The evening world. Newspaper, May 24, 1922, Page 24

ea 24’ “What Do You How Youngsters To-day Play In “‘Championship’’ Matches In the game of “fat” as played to-day the players place their marbles or “stakes” in a 12-inch ring. Then they stand 2! feet away and shoot for it. The player near- est has first shot and tries to hit a marble in the “fat” (ring). If he hits a’marble he keeps it and qualifies as a “poisoner,” with the privilege of now shooting at his opponent’s shooter instead of the marbles in the ring. If he hits it, his opponent is “killed” and he picks up all the marbles temaining in the “fat.” How did you play when you were a boy? By Isaac Copyright, OW along about May 23, 1923, which is but twelve months N henoe, you may see in this— and every other—newspaper ‘nm item something like this: ATLANTA, May 28.— Jack Connolly, tow-headed champion % ° of the Quincy (IU) Pures Club, shooting grimly in the finals of the National Mardles Cup Tour- nament at the Druid Hills Oown- try Club, became the national champion here to-day when he defeated “Fats” Shivell of the Battle Creek Reals Association with a sensational seventeen-foot shot from knuckles down. It was @ startling delivery of poison and it came as a fitting climaz for the week of qualifying and semi- fmals play of fat in which the Rnalists had eliminated 462 crack marble players from as many cities throughout the country. Perhaps you've seen it coming. ited to the eminence of a ‘ p Indeed, it's been done—almost. Only an annual guide book issued by Spalding or Reach, publishing the rules and showing the standing of players with their pictures is needed. That and a rules committee, It’s already—it always was—a na- tional sport, and this year it's rival- Ung baseball in command of the public interest. New names have found their way into the sporting columns and often to the front page. Buster Rech is just now a per- sonage with Jack Dempsey. Michael ‘Triano has been awarded more news- Paper space lately than Bill Tilden. “Red” Stoddard has been eclipsing with printer's ink Jim Barnes, and when Frank McQuade jr. of Balti more last Saturday at Philadelphia licked ‘Red,’ Nicky Markoff of New York and Margerie Ruth of Newark the event shared public interest with the return of Babe Ruth. And, further, it may be helped along its path to major sportdom by the fact—witness Margerie's competi- With His Michael Triano, Washington Champion, Shoots Thumbnail From a Free “H’istings” Shuman. (New York Evening World) by Preas Publishing Oo. tion—that it's the only national sport in which girls may compete on equal terms of skill with the boys. There's no foretelling the possibilt- ties of the contest the Rotary Club of Jersey City, with the encouragement of Park Commissioner A. Harry Moore, staged o Pershing Field, April 17, when fifteen champions of the playgrounds lined up with their im- mies for their shots at the fat and the marble shooting championship of the town—no, the world. Buster Rech, fourteen, of No. 58 Broadway, Jersey City, emerged with the title after a fifteen-foot shot from h'istings, Immediately Buster's title was questioned. Michael Triano of Wash- ington, champion of Cook School, his friends, the Rotary Club of the Capi- tal, and perhaps the Commissioners of the District, we don't remember, wrote to Buster asking how he got that way—champidn of the world! Buster turned the letter over, as a champion should, to his manager, Commissioner Moore. “Come over, if you think your man is good,” wired back Commissioner Moore, and the J. C. Rotarians. “We'll prove our man {is champion."’ Michael came over, a nice lad and a fair fat player. Ordinarily Michael might be said to be a good fat player, but he wasn't in Buster's class, not that day. Buster, shooting again from h'istings, poisoned him in two successive games. Buster's and Jersey City’s claim to the marble shooting championship of the world had been upheld, but mean- while news of the activities there had been noised abroad. New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and dozens of cities in between, where pride of the town is strong and the game of fat or ring not unknown, fledgling champions began to spread their wings. They burst into notice with a great flutter into City Hall Park Friday, when The World staged the tourna- ment in which Nicky came off victor. It was a great afternoon. Mayor Hylan shot the first marble. The movie cameramen were there, and a great crowd. The first day at the Polo Grounds was no more impres- sive or exciting. Then the next day at Philadel- phia—Nioky, champion of New York; “Red,"" champion of Philadelphia; Margerie, girl champion of Newark; Frank, champion of Baltimore, and a host of champions from lesser places. Buster had been invited; nay, ohal- lenged, and in the challenge there ‘was an aspersion that he was a self- anointed champion, that he'd never licked any one of any consequence and that even the persons he had Ex ae, Championship “Ring” at Philadeiphia Tourney leked had come from inconsequen- tial, one thing and another consid- ered, towns, and concluded with the ultimatum, bluntly delivered, that if Buster wanted to fight for his title he'd better fight right now and come to Philadelphia. But Buster's backers said no, they. . Weren't going to drag their champion all over just as if he were some ordl- nary marble shooter anxious for any, kind of @ battle. It didn’t make any difference, they said, where he camo from. Didn't Jack Dempsey come from Manassa, wherever that is or was? And wasn't Buster filed with the A. A. U. before these here peo- ple thought of a tournament? You bet he was, as Champion Marble With “Buster” Rech, A, World’s Champion, Shoots Knuckle “Off the Knee” From “H’istings” Shooter of the World, too, and it anybody wanted to meet him, why, just let ‘em come over to Jersey City. So {t looks as if the country 1s go- ing to have this spring another game of fat for the disputed championship of the world. Of course, with the ad- A. U. THE EVENING WORLD, WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 1922, Margerie Ruth, Girl “Star” of Newark, Knuckles Down Wil Pi Nicky Markoff, New York Champion, Always “Knuckles” His‘ “Shooter” “A Contrast of the ‘Two Shooting Styles Here Shown iam “Red” Stoddard, Champion of iladelphia, Shoots From “H’istings,” . Using His Wrist as a Steadying Brace