The Omaha Sunday Bee.
TART THREE
HALF-TONE
PAGES ONE TO TOUR,
FOR ALL THE NEWS
THE OMAHA BEE
BEST IN THE WEST
VOL, XL. NO. 45.
Outdoor Clubs of Omaha Source
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UTDOOR recreation tn Omaha has caught
Ol fast hold of young and old alike, and la
I having a development along most whole
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be discussed In this article comprises
the organized effort of people of like
tastes associated In congenial groups.
It takes no account of the great heart hold that basa
ball, organized and amateur, has on all classes every
day that games can be played.
How much financial strength Is Involved In the
furthering of the campaign for outdoor recreation In
Omaha and lta immediate vicinity? Probably $500,
000. And the number of individuals and families
directly affected must run far into the hundreds; In
directly, into the thousands.
Clubs that can properly be listed under the head
of outdoor organizations in this city comprise the
Omaha Country club, Happy Hollow club. Field club,
Diets club, Prairie Park club, Omaha Rod and Gun
club, Omaha Gun club, South Omaha Country club.
Miller Park club, Council Bluffs Rowing association
and the recently organized Omaha Aero club. About
every one in the list has its own particular grounds
where its activities are carried on, and several oi
them have quite costly club houses.
Country Club Is "High Society."
First in prominence, perhaps, though not In mem
bership, is the Omaha Country club, having lta
grounds and club house on Military avenue, near Ben
son.' By the completion recently of a purchase of
the McShane tract the Country club now owns a
beautiful stretch of seventy-eight acres, rolling, green
and' most elegantly calculated to make good golfers
better. The property stands an assessment of $65,
000, $20,000 of which represents Improvements.
The Country club is made up more largely of so
ciety people than any of the others, yet It has the rep
utation of being a place where real good fellowship
shines through the exercise of cordial hospitality on
many occasions. Borne of the functions carried out
by this organization are on an elaborate scale; but It
is on the links where its beaux shine with greatest
satisfaction to 'themselves. Golf la the one great
study at the Country club, with tennis, croquet and
the like as the recreation features.
Beginning August IS, the Omaha Country club
will be on its metttle as an entertainer, as well as in
the line of athletic management. On that date the
opening rounds will be played in the Transmlssisslppl
golf tourney, for which more golfers are expected to
enter than in any similar event anywhere in the
country.
The officers of the Country club this year are
W. J. Foye, president; E. H. Sprague, vice president;
Lawrence Brinker, secretary; Frank J. Burkley,
treasurer; board of directors, W. J. Foye, E. H.
Bprague, Frank J. Burkley, V A. Redick, F. H.
Gaines, Frank Colpetzer, C. F. Montgomery, J. R.
Bcoble and Jerome P. Magee.
Happy Hollow an Elegant Club Home.
The Happy Hollow club, located on the old Patrick
homestead, is also something of a whale in the society
line, but it is also very strong on the more sqber ath
tetle exercises. There are men in this organization
who have the reputation of being so wrapped up in
the expert chase of the little white ball that they will
forget to attend meetings where money is to be made.
The dub owns about twelve acres of ground surround
ing the club house and leases eighty-six acres addi
tional from the Dundee Realty company. The elegant
and pretentious Patrick home adjusted Itself most
admirably to the purposes of high-toned club life, but
the organization has had so healthy a growth that an
addition coating $4,000 la now being made for the
better accommodation of the members and guests.
Family parties, in the social line, are very popular
among the Happy Hollow folk. The Improvements
at this recreation center are assessed for $30,000,
and the value of the grounds brings the total invest
ment close up to $100,000. Its officers are Robert
Dempster, president; W. L. Belby. secretary and treas
urer; A. T. Austin, vice president; board of directors,
Robert Dempster, A. T. Austin, J. L. Webster, S. A.
Searle, Joseph Polcar, W. L. Selby, W. B. T. Belt. E.
A. Benson and H. K. Burket.
Field Club Large and Cosmopolitan.
Strongest In membership of all the outdoor elabs
Is the Field. This organization has its club house,
golf links, tennis courts and base ball diamond
on property owned by Douglas county. It is part of
the tract originally bought for a poor farm, and the
county hospital U located on cue end of the la ad.
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The Field club has under lease 163 acres, which It has
highly improved for its purposes. At the beginning
of Its occupany some discouraging conditions existed,
but the original minds of the then officers solved the
difficulty by renting a brigade of goats, the most op
timistic animal, aside from the mule, on four legs.
Harry Morrill, then secretary, drove the goats up
from the South Omaha stock yards and turned them
loose on the succulent brush and bramble, refuse and
tin cans, old paper and abandoned building material.
With the quiet persistence of warriors laying siege
to the castle wherein the sleeping beauty was im
mured, the goats, with gusty appetite, cleaned up the
ground as slick as a new whistle. Then the land
scape artists of the club enlarged the golf links, laid
awake nights to frame up new hazards, and generally
fixed things so that every new member assuming to
master the game undergoes a rather stiff Initiation.
