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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