which, in 1913, six universities took part,
the great rowing event of the year is the race between Harvard
and Yale. That contest is the duphcate of England's Oxford
and Cambridge race, and, fittingly enough, it is rowed on the
Thames near New London. The fixture dates from 1852,
when Harvard won over the two-mile course on Lake Winni-
piseogee, and up to 1913 each university had placed
twenty-three victories to its credit. Some excellent times
have been made, but the 18 minutes 47 seconds of Cambridge
has never been approached. Nor does the race excite that
rivalry among the juvenile population which is so notable
a feature of the English contest ; it is more purely a university
affair, serious enough for the combatants, but for the specta-
tors a delightful river picnic. At various times university
crews have entered at Henley, and in 1906, it will be remem-
bered. Harvard unsuccessfully challenged Cambridge on the
Putney course ; and if these invasions have not always resul-
ted in victory they have been the means of quickening
i6— (2393A)
242 America of the Americans
enthusiasm for rowing at most of the colleges. America,
indeed, now has its own Henley on the Schuylkill River ;
while regattas are beyond count.
If cricket is a thought " too slow " for the American tem-
perament, it might be imagined that golf, which has been
called " the old man's game," would hardly
Golf. commend itself to so restless a people. Quite
the contrary, however. Although the " royal
and ancient " pastime was practically unknown so recently
as at the opening of the final decade of the last century, it has
since " caught on " to a truly surprising extent. It has
already been quoted that the business man declines to waste
time in the barber's shop because he is in a hurry to get to the
links, and although it has been seen that he is still prodigal
of his minutes in the barber's shop, there is no questioning the
zest with which he pursues the new recreation. The golf
joke is now as firmly estabhshed in the comic papers as the
Kentucky colonel, while advertisers of the most expensive
motor-cars in their gorgeous pictures of those vehicles, usually
introduce a bag of clubs in the hands of one of the occupants.
But, as hinted above, it is not merely the " idle rich " who have
fallen victims to the game ; the business man and the upper-
middle classes have welcomed it as an inducement to outdoor
exercise. So widespread, indeed, is the devotion to the game
that, in addition to an amateur championship for women,
there are Federal open and amateur championships, while the
State and sectional championships make a formidable list.
There are also numerous team matches with valuable trophies,
and all the leading universities participate in the Inter-
collegiate contest. As money is a secondary consideration
with the American when his interest is aroused, it follows that
countless hnks of first-rate quality have been laid out in the
best style by the most skilful professionals from Great Britain,
that the leading Scottish and English professionals have been
imported as instructors and green-keepers, and that the club
houses are the most sumptuous in the world. Nor should it
Play-time 243
be overlooked that American ingenuity is responsible for that
rubber-cored golf ball which is now so universally used, and
has had so notable an influence on the game. In less than a
quarter of a century American golfers have become serious
rivals to the finest British players, and already one has
captured the British amateur championship.
Another old-world game in which Americans have dis-
tinguished themselves is polo. Of course, it is not a game
for the masses, but that very fact has wholly
Polo. preserved it from the taint of professionalism,
and has proved to the world that the often-
derided wealthy American can put up as vigorous a fight in
hard riding and hitting, and is as clean a sportsman as can
be found in any country. It was a millionaire, Harry Payne
Whitney, who was the captain and financier of the famous
" Big Four," a combination which captured the cup in
1909, and successfully defended it until 1914. The last
international match provided an excellent illustration of the
interest taken in the game in the United States. The Meadow-
brook ground, finely situated on Long Island about a dozen
miles from New York, with its standing-room at 50 cts. (2s.)
each person, and reserved boxes on the grand stand at $250
(£50) each, was taxed to its utmost capacity by a crowd of
about 50,000, representing a "gate" of some $200,000
(£40,000). It is a recent and pleasant memory how Mr. Payne
volunteered, in the spirit of the true sportsman, to postpone
the match owing to an injury to a member of the Enghsh team,
but it may not be so well known that during each of the games
the vast crowd, though naturally anxious for the victory of the
American four, was unstinted in its applause of the English
players. The New York press, too, was unanimous in its
praise of the form displayed by the English victors. On all
occasions, indeed, American polo players have ever shown
themselves the finest of sportsmen in defeat as well as in
victory.
