th' winter I am liable to go to Florida or to th' West Indies or to
Monty Carlo. I'm th' on'y American citizen that iver beat Monty Carlo. I
plugged away at number siventeen an' it came up eighty-two times
runnin'. 'Tis thrue I squandhered th' money on th' fickle Countess de
Brie, but aisy came aisy go. Me disappointment was soon f'rgotten among
th' gayeties iv Algeers. I often go up th' Nile because it's handy to
th' Ar-rchey Road. I can get back befure bedtime. In summer I may go to
Newpoort, although it ain't th' place it was whin I first wint there. It
was simple thin. People laughed at Clarence Von Steenevant because he
wore a hat encrusted in dimons instead iv th' rough-an'-ready goold
bonnet that ye grabbed fr'm th' rubbish iv old pearl necklaces an'
marredge certyficates on th' hall table whin ye wint out to play tennis.
It has changed since. But there are still a few riprisintatives iv th'
older memberships iv th' stock exchange who cannot lave th' familyar
scenes, an' I like to dhrop in on these pathricyans an' gossip iv days
that ar-re no more. Faith, there's hardly a place that I don't spind me
summers. If I don't like a place I can move. I sail me yacht into
sthrange harbors. I take me private car wheriver I want to go. I hunt
an' I fish. Last year I wint to Canada an' fished f'r salmon. I made a
gr-reat catch--near thirty cans. An' whin I'm tired I can go to bed. An'
it is a bed, not a rough sketch iv a brick-yard.
"Well, well, what places I have seen. An' I always see thim at their
best. Th' on'y way to see anny place at its best is niver to go there.
No place can be thruly injyeable whin ye have to take ye'ersilf along
an' pay rent f'r him whin ye get there. An' wan iv th' gr-reat comforts
iv my kind iv a vacation is that I always knows what's goin' on at home.
Whin Hogan goes on his kind iv vacation th' newspa-aper he gets was
printed just afther th' third inning iv th' baseball game th' day befure
yisterdah. Th' result is that whin Hogan comes home he don't know what's
happened. He doesn't know who's been murdhered or whether Chicago or
Pittsburg is at th' head iv th' league.
"An' summer is th' best time iv th' year f'r news. Th' heat an' sthrong
dhrink brings out pleasant peculyarities in people. They do things that
make readin' matther. They show signs iv janus. Ivrything in th' pa-aper
inthrests me. Here's th' inside news iv a cillybrated murdher thrile
blossomin' out in th' heat. Here's a cillybrated lawyer goin' to th'
cillybrated murdherer an' demandin' an increase in th' honoraryum iv his
cillybrated collague. Lawyers don't take money. What they get f'r their
public sarvices in deludin' a jury is th' same as an offerin' in a
church. Ye don't give it thim openly. Ye sind thim a bunch iv sweet peas
with the money in it. This here larned counsel got wan honoraryum. But
whin things begun to took tough f'r his protegee he suggested another
honoraryum. Honoraryum is fr'm th' Latin wurruds honor an' aryum,
mainin' I need th' money.
"Yes, sir, ye can't injye a vacation without th' pa-apers. How glad I am
to know that Congress has adjourned afther rejoocin' th' tariff to a
level where th' poorest are within its reach. An' how cud I be happy
away fr'm here if I didn't know how me frind Willum Taft was gettin' on
at goluf. Iv coorse I'm inthrested in all that goes on at th' summer
capitol. I am glad to know that Charles played tennis fr'm ten to iliven
an' aftherward took a throlley car ride to Lynn, where he bought a pair
iv shoes an' a piece iv blueberry pie, but at two o'clock had entirely
recovered. But th' rale inthrest is in th' prisidint's goluf. Me
fav'rite journal prints exthries about it. 'Specyal exthry; six thirty.
Horrible rumor. Prisidint Taft repoorted stymied.' He's th' best goluf
player we've iver had as prisidint. He cud give Abra'm Lincoln a shtroke
a stick. He bate th' champeen iv the' wurruld last week be a scoore iv
wan hundhred an' eighty-two to siventy-six. He did so.
"Here's a column about yisterdah's game. 'A large crowd assimbled to see
th' match. Prisidint appeared ca'm an' collected. He wore his club
unyform, gray pants, black leather belt, an' blue shirt. His opponent,
th' sicrety iv war, was visibly narvous. Th' prisident was first off
th' tee with an excellent three while his opponent was almost hopelessly
bunkered in a camera. But he made a gallant recovery with a vaccuum
cleaner an' was aven with th' prisidint in four. Th' prisidint was
slightly to th' left in th' long grass on his fifth, but, nawthin'
daunted, he took a hoe an' was well out in siven. Both players were in
th' first bunker in eight, th' sicrety iv war havin' flubbed his sixth
an' bein' punished f'r overdarin' on th' siventh. Th' prisidint was
first out iv th' bunker at a quarther past two, his opponent followin'
at exactly three sixteen. Th' prisidint was within hailin' distance iv
home on his sixteenth shot, while his opponent had played eighteen. But
th' pace had been too swift an' it was merely a question iv which wud be
th' first to crack. That misfortune fell to th' lot iv th' sicrety iv
war. Findin' himsilf in a bad lie, he undhertook to use a brassy in a
spirit iv nawthin' venture nawthin' gain. It was raaly a brillyant shot.
A foot nearer th' ball an' he might have accomplished a feat in
golufing histhry. But th' luck iv war was against him an' he sthruck
himsilf upon th' ankle. Th' prisidint, resolvin' to give him no mercy,
took his dhriver an' made a sterling carry to within thirty yards iv th'
green. There was now nawthin' to it. Continuin' to play with great dash,
but always prudently, he had a sure putt iv not more thin forty feet to
bate th' records f'r prisidints f'r this hole, a record that was
established be th' prisident iv th' Women's Christyan Timp'rance Union
in nineteen hundhred an' three. His opponent cried 'I give it to ye,'
an' th' prisidint was down in a brillyant twinty two. His opponent was
obliged to contint himsilf with a more modest but still sound an'
meritoryous thirty-eight (estimated).
"An' there ye ar-re. I'm ivrywhere, but I can always keep in touch with
what's goin' on."
"What kind iv a game is goluf?" asked Mr. Hennessy. "Why do they call it
rile an' ancient?"
"I don't know," said Mr. Dooley, "onless it is because th' prisidint iv
th' United States has just took it up."