| Show n DB AJ i I 1 A I 1 f B N was the fhe ausla author hor of that is unless wrote it if 1 recent of caboy casey night in m recalls iho dispute over tho the poem made famous by do wolf hopper casey at tho the bat thores theres also argument over who wrote the faco on tho the barroom floor and many othor old favorites 0 western newspaper Nw paper union by ELMO SCOTT WATSON THEY HEY celebrated casey T night in baltimore re bently in honor of the man who is said to bo be the original casey of the poem made famous by do de wolf hopper As a prologue to a night game between the baltimore orioles and the jersey city giants of the international league they had arranged to have the once mighty casey strike out just as ho he did more than half a century ago up to the plate stepped seventy six year old dan casey of silver springs md rogers hornsby coach of the orioles and pitcher for this special occasion wound up and shot the ball across the plate casey swung and missed by a foot again the windup wind up again the pitch and again casey missed and now tho the pitcher holds the ball ond and now ho he lets it go and now the nir air is shattered 11 but wait theres something wrong herol there goes the ball streaking across the diamond out into left field its a single 1 for once the lost last line of tho the immortal poem true mighty casey has NOT struck anyway it was wag a good stunt oven even if it conic como off according to schedule for it served its purpose of being a sort of cur tain ralser raiser to next henrs celebration of tho the centennial of americas national game also it revived a doubleheader double header d discussion that has raged for years viz who was the original casey of the poem casey at the bat who wrote that poem I 1 there have been various claim ants anta to the title of original casey but officials of the two major leagues and others in charge of the plans for the centennial seem to have decided that the casey who strike out in baltimore the other night is the man and here is his version of the incident that has brought him baseball immortality I 1 1 I was a left handed pitcher for the lilles I 1 guess call me the hubbell of my time wo we wore were playing the giants in the old philadelphia ball pork park on august 21 1887 tim keefe was pitching against me and he had a lot of stuff but I 1 was no slow poke myself it was the last of the ninth and now new york was leading 4 to 3 two men were out and there were runners on second ond and third A week before id busted up a game with a lucky homer and folks thought I 1 could repent repeat but he repeat instead instead he struck out and the baseball fans of philadelphia forgot that they were citizens of the city of brotherly love instead they ejust as enraged as any rabid fans fana of any mudville medville Mud ville in the united states would be when their cotlar pot po lar heroes fail them the avys version As to tho the authorship of the poem one of the persistent claimants to that honor was george W avys who spent his last years in the home for aged and infirm in cambridge mass ills his version of how he came to write the poem which incidentally makes mike kelln instead of dan casey the hero of the piece is this it was back in august 1888 1886 when I 1 saw the great mike kelly play with chicago against the boston club kelly the babe ruth of his day had a chance to win the game with the bases fun full in tho the ninth but lie he struck out before a huge and spellbound throng the boston fans were more grieved to see kelly fan than they were happy to see their team win and I 1 felt something of the same thing too the next dey a sunday I 1 was lying on thu rass ras in franklin park in boston thinking about the game and kelly and the disappointment of the fans and into my mind came the opening stanza that night I 1 finished the poem I 1 sent it to the sporting times in new york anonymously because my father a burly sea captain looked upon poetry with horror other claimants to that honor include joseph quinlan murphy will valentine and finally the man to whom most authorities award credit for its authorship ernest L thayer once a resident of cambridge and now living in santa barbara calif thayer a native of worcester mass was graduated in 1885 1835 from f rom harvard where he was president of the lampoon and ivy orator of his class after leaving college lie he started on a tour of he world pausing in san francisco long enough to get a t S a dan casey the original oriel nal casey at the bat bal la Is shown recreating the 10 historic scene when mighty casey struck out behind him hii Is lucky crouse catcher and manager of the baltimore orioles and roy van Graff ln job as a ro reporter porter on tho the paper owned by his friend and fellow harvard man willbo Willi Wil llo oll hearst while thus employed he wrote a poem called casey nt lit tho the bat a ballod ballad of the republic sung I 1 in n the year 1888 which appeared in Hc Ile arsts san francisco exam iner june 3 1888 thayer lias has best claim despite tho the fact that others have claimed the authorship of casey at tho the bat thaders Th ayers right to it seems to be pretty well established albert G spaulding gives him credit for it in his account of the poem in americas national game a history of baseball several years ogo thayer himself in defending his claim wrote to the new york times as follows 1 I note in the times a di dispatch from cambridge mass in which G W avys is reported as claiming tho the authorship of casey at the bat ile he says he sent the poem in 1886 to the new york sporting times where it was published anonymously the first number of the new york sporting times appeared in 1888 and the first or a little later number printed casey at the bat QS as a clipping and duly credited it to the san francisco examiner where it originally appeared over my initials in june 1888 in the christmas 1908 issue of tho the scrap book an exhaustive examination of the question who wrote casey at the bata bat appeared over the signature of harry thurston peck at that time professor of latin at columbia v 0 8 aa john henry titus reciting the face on the barroom floor university in the light of an all the evidence professor peck reached the conclusion that for this perhaps the greatest of my sins I 1 was exclusively to blame more difficult to establish original authorship is the case of another famous poem known by two titles the face on the bar room floor and aad the face upon the floor the rivals for recognition as the author of this classic are john henry titus still living at the age of ninety one and hugh antoine darcy who died november 11 1925 titus born in jefferson ohio began writing poetry at an early age and in 1872 produced a seven canto poem called the ideal soul the fifth episode in it he called the face on the barroom floor the first