Part 5

Maquina's riches soon became known to the tribes on the coast, and several raids were made upon his village by the covetous savages, but in every instance they were repulsed with considerable loss, owing to the muskets with which the chief's followers were armed. John and John's Father, as the sail-maker was known and called, were made much of by the King, and granted many indulgences, but were not allowed to lead idle lives, as the duty of the first was to keep all the guns and other arms in repair, while the other, as sail-maker-in-chief of the King's navy, was obliged to manufacture the sails with which the canoes were fitted. Thus nearly three years passed away, and when they had almost given up hope of escape, the trading brig _Lydia_, of Boston, commanded by Captain Samuel Hill, came to anchor one afternoon in the cove where a few blackened timber-heads sticking out of the sand marked the grave of the stately vessel that had once been moored on its gentle surface. After placing a guard over John and the sail-maker, and forbidding them to move out of their hut, Maquina went off to the brig to trade. Owing to a curiosity that probably cost them their heads before the next sun rose, the two sentinels shortly made their way to the beach in order to look upon the strange ship with whose people their neighbors were carrying on a lively trade, while they were left in the deserted village and deprived of the opportunity of exchanging the skins and furs that they had been saving for so long.

As soon as their guard disappeared the two captives plunged into the woods and made their way around the bend of the cove so as to approach the brig on the opposite side to the village. Waiting under cover until night had fallen, they took to the water and swam off to the ship, where they told their story, and were warmly received by the Captain and crew. A close watch was kept during the night to prevent a possible surprise by the natives, and when morning came the vessel was hauled out of the cove and anchored at some distance from the shore. Shortly after this Maquina's canoe was seen coming out to the ship. When it drew near, the King stood up and eagerly scanned the faces observing him from over the rail. He failed at first to recognize his two former captives, so great a change had been effected in their appearance by the aid of soap, scissors, and civilized dress; but suddenly penetrating this disguise, he burst into tears, stretched his arms out to them, and passionately cried:

"How John? How John's Father? No go away--come back Maquina!"

John answered the chief, telling him that he would never see them again; that he and his father thanked him for saving their lives and treating them kindly, but that Captain Hill was so enraged with him for killing the white men that if he came near the ship he would be shot. Whereupon the King beat his breast, threw his cloak over his head as a sign of grief, and was paddled back to shore.

Fearing to remain in this place lest Maquina might make a desperate effort to recover his lost slaves, and having completed his cargo, the Captain made sail during the day, and by nightfall was out of sight of land, the good ship _Lydia_ sweeping over the long Pacific swells as though realizing that she was on her journey home. Some months later the anchor that had last rested on the white sand of Nootka Sound was dropped off the long wharf in Boston Harbor, and an hour later our young hero was folded in loving arms, while the father and mother offered up their thanksgivings for their boy who had been lost but was found again.

St. Paul's School, Concord, is one of the few preparatory institutions in this country, if not the only one, that has a fully organized golf club and regularly established links. When the links was laid out in 1894 it was considered one of the best in the country, but since that time such an advance has been made, and so much interest has been taken in the game all over the United States, that the St. Paul's course cannot now boast such prominence. Nevertheless it is a fine course, and as the game is very popular at St. Paul's, improvements are constantly being made, and the grounds keep getting better and better.

The St. Paul's Golf Club was formed a little over two years ago, and it was made the club president's duty to have the greens cut and rolled when they need it by the men who regularly look after the other athletic fields of the school. The membership fee is two dollars a year, and an orphan asylum near by furnishes caddies. A ticket is given to each boy for every round of one person, two tickets for two persons, and so on, and these tickets are redeemed at five cents each about once a month.

The links is a good three miles in length. The start is from a slight incline, and over a smooth field having a fence, a road, and tall bushes to the right, with a free meadow to the left, and, at a distance of a fair drive, a ditch bordered by tall willows.

This lay of the land makes it necessary for the player to adopt one of two plans when he starts. He must either make a fine drive right over the willows, and land in the meadow which lies between the teeing-ground and the first hole, or he must make a careful drive so as to place the ball on the hither side of the bushes, and then loft it over them with an iron. If the ball drops in a favorable position, however, the player may use his brassey with advantage, and drive through a gap that exists in the underbrush. This move will generally save him a stroke over the iron play. If he uses the iron, and arrives safely on the ground beyond, a good cleek shot will land him on or near the green. If he used the brassey and went through the willows at the ditch, a mashie shot should put him in position for a putt.

