Chicago Examiner April 21, 1916

CITY FORGETS BUSINESS TO PAY TRIBUTE TO CUBS

United Team and President Weeghman Honored By Parade, at Ball Game and During Banquet.

CHICAGO forgot its business yesterday and turned its attention to giving President Charles H. Weeghman and his National League baseball club a rousing sendoff. It was well done from the parade that started at Grant Park at 1 o’clock in the afternoon through the banquet which ended around 1 o’clock this morning at the Bismarck Gardens. City, county and state officials, millionaires and paupers, peanut vendors and song boosters, bandmen and ball players. Cincinnati people and Chicago folk all joined hands for the day and Father Dearborn witnessed the greatest launching of a National League baseball season that he has ever known.

There was a parade, as per schedule, which hustled through the streets of the loop out Lake Shore drive to the ball lot. It was composed of some hundred or more automobiles and other conveyances. At the ball park bands vied with each other for the plaudits of the crowd, while scattered about the firld groups of song boosters filled the air with the more recent efforts of Irving Berlin and other writers of musical melodies. The florists had dome a whale of a business. From the Chicago admirers there were flowers for Heinie Zimmerman (photo, right), Manager Joe Tinker and President Weeghman, while the Cincinnati delegation, not to be undone, rushed floral tributes to Manager Charles Herzog and his staff.

CUB PRESIDENT GETS FLOWERS FROM J. OGDEN ARM0UR

In the picture on the left, Judge Adelor J. Petit is seen at the left presenting Charles H. Weeghman (at his right as you look at the picture) with a floral gift from J. Ogden Armour, a stockholder in the Cubs. Mr Weeghman is holding in his hand a note from Mr. Armour, which read: “These are flowers from my Lake Forest place and I hope you will win.” The bouquet is shown at the right. Below, at the right, is a picture of Garry Herrmann, president of both the National Baseball Commission and the Cincinnati Reds, taken as he watched the opening battle.

On the far right, Heine Zimmerman is seen with the floral horseshoe and bat given him by North Side admirers.

FLAG-RAISING IMPRESSIVE.
An impressive flag-raising followed by the national salute of twenty-one day bombs, while the 18,000 fans stood, hat in hand, and the band blazed forth “America,” took place just before Hank O’Day tossed a white sphere into the ring and shouted “Play ball!”

after the two teams had battled through eleven innings of ideal baseball for the edification of the multitude quick adjournment made to the Bismarck Gardens, where dinner, cabaret and other things were served up by Mein Host Eitel and staff of assistants.

The parade, which furnished the excitement for those who were required to remain in stuffy offices during the afternoon, was an elegant an affair as any world’s championship ball club could ask for. It was a great tribute to the amalgamated National and Federal League club and to President Weeghman.

The formation of the procession was accomplished in Grant Park. Lead by a platoon of Chief of Police Healy’s neatest motorcycle cops, each one exceeding the speed limit, the caravan dashed into Michigan avenue. The motorcycle policemen were followed by Chief of Police C. C. Healy, Chief Marshal Charles W. Peters and aids in the chief’s automobile. Assistant Chief of Police Herman P. Schuettler and Arthur W. Johnson, president of the Cub Rooter Club, came next.

WEEGHMAN NEXT IN LINE.
They were followed by President Charles Weeghman and staff, the Chicago National League Baseball Club, the Cincinnati National League Baseball Club, Garry Herrmann, president of the Cincinnati club, and John E. Bruce, secretary of the National Commission at the head of a delegation of Cincy rooters; officials and members of the Cub Rooters’ Club, Sheriff John Traeger and office force in a tallyho; City Comptroller Eugene Pike, representing Mayor Thompson and city officials; Peter Reinberg and county officials. Judges Thomas Scully, Kickham Scanlan, Turner, McDonald and Petit and delegations from the Chicago Athletic Association, Chicago Automobile Club, Illinois Athletic Club, Mystic Athletic Club, Chicago Motor Club, Hamilton Club, Iroquois Club, Irish Fellowship Club, German Club of Chicago, Sportsmen’s Club, Board of Trade, Rotary Club, Elks, South Shore Country Club, Saddle and Sirloin Club, Strollers, Town and Country Club song boosters and other clubs and individual turnouts.

SCENES DURING BASEBALL PARADE

An auto party of enthusiastic fans. Those in the picture, from left to right, are Mrs. Harry C. Moir, Judge Adelor J.Petit and Mrs. J. F. Henning.