As Long Island is most intimately associated with the
244 America of the Americans
big events of American polo, it is appropriate that the beau-
tiful reaches of Long Island Sound should be the chief arena
of the country's other expensive recreation
ra^^n^" ^^ yachting. Thanks to the well-advertised
ventures of successive Shamrocks, American
superiority in yacht-racing is familiar enough, yet few who
have not consulted the table of the contests for the America's
Cup have any idea how pronounced that superiority is. It
was as far back as 1851 that the America captured the trophy
given by the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, and from that
date till now the Cup has remained in the possession of the
New York Yacht Club despite countless efforts to fetch it
back to England. Such a fact is an eloquent tribute to the
skill in construction and sailing which have marked the history
of American yacht-racing. Naturally American ideas have
consequently had a marked influence on yacht-building all
over the world. But the yachtsmen of the New World are
not entirely absorbed in the problem of retaining the America's
Cup ; for although the motor-boat is now largely in evidence
in American shore waters, there does not appear to be any
diminution of interest in saihng. In the early days of summer
Long Island Sound is covered with white wings, and as the
season advances the boats of the New York Club start off on
that cruise round the Cape of Marblehead which gives so much
pleasure to the resorts along the Eastern coast. At numerous
other points on the long American seaboard, too, there are
races and regattas beyond enumeration, most of the competing
vessels being remarkable for those picturesque qualities for
which American yachts are distinguished.
Turning to games of a more popular nature, it is significant
of American willingness to adopt any recreation (no matter
what its nationality) which appeals to their
Lawn- temperament that within a year of its
l6nnis.
invention by Major Wingfield lawn-tennis was
being played near Boston. And to-day there is hardly another
game which is so popular among actual participants, as
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Play-time 245
contrasted with spectators who wish to be entertained, all
over the Union. It will not be forgotten that the " American
service " betrays the land of its origin, or that the famous
Davis Cup was given by the American whose name it bears.
If the United States has only held that Cup on three occasions
as compared with the nine on which it has been captured by
British and Australian teams, and if America has not yet
produced players of the rank of the Renshaws or Dohertys,
it must be remembered that the brothers Sears did invaluable
service in making the game known to their countrymen, and
were fine exponents of volleying. Apart from the countless
thousands who, virginibus puerisque, find in lawn-tennis so
excellent an opportunity for summer courtship, the national
and State and local championships and the intercollegiate
contests are a valuable factor in physical culture and innocent
pleasure.
But the most popular summer game of America is baseball.
It can count its votaries by the hundred thousands in all
parts of the Union. To excel as a pitcher or
Baseball. catcher is the ambition of every lad ; to watch
famous exponents in league matches is the
darling occupation of the same lad in middle age or senile
years. The leading players are national heroes, commanding
more reverence than ex-Presidents or milHonaires. When
they have finally " struck out," and left the " diamond "
for good, they become " stars " of vaudeville or the comic
opera. And the money expended on " ball " every season
would represent a total not unworthy of the land of huge
records.
Baseball has, for one thing, the prime quality of appeahng
to the patriotic instinct. Those critics who affirm that it is
nothing more than a glorified version of the English pastime
of rounders are derided for their ignorance ; they are firmly
reminded of the existence of one Abner Doubleday, who
" invented " the game at Cooperstown in 1839. The dispute
will never be settled, even though there is such a strong family
246 America of the Americans
likeness between the two games as makes it unthinkable that
baseball is not a plagiarism from rounders. But whatever
the origin, it would be folly to deny that the game as played
in America is as characteristic of the country as clam-chowder.