In all plays for the first hole the fence as well as the road and the bushes on the right must be avoided. Within sixty feet of the tee for the second hole there is a ditch, and beyond it a slight hill, and after that a level clear stretch to the second hole, just behind which is a fine woods. Careful driving is therefore required to avoid going into the ditch or hitting the hill, and many of the novices find they need to give good care to their lofting to save themselves from jumping into the woods.

From the second to the third hole it is perfectly plain sailing, an even, smooth meadow with a slight downward inclination. This part of the course is so good that it has frequently been made in one drive. Between the tee for the fourth hole and the hole itself there is a potato patch surrounded by a fence, and, as every man who plays golf knows, a potato patch is a very unpleasant hazard. But to the careful driver its terrors in this case may be greatly reduced, for a good strong drive will put you out of all danger. The putting green, however, is on a slight elevation with woods behind it, so that considerable care is required when dropping the ball upon it with a mashie stroke.

From the fourth to the fifth hole the course runs through an orchard, which, however, is not very extensive, and many of the most expert players on this links can drive entirely over it. The ground slopes toward the putting green until within about fifty yards of it. From the fifth to the sixth hole the ground is overgrown with crab bushes about two feet high and very dense, so that a ball dropping fairly into the midst of this patch is likely to lodge there. The space around the green, however, is perfectly level, and is screened on the far side with pine woods. It is one of the shadiest and best of greens that it has been my fortune to see anywhere.

The course from the sixth to the seventh hole is likewise over a reasonably smooth green, with tufts of crab bush sticking up here and there. It has no especially difficult features, being a plain straightaway course, but it offers a favorable chance for a good iron-player to distinguish himself. The green from the next to the last hole ends in a semicircle of pine woods, and then comes the long hole home.

The home putting green, although level itself, is situated on a hill-side, and so the man who is reckless or over-energetic with his putting-iron is liable to make a long putt--and see his ball roll all the way down the hill. At the bottom of this hill are a fence and bushes, where many a game has been lost through the carelessness or misfortune of the players who have allowed their balls to get into this hazard at the last moment.

This St. Paul's links is situated in a very pretty part of the country, and there are enough natural hazards to make it interesting even for a first-class player. As may well be judged from the brief description I have been able to give here, it is plain that the course is not over a barren, uninteresting table-land, as is the case with many of our American links, but in a locality where there are plenty of woods and hills to make the scenery interesting. There are no impossible bunkers or hazards, so that a round of the links is sure to be interesting. The course is only about four or five minutes' walk from the main school grounds, and is situated on school property, so that the students do not have far to go for their sport, and find no one to interfere with them when they get there.

The interest in the game has been growing steadily ever since the links was first laid out, and it is to be hoped that other schools will take the game up in the near future. There are a few country schools that cannot have links, for even if the school property is not extensive enough for the course to be laid out upon it, there ought to be little difficulty in securing the permission of land-owners to lay out a few putting greens, which would be about the only improvements required. Almost any section of country has a sufficient number of natural hazards to make it unnecessary to construct artificial bunkers and sand-pits.

And now that we are on this interesting subject of golf and bunkers and hazards, it may be well to devote the rest of our space in the Department this week to the answering of questions which have been coming in with greater or less frequency during the year. Most of these questions have concerned links and their construction, and as this is a subject which cannot be treated satisfactorily in short letters, it has seemed best to wait for a convenient time when the laying out of links might be debated in these columns.

It may seem at first a very easy matter to lay out a golf course, but when one begins work upon a links there are several things to be considered. A very hilly country is unsuited to the game, and stony fields or ploughed land is impossible. The best kind of land for a course is pasture land, such as may be found in the neighborhood of almost any town not situated in the mountain country. When a suitable stretch of ground has been found, the first thing to be done is to make a general survey of its salient features in order to determine the general direction of the course and its length.

A links may be laid out with six holes or nine holes or eighteen holes, and such courses would vary all the way from a mile and a half to four miles. The ideal course should be about three miles and a half long. If the available ground is limited, it is much better to lay out nine good holes than to try to get eighteen into the limited space. Having settled upon the starting-point and the number of holes that you are going to have, the general direction of the course should be laid out so that it will swing around in a sort of circular path, and finish up somewhere near the starting-point. In other words, the home green should be placed as near as possible to the first tee.

