HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1955-06-09, Page 9a
E Calvert SPF: TS-- COH JMN
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i1 In a sports magazine, a few weeks
back, there was a story of a typical
American dad, who took his kids to
Florida on a late winter holiday, and
there attempted to teach them the fun-
darnentals of baseball.
Well, this dad, like a good many
other dads, really didn't know too much, technically, about
the niceties of throwing curves, or holding a bat properly.
He was doing the best he could,
One day, a big, good-natured chap who was watching,
excused himself, took the bat, and said: "You hold it this
way, sonny." Before he left he wrote his autograph into the
kids' books: "Stan Musial."
The incident recalled to me what a big league umpire
once said about Musial: "He's a pleasure to umpire behind
at the plate." Once in a great while he thinks the call is
bad. Then he turns his neck and gives the ump a hurt look.
That's his idea of raising a beef. ' He never says a word.
"Even the umpires love him, and 1 couldn't pay him a
higher compliment. Musial is 100 percent, on and off the field."
For good -fellowship, Stan Musial has much in common
with Jack Dempsey. Years ago, this writer was one of a
group travelling with the boxing champion and his manager,
Jack Kearns. There was some argument as to who would
occupy the drawing room Dempsey cheerfully surrendered
this privilege to the sports -writing cavalcade. "I'm lucky,"
he said, "to be in the pul.lman car, and not still riding the
rods."
Musial, so the umpires say, is not :tire t°fnpermental kind.
Nothing upsets the equilibrium of Stan i;T}ie Man. His team
was playing a night game in Ebbets Fife, St. Louis vs.
Brooklyn, and a little German band 1)i:Tivf3' or six pieces was
tootling loud. The band was really .iiot far the music, just
for laughs. In three times at bat, Musia17hacl combed a triple,
a homer and a single. When Stan came up for the fourth
time, the umpire asked him if the music bothered his con-
centration. If it did, the plate umpire had authority to wave
his arms and cause the musicians to cease assaulting the
night air.
"Oh, let the band play. They're having fun They're not
distracting me," Musial told the official, whereupon he rifled
a double off the right field wall for "the cycle" which means
a single, double, triple and homer in four AB's.
Your comments and su9gestions for this column will he welcomed
by Elmer Ferguson, c/a Calvert House, .431 Yonge 5t., Toronto.
Calvert DISTILLERS LIMITED
d.MHERSTBURG, ONTARIO
Punish ent That
:1 y
as Really Brutal
Within living memory flogging
was being inflicted daily on
soldiers and sailors after drum-
head courts martial (during mi-
litary operations) had issued
their dread commands. Senten-
. tea of up to 1,500 lashes could
be imposed on soldiers; while
sailors might be liable to the
punishment known as "flogging
round the Fleet"
For this the sailor delinquent
was put into a launch, stripped
to the waist and tied up with
his arms extended upon a frame
of wood, while the master-at-
arrns stood beside him with a
drawn sword, counting the lash-
es as they were inflicted.
A drummer and a fifer stood
i the bow; and a whole flotilla
of boats then fell into line, tow-
ing the launch containing the
culprit. The fifer struck up the
'Rogue's March," accompanied
by muffled drumming, and this
weird and horrible procession
then approached each ship of
the line manned for all hands
to watch.
Even worse. was the punish-
ment known as "keel -hauling."
"The sailor was ordered to strip
off his clothes except for a strip
of cloth round his loins," writes
Scott Clover in his book "Under
the Lash". "He was suspended
by blocks and pulleys, and these
were fastened to the opposite
extremes of the main yard, and
a weight was hung upon his legs
to sink him to a competent
depth.
"By this apparatus he was
drawn close up to the yard -arm,
and then let fall suddenly into
the sea; where, passing under
the ship's bottom, he was hoist-
ed up on the opposite side Of the
ship. And this, after sufficient
intervals for breathing, was re-
peated two or three times.
"If the unlucky sailor was
drawn too near the ship's bot-
tom, his flesh was torn and
scratched by barnacles. Un-
cleanliness and scandalous action
were among the crimes for
which keel -hauling was the
punishment."
No one ever had more abso-
lute authority than the captain
of a Navy ship in the eighteenth
century, the author points out.
Except perhaps the Duke of
Wellington during the Peninsu-
lar War. Then the amount of
lashes that could be given to a
soldier for loot or plunder was
from twenty-five to twelve hun-
dred strokes. But "everyday af-
fairs" were 700 lashes for the
crime of selling Army goods.
"Wellington was the disciplin-
arian par excellence, but had he
been even a jot less strict and
demanding than he was, it is
very' unlikely that he and the
armies under his command
could have achieved the out-
standing successes they did,"
says Mr. Claver—but about this,
I wonder.
Before a royal commission the
Iron Duke called his soldiers,
"the scura of the earth. I have
no idea of any great effect be-
ing produced on British soldiers
by anything but the fear of im-
mediate corporal punishment."
It is hard to believe that there
was no personal touch at all be -
SWEET -TOOTH' PASTE — Putting the squeeze cm the latest break-
fast -table hazard—jelly in a toothpaste-like tube --is Richard
Piendzik. The new product smears just as efficiently as old-
fashioned jar -type jelly, to judge from Richard's face.
tween •otfic!i's and men in those
days, oxt 4the troops remained
steady lnbattle often against
ovensm"ng odds, and won
great'" victories.
Another story concerns Pri-
vate Keenon, of the 25th Light
Dragoons, who was found guilty
of loading his pistol with a ball
cartridge, and saying to his
sergeant: "I intend this for you."
The pistol went off while the
sergeant was trying to wrest it
from the man. It did no damage,
so the charge was: "For wasting
ammunition delivered out to
him." In addition to a thousand
lashes, Keenon was drummed
out of His Majesty's Service.
To brand deserters with a D
was the custom in both services,
and this was accomplished by
tying the man to a post in the
barrack square with the regi-
ment on parade and looking on.
The drum major took a bundle
of saddler's needles, three -sided
and serrated, and pierced the
man's skin through a tracing of
the letter. Then gun -powder was
rubbed into the wound to make
the letter indelible.
Now He Can Piny
Because he could not grow
normally, a 15 -year-old Scots
lad decided to shorten his
height!
Fraser Nisbet, of St. Abbs,
Berwickshire, caught polio as a
baby, and as he grew older his
bad leg was not growing as
quickly as the other. He could
not romp and play with other
boys.
At the back of his mind was
the Thought that he would never
be able to join in the fun.
At 15 he was operated on.
When he came out of hospital
his left leg had been straigtened.
But it was now two inches
shorter than his right leg.
Then came a remarkable de-
cision for a boy of 15. Fraser
was determined he would not
go , through life with the
handicap of a limp. He could,
not get his short leg length-
ened. Then why not get the
other leg shortened?
So Fraser went to hospital
for another operation to have
his good leg shortened. When
he came out, both his legs
were the same size!
No spring nor summer beauty
hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal
face.' —John Donne:
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