Why, its vocabulary alone would stamp its trans-Atlantic
character. Even the Century Dictionary, which ought to be
an unfailing resource on Americanisms, fails
^Ta^sS °^ ^° enlighten us as to the meaning of " bunt,"
or " fly," or " slide," or " sacrifice-hit," or
" two-baggers," and the hke. Apart, too, from the weird
lingo of the game, with its " fans " and " bleachers " and
" short-end men," its demands upon the newspaper reporters
have resulted in a style of writing which is more native than
any other product of the United States. As an example of
how language has been taxed to describe the game, the
following account from the Quincy Herald of a match between
the nines of Quincy and Omaha is a classic : " The glass-
armed toy soldiers of this town were fed to the pigs yesterday
by the cadaverous Indian grave-robbers from Omaha. The
flabby, one-lunged Rubens who represent the Gem City in
the reckless rush for the baseball pennant had their shins
toasted by the basilisk-eyed cattle-drivers from the West.
They stood around with gaping eyeballs, like a hen on a hot
nail, and suffered the grizzly yawps of Omaha to run the bases
till their necks were long with thirst. Hickey had more errors
than Coin's Financial School, and led the rheumatic procession
to the morgue. The Quincys were full of straw and scrap-iron.
They couldn't hit a brick-wagon with a pick-axe, and ran
bases like pall-bearers at a funeral. If three-base hits were
growing on the back of every man's neck they couldn't reach
'em with a feather-duster. It looked as if the Amalgamated
Union of South American Hoodoos were in session for work
in the thirty-third degree. The geezers stood about and
whistled for help, and were so weak they couldn't lift a glass
of beer if it had been all foam. Everything was yellow, rocky
and whangblasted, like a stigtossel full of doggie-gammon.
Play-time 247
The game was whiskered and frostbitten. The Omahogs
were bad enough, but the Quincy Brown Sox had their fins
sewed up until they couldn't hold a crazy quilt unless it was
tied around their necks."
In more sedate literature baseball is always cropping up.
No publishing season goes by without the announcement of
books for the young bearing such titles as " The Baseball
Boys of " or " The Third Strike." And the poets who
have turned verses on the game are legion. No anthology of
American verse, for example, would be deemed complete
which omitted " Casey at the Bat " or " The Darktown Nine."
And the newspaper space devoted to the game is beyond
estimation. The cleverest cartoonists and the " snappiest "
writers are always reserved for the big matches, while the
" cub reporter " who is anxious to " make good " hails a
baseball assignment as the opportunity of a lifetime.
There is a quahty in the game which accounts for its
phenomenal popularity. In the main the American Hkes
excitement in his relaxation. He has a
^s^ Po^puTar^" preference for what has been happily called
" vicarious " athleticism. The game is
speedy, for the average time of a league contest is about two
hours ; and it is full of thrills from the first pitch to the last
base. There is also " money in it." That is, for the players
and the club owners. The championship games of 1913
netted gate-receipts to the value of $325,980, one game alone
bringing in the useful sum of $75,676 (£15,128). Each
member of the winning team received $3,243 (nearly £650)
as his share for the five championship matches alone. Such
is the universal popularity of the game, too, that it is not
uncommon for the President to toss the first ball at the opening
match of the season. The ball-grounds are naturally among
the finest sport arenas of the world, the noble concrete Stadium
of Harvard not excelling many of the great city grounds.
CHAPTER XIV
DAYS AND SEASONS
Nearly five years ago Life published a suggestive cartoon
with the title of " A Few More Apphcants for Legal HoHdays."
On the left of the picture there was a kind of box-office
over which was inscribed the admonition, " State Your Claims
as Briefly as Possible," and a peep through the window dis-
closed a venerable clerk busily engaged in recording the
applications of a long train of candidates. First in the
procession stood Benjamin Franklin, followed by Lief Erick-
son, Horace Greeley, Sir Walter Raleigh, Artemus Ward, and
a great host of other famous Americans who are not yet
honoured in the national holiday calendar. The artist,
indeed, suggested that the line of applicants was interminable,
for in the top corner of his picture a protruding foot indicated
that in addition to the sixty who had formed up in the march
on the box-office there were countless more to follow.