The length or distance between holes varies anywhere from a hundred up to five hundred yards, the distance being based on the number of full shots that a player must make to reach the next hole. The idea is to make it easy for a good player to reach the green, but difficult for a poor player, whose lack of skill must be penalized. Therefore a distance of two hundred yards is generally bad, for it brings about the objectional combination of a full shot and a short approach.

It is always well to have the holes well guarded with hazards on all sides. Of course few holes can be thus completely surrounded, but when laying out a links it is well to keep this object in mind, for hazards call out the skill of a player. Sometimes there are not enough natural hazards along the course, and it is necessary to throw up banks of earth, or to plant bushes, or to dig ditches. If it becomes necessary to throw up a bank across the course, it is better to build it in a sort of curve rather than along a straight line, for it thus makes a much better golfing hazard. One thing must be remembered in the construction or arrangement of hazards, and that is that they should not interfere with good play.

In the laying out of putting greens one should endeavor to have a space clear of hazards about twenty yards square. The hole should be sunk in about the centre of this green, and lined with an iron or tin cylinder. But on no account should the rim of the cylinder come above or even flush with the edges of the hole, or it will interfere with the play. These cylinders may be bought at almost any shop where sporting goods are for sale, or, if nothing better is at hand, an old piece of tin water-pipe will do.

It is preferable to have level greens, although any slight inclination is no serious disadvantage. It is well to dig up the ground where the putting greens are to be laid out, in the autumn, and sod them in the spring. They should be rolled frequently, and the grass must be kept short.

Teeing-grounds should be marked with whitewash, or with disks of whitewashed tin stuck into the ground. A teeing-ground should be as level as possible, and never hanging--that is, sloping in the direction from which the shot has to be played from it. Almost any slight elevation will do for a teeing-ground, and it must be within easy walking distance of the hole that has just been played.

After a golf course has been in use for a short time, it will be noticed that the parts which suffer most are the places from which approach shots are made to the greens, and the putting greens themselves. The use of heavy irons is very injurious to the soft turf, and players should always make it a point to replace any sod they may have torn up by careless or poor strokes. When a green gets badly worn it is usually advisable to change the location of the hole to another part, and replace it in its original position after the turf has recovered some of its original good condition.

Rolling is an important factor toward the keeping in order of a putting green, but the roller should be a light one rather than a heavy one, as heavy rollers are liable to get the turf root-bound. If the turf be very coarse it is well to sprinkle sand over it, as that seems to have a beneficial effect in thinning out and fining down the grass.

It has become a custom with the more important golf clubs of the country to use flags of various colors to mark the outgoing and incoming holes. Outgoing holes are marked with a red flag, and the incoming with white flags. These colors are more easily distinguished against foliage than any others. The line flags should be of a different color, so as not to be confounded with the hole flags; yellow or pink is a good shade.

Another good thing to do in the way of marking a course is to indicate the limits of such important hazards as water, roads, fences, or brier islands with short wooden sticks painted white or whitewashed. Such stakes may prove of great convenience, and take but little time and trouble to set out.

In reference to the tables of records published last week, it is well to say that the National figures may be looked upon as exact, because the performances of the first National meeting stand as the Association's records until they shall be bettered at future meetings of the National I.S.A.A.A.; but of the figures in the Interscholastic table we cannot be so sure, because there are so many interscholastic meetings all over the country that it is almost impossible to get correct and reliable reports of all performances, but this table is as near right as can be made under the circumstances, and has been very carefully revised by a number of athletes and other gentlemen interested in school sports in various parts of the country.

It is interesting to note that most of the members of the Berkeley School baseball team, who won the N.Y.I.S.B.B.A. championship this year, are residents of New York city; thus it cannot be said with any justice that New York boys cannot play ball. In the comment on the work of the N.Y.I.S.A.A. nines in a recent issue of the ROUND TABLE it was stated that Markell led in batting. This was a typographical error for Mallett. Mallett of Trinity School heads the batting list with an average of 1000.

"TRACK ATHLETICS IN DETAIL."--ILLUSTRATED.--8VO, CLOTH, ORNAMENTAL, $1.25.

THE GRADUATE.

This Department is conducted in the interest of stamp and coin collectors, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on these subjects so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor Stamp Department.

