles long, the work of coral Insects. Sometimes it rises almost perpendicularly from a depth of 1200 fathoma