That cartoon was at once a satire and a prophecy. Taking
all the States together, there are already more than forty
legal holidays in the Union, apart from those
A Prodigious additional off days which are included on the
Holiday List. . ,. "^ , , . ,
vacation list every fourth year. As many of
the heroes in the Life cartoon are destined to have their
" day " before the country is many years older, it would
seem that a hundred legal holidays annually are not beyond
possibility. Indeed, Americans are so prone to hero-worship
that the day may come when the calendar is full to overflowing.
They will not all be national hohdays, for American patriotism
is inclined to be local ; but when every State celebrates its
famous sons it should be possible for the indolent, by the
simple process of traveUing from State to State, to spend the
entire year in an orgy of commemoration.
248
Days and Seasons 249
Yet, notwithstanding the already formidable list of off-
days, America has no national hoHday. In other words,
Congress has no power to prescribe when the
^Holtday^^ lieges shall take their ease. All decisions
on such matters come within the category
of State rights, a distinction between the central and sub-
ordinate governments which accounts for the lack of uni-
formity in holiday arrangements. This explains the prodi-
gious list of legal hohdays, for many of them are restricted to
a hmited number of States. For example, two of the States
still refrain from a formal celebration of New Year's Day ;
the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans is restricted to
Louisiana ; only eight States honour Lee's birthday ; Georgia
Day is confined to the State of that name ; Lincoln's birthday
is a legal holiday in less than half the States ; Patriots' Day
is a Maine and Massachusetts festival ; and numerous other
examples of purely local celebrations could be cited. This
locahsation of legal holidays interferes to some extent with
interstate commerce, but not so seriously as it would in a
smaller country.
That Maine and Massachusetts still hold aloof from the
New Year orgies by which that day is celebrated in most of
the other States is probably due to the per-
H^rh^T"^ sistence of the Puritan tradition. In New
Day. York it is the most riotous restaurant festival
of the whole year. At the " swell " resorts
of the Lobster Palace region the tables are booked months
ahead, and dining and wining are protracted to unconscionable
hours. Wherever, in other cities, the Scottish element is
predominant the revelry partakes of the wild scenes associated
with the Glasgow Tron, though most Americans have sufficient
paganism in their nature not to require such an example.
Not even the Puritan States boycott Christmas Day, which
is now a legal holiday all over the Union. This universal
celebration has developed within the memory of Americans
still hving, for a New England native can remember when the
250 America of the Americans
great Christian festival passed without notice, when no holiday
was proclaimed or presents exchanged. To-day, however,
the approach of Christmas is heralded by prodigious displays
of presents in all the stores, by an unlimited supply of ever-
green wreaths and fancy decorations, and by as copious a
supply of appropriate periodical hterature as will be found in
any country. With one exception, it is the greatest home
reunion festival, and even the boarding-houses indulge for
once in a reckless menu. This growth in the celebration of
Christmas has had a potent effect upon the book trade of the
Union, for every publisher makes a specialty of the " holiday
books " which at that season are in great demand as presents.
A shrewd American beheves that the observance of Christmas
among his countrymen has been fostered by its appeal to the
aesthetic rather than to the religious sense of the people.
If New England has stubbornly refused to follow the
example of the rest of the Union in the matter of New Year's
Day, the other States have not retaliated by
'^^^"oay"'''"^ boycotting the pecuHarly New England
festival of Thanksgiving Day. The origin of
that celebration is somewhat complicated, owing to the
overlapping of Pilgrim and Puritan history. According to
the Puritan theory, the festival dates back to those early days
when a dearth of provisions in the Bay colony prompted the
authorities to proclaim a solemn fast, which, however, owing
to the sudden arrival of a well-laden ship, was turned to a
thanksgiving at the last moment. On the other hand, the
Pilgrim theory reminds us that the Plymouth settlers held a
thanksgiving during the first year of their settlement, urged
thereto by the abundance of their harvest and the plentifulness
of " wild turkeys." On the whole, and especially as the
Pilgrims held their thanksgiving in November, the now
national festival of America may be most safely attributed to
the grateful celebration of 1621. But it was many years
ere the celebration was observed in all the States, only twenty-
five participating in the commemoration of 1858. Since
Days and Seasons 251
Lincoln, however, proclaimed the day as a legal holiday in
1864, it has become customary for every President to follow
his example, which, in turn, is imitated by all the State
governors. Consequently Thanksgiving Day is now univer-
sally observed, usually on the last Thursday in November,
and although the religious nature of its origin is still preserved
by the church services which are held in New England, the
festival has become the chief family reunion holiday for the
whole country. Present-giving is not a pronounced feature
of the occasion ; on the other hand. Thanksgiving dinner
should see the family circle unbroken around a table of which
the inevitable centrepiece is a turkey and cranberry sauce.