herents of Buster sticking up for the dignity due a champion and @ cham~- Pion registered with the Amateur Athletic Union at that, it'll have to be in Jersey City, for which marbles have won more fame than its base- ball team in the International League. Frank McQuade jr., of course, hav~ ing won the inter-city tournament Saturday, will be Buster's opponent; and Buster, it might be predicted right here, may have a hard time of ‘t. You know, Frank McQuade won his championship shooting from knuckles down, which, {f you don't remember, means that the back of his hand was on the ground, knuckles firmly down, which, you'll remember now, is not the easiest way in the world to shoot, Nicky Markoff, who won his local championship against the field here, shooting from h'istings, learned that to his sorrow Saturday. In fact, Nicky was low man, which in fat, unlike golf, means just that. Nicky was roundly trounced. Even Margerie licked him. And—it depends of course on the rules made for this game—Buster may have a hard time of it, Buster also shoots from h'istings. In fact, he never shoots any other way. That is, Buster shoots from his knee instead of the ground. Some players shoot h'ist- ings from the back of their off-hand, making a sort of bridge of it, like a pool player. “H’istings is the only way I shoot,”* said the world's champion marble shooter, Sled with the A. A. U., in an exclusive interview on his tech- nique with this writer. “I shoot off my knee whether I'm kneeling down or standing up. It’s no g00d shooting from the ground. You might hit a pebble. H'istings is bet- ter. You get more power in your shot. You're up off the ground and your marble carries further, Also you can alm better So, if predictions are permitted, it don't, {t might bring about a schism in the ranks of the marble players, or, if not a schism, a division such as there is in prize fighting with its heavy and welterweights, lightweights, bantamweights, paperweights and so forth, There might be a knuckles down championship and a h'istings champlonship. It'll depend on the rules. In the old days of last year, before fat was raised to the dizzy height of @ possible major sport, the player who shouted ‘“‘Innies!"’ or something like that, had the cholce of shooting whichever way that pleased his fancy or his unalterable conviction of how the shot should be made. Often the player who could talk fastest would have a great advantage. He could bar a play by shouting something that sounded like “venchuns."” The Rules Committee'll have to do something about this. It's important. The spirit of the game is affected. But {t seems that Frank and Bus- ter play fat or ring the same way. They place thelr marbles, stakes— they can be one or more each—in the 12-inch ring. They stand 25 feet away and shoot for it. The player nearest has first shot and tries to hit a marble in the fat. Success is re- warded with the marble he strikes and his qualification as “polsoner,"" which means that now he may shoot at his opponent's shooter instead of the marbles in the ring. If he hits him, his opponent is ‘‘killed”’ and he picks up all the marbles remaining in the fat. Shouxl one of them, however, stay in the 12-inch circle which is the fat he's gone “‘ringies" and is required to bring a new shooter into play, los- ing his original shooter temporarily, or, if the fortunes of the game are such, permanently, to the “poisoner.’ ‘This is the game the champions will engage in. It, since it permits any number to play in a given and rea- sonable area, is what may become the next major sport. Fat, indeed, 1s the only game the world’s champion marble shooter, filed with the A. A. U., plays. And, since he has only one style of shoot- ing, it may in some quarters cause looks as if Buster, or his backers, at him to be considered an unusual least, are going to insist on rules per- champion. mitting shots from h’'istings. If theg But, tf that is ao, it ls mot the only Know About Marbles? ° nf PRIN A 8 er Frank McQuade, Baltimore Boy, Who Won Inter City Match at Philadelphia, Is the Champion “Knuckles Down” Shooter. A Test of the Two Methods May Come If He Plays Off For the Disputed Title With “Buster” Rech, the “ tings” Champion. reason why he may be se considered. He may be considered an even more unusual champion in that—now this has never before been published. We got it straight from the champ him- self in our exclusive interview, im which we asked. him, as we usually ask champions, millionaires, stars of the stage, screen and opera, authors, playwrights and critics—how he hap- pened to do it. “I read in the paper one day,” dis- closed the world's champion marble shooter, filed with the A. A. U., ‘‘that there was going to be a marble shoot- ing contest in the playgrounds, I didn't have anything to do, so I went and bought an ‘immy' we “What?” asked the astounded in- terviewer of the marble shooting champion of the world. ‘Didn't you own @ marble?" The marble shooting champion of the world shook his head as if it were the most natural thing in the world for a marble shooting champion not to own a marble. Imagine Babe Ruth not owning a baseball bat, or Jack Dempsey a set of boxing gloves, or Bill, Tilden a tennis racket! “No,” said “Buster,” “I went and bought an ‘immy’.’* “What's an ‘immy'?” asked the interviewer, to whom the word was reminiscent. “Oh, an ‘immy’ is an imitation ‘pure answeder ‘Buster, cost aspenny; ‘pures’ cost The interviewer felt more certain ground now. ‘Pures’ are aggies, aren't they?, he asked, “Buster” looked uncertain, “I don't know", he said. ‘I never saw one."* It was staggering. The marble shooting champion of the world had never seen an ‘aggie’, much leew owned one, The revelation was pro- ductive of even greater surprises, “Buster” Rech, the marble shooting champion of the world, has not only never seen an “aggle,” but has never heard of or ‘‘moonies.” He has never carried marbles in a sack, not even a tobacco sack. He has never traded marbles. He has never owned enough to put in a cigar box, He was the strangest marble shoot- ing champion we had ever hoped to meet, But we cheered up. He knew Jassie” was. “Surely,” he said: call ‘immies’ that.’ This is the world's champion mar- ble shooter, filed with the A. A. U.! But he certainly can shoot, and in the major sport to-be, maybe, that’s what's going to count. “Some fellows