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© North Shure Biveze * 
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Published every Friday Afternoon. 
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VOLUME 7. June 4, 1909 NuMBER 23 
June 5—33. 
SUN FULL TIDE 
Rises Sets | a. mM. P. M. 
5 Sa 48 717) —— 12 05 
6Su. 48 7,18 | 12 20 12 51 
7M. 47 718 bal Oe 1 40 
Tu: 47 719 40 157 2 31 
9 W. 47 7 49 2 50 Spe 
10 Th. 47 7 20 3 47 4 22 
11 Fr: 47 3 4 46 pee 
BASEBALL--A PHILANTHROPY. 
The suit of Mr. Ezra Geddings, pro- 
fessional baseball player, to recover 
damages from a Cincinnati citizen for 
** cussing him out’’ from the bleachers 
suggests comment on the “rooting’’ 
element of modern baseball. 
While the American public is parti- 
cularly scrupulous about seeing fair play, 
it has Jong tolerated, if not approved, a 
kind of criticism from grandstand and 
bleacher which long ago passed the 
bounds of decent praise or blame and, 
has become more and 
Ten years 
of late years, 
more abusive and personal. 
ago, many along, dull game was made 
bearable by such laughing explosions as 
‘“Oh, you butter-fingers,’’ ‘* Glass- 
eye!’’ “‘Don’t be ’fraid—step right up 
and smack it-—the pitcher can’t hurt yeh 
—he’s gota wooden arm.’’ And with 
them were witty stories told aloud so all 
around could hear and enjoy; and cut- 
ting retort in exchange for some delin- 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE. 
quent’s “‘back-sass,’’ that set half the - 
grandstand tittering. . 
But today such genuine fun is seen- 
only in the rural towns, and, rather than © 
a genuine fan, the shrewd county chair-— 
man is the chief story-teller. “‘In 
town,’’ a game is scarcely started before 
the air is torn with rapid-fire barkings 
such as “‘ Get the hook,’’ ‘“He’s so 
dead he stinks—drag him off,’’ “‘Shoo 
him away—he’s got a brain-storm —nut- 
college for him,’’ ‘‘ He’s blind in both 
eyes. Why, he couldn’t see a balloon if 
it dropped on him,’’ ‘‘ Aw say there— 
he’s a shrimp, a quitter—why don’t you 
count him out?’’ 
Such bully-ragging is not confined to 
one class. School-boy, banker, bellow- 
ing pugilist and a dozen others sit in a 
row, each a heavily charged cannon of 
sizzling comment, ranging up and down 
to find each player’s ~weak spot, and 
rivaling each other in choice of penetrat- 
ing wrath-raisers. 
While thousands of regular attend- 
ents enjoy such rooting, the players who 
flinch at these verbal brick-bats are not 
nearly so numerous as would be expected. 
The majority feel keenly the sting of 
criticism. Most of them bear it in stolid 
silence, but some few are always ready 
to rush to the bleachers with clenched 
fists the moment the game is over, and 
demand a settlement then and there. 
Just what right a player has for sucha 
challenge, it is somewhat hard to see. No 
one knows better the conditions of the 
professional game than the player. If 
he chooses the diamond as his field of 
action, what right has he to complain if 
its edges are cutting-sharp? 
That much bleacher comment is. un- 
fair and unwarranted is beyond dispute, 
but a generous-minded player will-admit 
that much of it, even the bitterest, can 
be pardoned. Long experience on the 
road has taught him that, wherever -the 
congestion and drive of a great city 
makes men nervous and excitable -there | 
the bleachers are least patient and the 
criticism most abusive and ~ severe. - 
Think of the thousands of business men _ 
who go to the Polo Grounds, New 
York City, on a Saturday’s afternoon to 
rest half-maddened minds _ from life’s — 
.. G. E. WILLMONTON ... 
Attorney and Counsellor-at-Law 
| Willmonton’s Agency: 
SCHOOL AND UNION STS., MANCHESTER 
OLD SOUTH BLDG., BOSTON: » for Rent. ~ 
stern cares and duties. ‘Think of the 
others,—doctors, lawyers, ministers, 
stage men and women, in all sorts and 
conditions of life who find ina lively 
scrap between Cubs and Giants com- 
plete forgetfulness of sorrow, need, per- 
haps misery at home. What wonder if 
the pent-up feelings are allowed to vent , 
themselves on a player who proves him-— 
self stupid? And it should bea consola- 
tion to the player to know that in just 
the proportion thathe is chastised, some- 
one else is spared, in the office, in the 
home. | 4 
A merchant, depressed with debt, 
feels like a new man after “‘cussing out’’ 
the southpaw who seemed to have noth- 
ing in particular but a striking pose. A 
bank clerk, arrested for embezzlement, 
declared in Jefferson Marketpolice court. 
that he had postponed suicide that he 
might see the Yankees beat the Tigers. 
The game was a tie and the tragedy was 
again put off till the morrow. Before 
the morrow came, the police found 
him; yet with a long term at Metamora 
before him, he smilingly said that the 
game was worth while. It is its capac- 
ity to awaken an_ exuberant enthusiasm — 
in the on-looker that makes baseball the 
great American game. 
Considering all, the man indifferent to 
the bleachers is more to be admired than 
the back-talker who wants to scale the 
wire-netting three times in a game. 
When the professional player signs his 
contract, he should count on receiving a 
certain amount of stinging criticism, 
more-or-less ignorant, unfair and unwar- 
ranted. If, under all circumstances, he 
takes it with a smile, he is a philanthrop- 
ist in the highest degree. If he talks- 
back or wants to fight about it, he’s sad- 
ly out of place. 
With our next issue the price of the 
Breeze is raised from three cents a copy 
to five; subscription price from $1.00 a 
year to $2.00. 
old price. All new subscriptions (paid 
in advance) before July 1 will be at 
$1.00. All subscriptions after July 1, 
1909,. will be at $2.00. See atnounce- 
ment on front-page of this issue.  , 
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dating before July 1, 1909, will be at the 
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