The illustrated periodicals are wont to whet the modern
American's appetite and sense of security by presenting him
with dramatic pictures of colonial Thanksgiving repasts, in
which the most prominent incidents are the paucity of the
meal and the imminence of an attack of wild Indians. In
view of the contemporary prosperity of the country. Thanks-
giving Day is perhaps the most reasonable of all American
celebrations.
But such a statement must not be interpreted as a reflection
on the rationality of the " Glorious Fourth." Not many
nations can point to a definite date as their
'^^Foufth '^'°"' birthday, and if the Declaration of Independ-
ence was actually adopted on the 2nd of
July and not finally voted until the 9th of that month, while
the actual signing was protracted over a long period, inasmuch
as the document was pubhshed to the outer world on the 4th
of July, there is ample justification for that day being selected
as the anniversary of the severance of the thirteen colonies
from the mother-land. It might be thought that such a
celebration w^ould come within the scope of Federal legislation,
yet Congress has not even yet made it the occasion of a law.
No legislation is needed, however, to impel the American
to celebrate the Fourth of July. Until quite recently, indeed,
his celebration has erred on the side of fatal excess. So fatal.
252 America of the Americans
as a matter of fact, that it is probably correct to affirm that
the United States has lost more lives in celebrating than in
achieving independence. The excuse for New York's first
riotous commemoration is that it took place at a time of war ;
hence the bonfires, the torchlight processions, and the melting
down of George Ill's statue into bullets, were excusable.
But it would be difficult to extenuate the rowdyism, the
vulgarity, and the reckless disregard of property and hfe
which have come to be associated with the " Glorious Fourth,"
To forget an Independence Day celebration is impossible.
It resounds in the memory with an intolerable din. No
recollection of a battlefield is comparable with
i^H^ ^? °^ ^^^ unending racket. Every implement of
Day. fiendish noise ever conceived by the diabolical
ingenuity of man was pressed into the service
of deafening patriotism — the most raucous horns and trum-
pets, the most resonant drums, the most ear-piercing rattles,
the most explosive revolvers, the most stunning cannon-
crackers. Nor were twenty-four hours deemed sufficient for
the exercise of those instruments of torture. The pande-
monium always began " the night before," which, to peaceful
Americans, became as great a horror as the Fourth itself.
No district of a city was inmiune from the uproar. The
quiet by-streets as well as the chief highways of traffic, retired
avenues as well as the public squares, were alike invaded by
the obstreperous patriots. Nor was a thought ever given
to the claims of the tired or the sick in home or hospital ;
sleep was impossible for the weary and quietude denied the
dying. From " the night before " and on all through the
Fourth and over into the early hours of the following day that
distracting hullabaloo never ceased.
That disgraceful Hcence was an extreme appHcation of the
doctrine of democracy. As a candid pohce commissioner
once expressed it, " That by midnight on any 3rd of July half
a million persons are in bed in Boston and a hundred thousand
out of doors ; that although the half million include all the
Days and Seasons 253
babies, all the sick, all the aged, all the infirm and most of the
orderly men and women for whose protection laws are made,
and the hundred thousand are robust pleasure-seekers, yet
it is a popular delusion that the hundred thousand are ' the
people,' and that enjoyment to excess by this minority,
unlawful excess often, is of greater moment than the rights
of the majority which the laws guarantee."
And then there was the harvest. Not merely in devastating
fires, which in one year destroyed property to the value of
$535,435, but in the physical ruin of thousands
th^^ F^^th ^^^ ^^^ deaths of hundreds. The newspapers
of the 5th of July were besprinkled with such