stanza was a barmy autumn night ond and a goodly lot was there the that t oversaw joes barroom as court upon the square and as a song in wit and story ekes through the oaken door A v vagabond etc p t slowly aly in askan upon the ha floor according to titus the scene of this incident was a tavern in jefferson ohio and his use of the word barroom meant courtroom since tho the tavern was once tho the site of county judicial sessions A different locale in the version of the poem written by darcy which appeared in 1087 1887 under the title of the face upon the floor the locale is in new york city instead of the little littie ohio town the circumstances under which it was written according to porter J white a veteran actor who died in 1934 and who claimed to bo be the first man to recite the poem in public were these one night in august 1887 white was awakened in his room in Mc Pikes hotel in new york city to find his neighbor from the next room hugh antoine darcy character actor and theatrical manager standing beside his bed darcy was clutching some pieces of paper and seemed greatly excited the reason was an incident which he had just witnessed with some friends darcy had wondered wandered into joe smiths smith as saloon at fourth avenue and fourteenth street As they sat there talking a tramp walked in and begged for a drink he drew a picture of a womans comans face in chalk on the floor As he put in tho the finishing touches the bouncer spotted him and out ho he went darcy followed him offered him a little money learned that the vagabond had been a cultured man and an artist driven to drink by the loss of his sweetheart and the he t treachery of a friend concluding his account of the incident darcy thrust a manuscript apt into his friends hand and white now thoroughly awake began to read THE FACE UPON THE FLOOR a balmy summer evening and a goodly crowd w was as there which fi filled 11 e d joes barroom on the corner of 0 the square and as songs and witty stories came through the open door A vagabond crept slowly in and posed upon the floor when he finished reading the remaining 16 stanzas wh white ite expressed his thorough approval of the poem and asked permission to recite it in public temperance propaganda in subsequent years mr white successfully recited the poem ma many ny times on the vaudeville and burlesque stages years later the face upon the floor was renamed the face on the barroom floor by some self ap pointed editor and was converted for as temperance propaganda much to darcas DAr cys vexation who intended the poem as vi plea for kindness to derelicts one interesting angle of the dispute over thi th i authorship tf af this poem is the fact that both claimants at one time or another went into court to establish their rights to the honor of having written it the face T apon pon the floor was set to music and became a favorite of vaudeville and barber shop tenors who however ho vever to darcas DAr cys disgust gave it the title of the face on an the barroom floor in 1922 darcy sued franls harding veteran song publisher for not giving him credit for being author of the poem and a few years later titus sued hording harding to recover his title from the desecration of the ballad so far as is known neither author ever sued the other so the dispute over the poem is still undecided but since titus is stin still living at least he has the last dolash word in claiming authorship although casey at the bat was frequently reprinted in original origins al appearance newsy newspapers apers after its pe arance in 1888 the thing which started the poem on its road to immortality was its recitation by do wolf hopper an actor in tho the summer of 1888 hopper was appearing in an operetta P prince methuselah at wallacia Wal lVa lacka lincks thea ter on broadway one night tho the players on the chicago white stockings baseball team were gul guests ats of tho the theater and the management of wallaces Wal lacks gave hopper a copy of the poem clipped from the sari san francisco examiner to read between the acts in honor of the ballplayer guests Il hoppers seriocomic serio comic rendition of tho the poem brought a storm of applause and from that time to on ho he was repeatedly icat edly called upon to recite it ile he once said where mere or what I 1 may be playing I 1 must before the evening Is out come before tho the cur curtain tain ind pitch to casey it has been estimated that hopper recited the poem no less than times in tho the theater add to that his recitations of it over the radio in recent years and the num number ber of times his phonograph records of the poem have been played end and it is easy to understand why it is listed amon among g the best known poems in the english language another dispute over a authorship of a popular poem which was taken to the courts was the case of solitude better known by its sa A 0 DE WOLF HOPPER opening lines lough laugh and the world laughs with you weep and you weep alone to it was claimed by both ella wheeler wilcox and col john J joyce mrs wilcox asserted that she wrote it in february 1883 in the home of judge A B braley in madison wis where she was visiting and read it to the judge and his wife before it appeared in the new york sun on february 21 over her maiden name of wheeler in may 1883 it was included in her book poems of passion rival claims two years later joyce heard the poem solitude recited and when some one asked who wrote it the colonel declared that he had written it in the galt gait house in louisville ky back in 1861 when mrs wilcox heard of this she immediately denied Is his claim joyce continued to assert that the poem was his but ignored her challenge to prove it his book A checkered life written in 1883 contained 23 poems but solitude was not among them in a later edition of the book he inserted the poem but retained the copyright date of 1883 ile he also published the poem as a song whereupon mrs wilcox began suit against the john church company music dealers of cincinnati for alleged violation of the copyright law the suit never came to trial A according cc to mrs wilcox she dropped it upon the advice of friends joyce pointed to the fact that the suit was waa dismissed for want of prosecution and that the costs were assessed against mrs wilcox as acknowledgment of his authorship later mrs wilcox offered to give to any charitable PER 1 e 16 F vv f W cs institution which joyce might name the sum of in his name if he would produce an copy of any periodical or paper containing the poem under discussion prior to february 1883 11 although joyce never acce accepted P ted the challenge to the day 0 of f his death he continued to assert that he h was the original author of solitude mrs wilc wilcox 0 x was equally positive that th the e honor belonged to her and popular belief seems to confirm her claim |