Some time ago Mr. Friedl of Vienna, whose postal museum was one of the sights of Vienna, came into possession of a large number of the Austrian Mercury stamps of which the used copies bore a cancellation mark hitherto unknown. He sold some of these stamps at large prices, when the sale was stopped by a charge that these stamps were counterfeits. A lengthy controversy ensued, which ended by an open acknowledgment that the stamps were genuine. Mr. Friedl felt aggrieved at the charges, and has determined to sell out his collections, his stock, and the contents of his museum. One of the leading American dealers met him in Germany, and secured a number of very valuable stamps; among other things he purchased the unique complete unused sheet of 3 pf. Saxony, 1850 issue, catalogued at $50 per stamp. Unfortunately the sheet never came to America, as it was sold to a leading English collector who was also in Germany at the same time. Numerous other good U.S. stamps changed hands through this dealer, so that very little has come across the water.

The only plate of the 2c. stamps containing different triangles is No. 170. This plate is printed in one sheet of four panes, each pane containing 100 stamps. These sheets of 400 stamps are cut apart, and the panes of 100 each form a complete sheet as we get them from the post-office. The two left-hand sheets of Plate No. 170 contain seven rows of Triangle III., and three rows of Triangle II. When a complete sheet is not kept, collectors usually take a pair or block showing both triangles.

The summer months are usually dull in a philatelic sense, yet many collectors find time to devote themselves to their hobby, and frequently manage to get stamps at a lower price than during the brisker winter months. This year the off season seems to have been devoted more especially to Revenue and other stamps which are not connected with the postal service. A collection of these oddities is very interesting in itself, and also very instructive. In Germany many collections of the Governmental Insurance stamps are made. (See illustration of the 14 pf. Elsass-Lothringen stamp.) Late issues of German papers state that the government has a surplus of 125,000,000 marks insurance money on hand, which it proposed to invest in the building of cottages and houses for workmen, to be let at reasonable rates. The law has been in force since January 1, 1891, and it probably affects over 15,000,000 workmen and work-women. It provides insurance against sickness and accidents, and for a pension in old age. The benefits are: 1. Free medical treatment, medicine, and surgical appliances through life. 2. Half-pay in cash during illness, or free hospital treatment for thirteen weeks each year. 3. Twenty days' wages on death, and, if insurance is kept up, those dependent on the deceased receive a small pension. 4. At a fixed period, late in life, payments cease, and a small pension is given. The payments into the fund for insurance are made weekly (forty-seven weeks to the year) one-third by the workman, one-third by the employer, and one-third by the government. Each state in Germany has its own series of stamps, 14 pf., 20 pf., 24 pf., 30 pf., etc., similar to the Elsass-Lothringen represented above, but bearing its own name.

In this country quite a number of savings-banks and similar establishments have introduced a similar system. For instance, the Pratt Thrift of Brooklyn sells stamps at 5c., 10c., 25c., and 50c. each. These are pasted in a book or on a card, and can be turned in as so much cash whenever desired. The great objection to collecting stamps of this nature is that no used stamps can be bought, and unused stamps must be paid for at full face.

On the other hand, it is not necessary to collect every value of each issue. The lowest value will answer for the set if the design is the same. Indeed, "general" stamp-collectors will soon be forced to take a step like this in view of the absolute impossibility of obtaining copies of the rarer stamps.

A. LOMBARD.--Any of the U.S. Revenues, unperforated, are worth keeping. Many of them are rare, and uncovered pairs are always worth much more than two single stamps.

PHILATUS.

ADVERTISEMENTS.

This Department is conducted in the interest of Bicyclers, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject. Our maps and tours contain many valuable data kindly supplied from the official maps and road-books of the League of American Wheelmen. Recognizing the value of the work being done by the L.A.W., the Editor will be pleased to furnish subscribers with membership blanks and information so far as possible.

This week we give one of the best short trips in the vicinity of Chicago. To take the trip, leave Chicago some afternoon by train, say Saturday, planning to arrive at Waukesha in time for supper. Begin the run early enough next morning so that you can reach Oconomowoc before the heat of the middle of the day. It is possible to either take breakfast at Waukesha, or to merely have a cup of coffee, and plan to eat breakfast at Pewaukee, at the head of the lake of the same name. The road is easily found, running north and northwest from Waukesha. Follow the railroad for a short mile, then take the left fork and run out two miles, after turning left again, before reaching the river, and follow along on the westward side of this stream into Pewaukee. The distance is about five miles and a half. After breakfast you can either take the steamboat down the lake to Lakeside Cottages, or run out across the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad, keeping to the left fork at the crossing, and running westward by Lakeside Station to Hartland.