Joe Tinker, Cub Manager, is shown at the right, perched in an open auto.

CROWDS CHEER PARADE.
The parade was met with cheering mobs on every street. The line of march was from Grant Park to Michigan avenue, south on Michigan avenue to Jackson boulevard to LaSalle street to Madison street to Michigan avenue, north on Michigan avenue to Lake Shore drive and thence in a mad scramble to the baseball park.

The crowd quickly filled the little park. Fans from the West Side, South Side and North Side packed themselves into seats and then flowed into the outfield lines. The park, with flags flying and as spick and span as a parlor echoed and re-echoed the cheers of the crowd.

Judge A. J. Petit walked to the plate. Ball players of both teams gathered around. Judge Scully, Judge McDonald and other notables were called from the stand. A short speech from Judge Petit, and Manager Joe Tinker was the recipient of a huge bunch of American Beauty roses. Judge Scully then took up the oratory, and President Weeghman became the recipient of a similar bunch of flowers. An envelope was also handed him. Inside of it was the personal card of J. Ogden Armour. On the back in Mr. Armour’s handwriting was the following:

These flowers are from my Lake Forest place, and I hope you win.

The crowd started to disperse, but William Lyman, county treasurer from Cincinnati, dashed up and handed Manager Herzog of the Reds another bunch of roses. In the distance Cy DeVry and an assistant appeared with a cub bear. It was the animal that J. Ogden Armour presented to the Lincoln Park Zoo some time ago and was officially proclaimed mascot of the Cubs. As Trainer DeVry and his assistant led the black beast away, a donkey, official representative of Harry Gibbons’ Twenty-fifth Ward Democratic Club, made its appearance. (See January 27, 1916 article below.)

After the game, the entire Cincinnati delegation and a large share of the Chicagoans went straight to the Bismarck Gardens, where dinner had been arranged.

Bismarck Gardens Beer Garden
Operated between 1895 to 1923
SW Corner of Grace and Halsted Streets

WEEGHMAN IS HOST.
President Weeghman entertained a party of twenty-five, including officers of the Chicago club. Others who were entertained parties at dinner were Garry Herrmann of Cincinnati, Judge owens, Philip Henrick, Al Plamandon, George Leffingwell, Walter Craighead, Georges Crowley, Chris Furthman, J. E. O’Neil, Andy Craig, Murray Keller, Carl N. Miller, J. Cairns, F. E. Rowley, R. Pick, C. B. Smith, Sam Newman, S. Petit, E. R. Moore, W. H. Graffis, Henry Weiss, A. A. Patterson, A. J. Wrestling, F. Howard, William Curran, Ernest Schmidt, E. Esch, G. Erhardt, Roy Shayne, W. Collins, Ed Hestiler, George Mason, Jr., Frank Hogan, Hans Mittlelhauser, Oscar Back, J. Sterns, James Hymans, L. C. Anderson, L. Morris, F. K. Higbie, Stewart Remick, Dick Travers, William Roach, Frank Houseman, Will F. Stewart, George Tenneson, Tony Fisherm Fred Philipson, Walter Lathy, Z. H. Froeneke, W. Waller, George Feaman, Frank Maxwell, F. L. Coad, H. E. Williams, Adolph Magnus, H. Hammond and Otto Antonson.

PROMINENT FOLKS THERE.
Among some of the prominent Chicag-oans in boxes at tho ball park were Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Maclay Hoyne, State’s Attorney; Eugene Pike, city comptroller; John Siman, city clerk; John F. Traeger, sheriff; C. C. Healy, chief of police; H. F. Schuettler, assistant chief of police; Charles W. Peters; Peters; Peter Reinberg, president County Board; Judge McDonald, Judge Petit, Judge Scully, Harry Moir, .1. Ogden Armour and party. George W. Reynolds and party, John R. Thompson, Charles McCullough, Charles Knisley, W. W. Walker, Judge Sullivan, Harry Gibbons and 250 members Twenty-fifth Ward Democratic Club, Fred Blouki, Charles L. Oakley, John Dogherty, John Hummer, Jimmy Ryan, former right fielder of Anson’s Colts; Senator Thomas Dawson, Judge W. E. Dever, Thomas O. Webb, John Heidelman, Harry J. Ganey, George E.Brennan, James Slattery, J. J. Donahue, William McKinley, Judge Dorner, Judge M. L. McKinley, William Wrigley, Jr., Nelson Lambert, A. D. Lasker, Eddie Heeman, John P. Harding, J. B. Drake. Jr., Arthur Meeker, Lou Houseman. R. A. Cavanaugh, Joseph Grinin. Charles Wurster, Walter Schuttler, Adolph Schuttler, James Robison, Prank Tracey, Edward Allen, William Boldenwick, Charles Sleeter, Otto Speilman, William Walker, George Ade and Charles A. Comiskey, president of the Chicago White Sox, and party.

