Friday 21 August 2015

1884-08-29 Sporting News Rivalry



In the Hamilton of 1884, there were two daily newspapers in operation, and the competition was fierce. Anytime one paper could score some criticism successfully at it rival was a welcome occurrence for the winning journal.
Such was the case when the Spectator sports writer put together the following column, critical of his rival on the sporting beat with the Hamilton Times:
IT NEVER STEALS NOR LIES
The Evening Times is not an amusing paper when it strives to be amusing, but it often furnishes amusement when it is farthest from its intention to do so.
Recently it was the innocent cause of a joke, which is not only very amusing, but it is instructive and significant as well.
A few days since the Spectator accused the Times of copying baseball scores from these columns, in the next issue of the Times appeared this energetic and elegant rejoinder:
“If the autocratic head of the Spec will brush his spectacles and examine the score of the recent match as published in the SPECTATOR and Times, he will find that his is full of errors and the Times one is correct. He simply lies when he says the Times steals anything from the SPECTATOR. It would be too risky a proceeding. No, no: the Times wants correct information, and wouldn’t think of going to the SPEC for it.”
On Wednesday morning, the Spectator published the following bit of sporting information:
“ ‘The ‘Unknown’ who is to row with Laing of Montreal, in a pair-oared race with Conley and Enright, is J. R. Humphrey of Toronto.’
“Now, the reporter who wrote this paragraph unfortunately made two very serious mistakes. In the first place, the ‘Unknown’ was Laing of Montreal, and not Humphrey of Toronto, for it was well-known that Humphrey was going to row. The second error was in the name of Enright’s mate, which should have been O’Connor instead of Conley. This paragraph appeared in no other paper besides the SPECTATOR of last Wednesday. In the Evening Times of the same day, the following interesting piece of sporting intelligence appeared:
“ ‘ The ‘Unknown’ who is to row with Laing, of Montreal, in a pair-oared race with Conley and Enright, is J. R. Humphrey, of Toronto.’
“Now it can hardly be denied that to an unprejudiced mind, this paragraph is at least similar to the one which appeared in the Spectator of the same morning.
“Comment would spoil this exquisite joke. It would be like throwing a perfume on the violet.”1
1 “The World of Sport : The Latest Local and Foreign Sporting News”
Hamilton Spectator. August 29, 1884

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