Among the out-of-town men of prominence was James A. Gilmore, former president of the Federal League; John E. Bruce, secretary of the National Commission; Mr. and Mrs. Edward Gwinner, formerly of the Pittsburgh Federal League Club; William Lyman, county treasurer of Cincinnati; Edward Witt, city treasurer of Cincinnati; Garry Herrmann, president of the Cincinnati baseball club and the National Baseball Commission, and Secretary Bancroft of the Cincinnati club.

Chicago Examiner April 21, 1916

By Charles Dryden

This opening day which was more or less muddled in the main features but the Cubs won after eleven rounds of hysterical scrambling. The score was 7 to 6. Each side used four pitchers and with the snipers, or pinch hitters, added, the grand stand total of athletes employed ran up to an even thirty. They had one gayly caparisoned jackass and a bear in a silver collar on the premises, but neither was asked to do anything but appear natural.

During two hours and forty-five minutes of actual pastimlng the tide of battle ebbed and flowed so as to give the Cub and Red rooter contingents a chance to let off steam. Many of the latter were snoring at the finish. The strain of riding all . night on the Cincy Commissary Special and sitting through all that flub-dub was more than human nature could endure. When the Cubs threatened to win in the ninth a shower of cushions beaned some of the prominent Cincy persons and aroused them to the business in hand.

Gene Packard and a party entitled Schultz, both southpaws, were on the hill at the windup. Left-handers were a fitting finish to a game of that sort. Vic Saier’s single behind a double by Cy Williams busted a tie and scored the winning run in the eleventh. Thus the Pepper twins lived up to their reps and brought the Cubs to life at the wlndup. Cy and Vic also released about 18,OOO folks who had some place else to go and
hated to leave while the result was in doubt.

SPITBALLERS ARE BUMPED.
It was not an ideal day for Saliva’s Favored Sons, meaning Mr. Hendrix and Mr. Lavender. Both of these spitters were, driven to the doghouse during the ceremonies and three husky warriors on the other side fell before the advent of Mr. Schultz. The main standby of the Reds, the massive Pete Schneider, got his in the eighth after wabling through seven uncertain rounds.

Fred Toney, strong man from Billy Goat Hill, had a whack at the rocky going. He was lifted for a sniper in the ninth and Frank McKenry was serving ’em up when doubles by Flack and Zim tied the count for the last lime in the ninth. Tom Scaton shuffled in and out again in the seventh just long enough to fan a guy with the bases filled. This feat endeared Tom to the patriots and lie he might have gone on pitching indefinitely but for a flock of snipers settling on the home plate in the last !of the seventh.

That round was a humdinger in its way. Each side had the bags stocked with two out and the last man fanned. Louden did it for the Reds and none other than the Great Zim struck out in the home seventh against a full house and in the presence of his Greek horseshoe nine feet high. Swatting by both teams loud and frequent, generally after two out, and the art of getting left on bases was reduced to a science. Bill Fischer was the most prominent person at bat with four blows. A one hand catch by Griffith in the sixth spoiled a double lor Bill. On the other side a somewhat ancient newcomer named Beall made a lot of fuss with his bat, getting one homer over the right wall, when the Cubs were supposed to blow them, besides a brace of singles.

ATHLETES FALL BY WAYSIDE.
Every little while an athlete fell by the wayside until Tinker had seventeen men in the fracas, and Herzog found lucrative employment for thirteen. Ground rules and bases on balls prevailed at all times. Flack’s two-base knock into the right-center overflow seats in the ninth gave the Cubs their chance to tie. In the eleventh, with one man on, Killifer’s wallop to left rolled between the clear end of the benches and the wall. The runner ahead of Killifer could have scored on a clear field, but the rule held good, though the ball did not mix with the benches.

PARK SERENE AT START.
Weeghman Park was a serene and beautiful sight before the athletes got out and cluttered it up. They always spoil the best effects of art and nature. Flags and banners stirred the breeze and scads of green paint, said to be throughly dry, glistened in the bright sunlight when the sun shone. The playing field was in fancy dress. As a delicate tribute to Mr. Weeghman the groundkeeper had built a handsome landscape doughnut around the pitching slab. It was so arranged that the pitcher occupied the hole in the doughnut. Moreover, some of them were equally as effective.

While the ball players and rooting delegations in uniforms were entering the works behind the tooling musicians the aerial bombs shot up from the base of the flagpole. Upon bursting in the murky heavens the bombs dislodged pink parasols with American flags attached, all of which drifted away in the clouds of smoke that made things murkier than ever. Several of the bands played the “Star Spangled Banner” and the multitude arose with bared heads. Down ion the field the athletes saluted the tune. Heine Peitz exposed and ostrich egg which he is now wearing where his head used to be. Last time Heine was here he belonged to the Cards and played right field in the games Konetchy pitched and won against the old Cubs. But that is old stuff. So is H. Peitz.

Chicago Tribune, April 20, 1916

ELEGY WRITTEN IN A WEST SIDE BALL YARD.

The whistles sound the knell of parting day,
The toilers travel slowly home to tea,
I’ve got to write a parody on Gray,
Though it be painful both to you and me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight.
Save for the chatter of the laboring folk
Returning to their hovels for the night,
All’s still at Taylor, Lincoln, Wood, and Polk.

Beneath this aged roof, this grandstand’s shade,
Where peanut shucks lie in a mold’ring heap,
Where show the stains of pop and lemonade,
The Cub bugs used to cheer and groan and weep.

The adverse guess of Mr. William Klein,
The miscalled strikes of Eason and of Orth,
No more shall rouse the fire of hate in them—
They yield to their successors over north

Where Anson used to hit ’em on the pick,
Where Lange was went to grab ’em off the grass,
Where Dahlen used to kick and kick and kick,
Where Danny Friend was worked for many a pass.

Where games won by Callahan and Griff,
Where long home runs were knocked by Danny Green;
Where, later, Bill Maloney used to whiff,
Where Reulbach used to wound ’em in the bean.

Where Artie Hofman pulled his circus stunts,
Where Sheckard drove and caught ’em on his brow,
Where “Schlitz” was banished from the fold (just once),
Where Heine started many a healthy row.

Where Joe got coverage to go on the stage,
Where Brownie did his own and others toll,
Where Evers used to brew his boiling rage,
Where Chance cussed John McGraw and Larry Doyle.

Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble bleats,
The moles, untroubled, now dig up the turf,
And gnats and roaches occupy the seats
That other bugs once filled, to help out Murf.

“To help Murf? And who was he?” you say,
I answer with a melancholy sigh:
“Approach and read (if you can read) the lay
Graved on the door we used to enter by”;

THE EPITAFT
He was the one real Fox of modern time;
He had competitors all licked a mile.
He gave to baseball all he had—a dime.
He gained from it (’twas all he wished)—his pile.

No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode.
Let him enjoy his well deserved repose
At 6157 Sheridan Road.

Chicago Examiner, January 27, 1916

Bear,Cub Mascot, Is Shot to Death When It Throws Girls Into Panic

Tailor Uses Revolver as Animal Escapes; Knocks Him Down and Frightens Employes.

A cub bear, designed to become the new mascot of Charles Weeghman’s Chicago Cubs baseball club, was shot to death late yesterday afternoon after it had escaped from its crate. The animal first invaded a tailoring factory and threw thirty-five girl employees into a panic.

The bear, which had been sent to Chicago by a Montana fan, was being transported to the Weeghman park by Harry Miller, 1030 Orleans street. As the express wagon passed 1161 Milton avenue,occupied by Isaacson & Carlson, tailors, the cub leaped from its crate and dashed into the building. Up two flights of stairs it loped, then dashed through a doorway.

Mr. Isaacson, who was talking to C. O. Nelson, deputy state factory inspector, near the entrance, was knocked off his feet. The cub then made straight for a bevy of girls at work at machines. With screams the girls leaped from their seats and ran for fire escapes.

Nelson, after hurling a chair at the animal, pulled a revolver and shot it.