The Field club gives a series of hops and otfeer
social functions throughout the 'season, and H has
entertained very acceptably some large parties of a
civic nature, aa In the case of the visit of Colonel
Roosevelt last year. The club has also managed a
good many tournaments for the tennis cracks of the
country, its courts having a high reputation. This
year the Field club will be host for the National Clay
Court tennis tournament, one of the greatest things
of Its kinu in the world of genteel outdoor sport. The
tournament will open August 5.
No prettier prospect lies outdoors than that of
fered in the Field club grounds. The organization
has spent large sums of good coin in making ita home
place moHt attractive, and its improvements are as
sessed at $25,000, which is a very conservative f'.gure.
The present officers are: Dr. V. H. Sherraden, presi
dent; L. D. Carrier, vice president; J. W. Hughes,
secretary; Philip Potter, treasurer; board of directors:
G. E. Haverstlck, S. 8. Caldwell, G. F. Epeneter, J.
B. Lindsay.
Dietz Club a Pioneer In Outdoor rieaaure.
When one mentions the name of the Dietz club
It recalls the fact that this group of lovers of out
door sports was a pioneer in its line. Several of the
original organizers are still connected with the club
and they have the satisfaction of knowing tnat it
has developed into a real live-wire tenter for real
outdoor fans. At Its new location, on the bank of
Carter lake, the club has establiahed what is really
a community given over to the joy of sensible living,
in which sport of a healthy and varied nature consti
tutes a principal element. Bungalows and boats are
two main equipments of which the club is proud, and
some of the married people on the club list have lived
on the Dietz reservation all winter. For the younger
members of the club base ball and tennis offer he
a bm as fc.
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OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 23.
1911.
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THE FIELD CLUB
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greatest attraction, varied with dances and other
social affairs, given at intervals winter and summer.
Expert fishermen, and women, are not few in this
organization, and they claim to know more about the
family habits and tastes of the Carter lake denizens
than even the oldest fishing sharp that frequents the
shores of the lake.
On the Dietz club grounds, besides a pretty little
clubhouse, are twenty-five more or less pretentious
summer residences, which will easily average a value
of $350 each., The clubhouse cost $2,500, and the
club maintains a pumping system of its own. For
lighting purposes it uses the current of the Omaha
Electric Light company. The present officers are:
President, George Johnson; vice president, E. E. Laf
ferty; secretary, Percy E. Gwynne; treasurer, James
R. Ward; board of directors: J. J. McMahon, Andrew
Anderson, Charles O'Neill, E. E. Eisenhart, W. H.
Platner.
Rod and Gun Club Has a Little Town.
For the Omaha Rod and Gun club it can be said
that no livelier bunch Uvea on the shore of an en
ticing lake anywhere. The club owns several acres
where it makes It3 home and has the use of consider
able more ground. Its members have erected summer
homes to the number of fifty, and some of them are
good enough to live in all the year round were the
owners bo disposed. The grounds are well cared for,
excellently lighted and running water Is handy. The
club members take a keen Interest In the en
forcement of the game and fishing laws of the btate.
A fleet of launches, rowboats and canoes Is kept con
tinually In service during the season, and many of
the boys and girls have established fine reputations
as sailors under the Instruction of the old salts who
honor the club with their patronage. Councilman
Sheldon is official Instructor in the art of angling,
with City Engineer Craig as official reviser and censor
of fish stories. The officers are: A. P. "hitmore,
president; R. S. Bacon, vice president; A. E. Ander
son, secretary; A. F. Bloom, treasurer; board of di
rectors: G. N. Aulabaugh, G. V. Craig, 8. S. Hamilton,
W. S. Ting, W. Loftus, S. F. Prentiss, E. P. Berry
man, C. A. Clihe, D. C. Eldrldge.
Prairie Parkers Are Esthetic,
The Prairie Park club is a neighborhood organi
zation, com poised of home owners in the pretty set
tlement of that name just north of Ames avenue and
west of Twenty-fifth avenue. Several tennis courts
are laid out in the park, and the younger men and the
girls of Prairie Park can hold their own with the
players of most any club. Horticulture and floricul
ture are the hobbies that engage the attention of the
grownups of Prairie Park, the ambition of the mem
bers being to create a ten-acre prospect that will serve
as ah example not only for Omaha, but for the coun
try. This club is affiliated with the American Civic
association, which sends slides all over the country in
a campaign to booet the city beautiful Idea. At the
beginning a decision was made to have no alleys, no
fences, no ash piles or accumulations of any sort of
rubbish, and the memberbhip of ihm dub finds Its
of Pride and Pleasure
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principal recreation in cultivating flower beds, shrub
bery and hedges, with tennis and grass-cutting as side
lines. Outdoor picnics and patriotic celebrations are
features. The officers of the Prairie Park club are:
President, John J. Ryder; vice president, 8. M. Mor
gan; secretary, M. J. Curran; treasurer, O. T. Alvlson.
Gun Club is One of the Kent.
Just now the Omaha Gun club is concentrating its
attention on the preparations necessary to carry off
with eclat and high reputation the Western Handicap
shouting tournament.. This event will be opened
August 8, and will bring the crack marksmen of the
whole west to Omaha for a week. The club controls
a ten-acre reservation just over the Douglaa street
bridge, on the Iowa side, where it will have high class
accommodations prepared for lta guests. Among the
local membership of this club are some of the best
trap and wing shots in this section, and some of the
mightiest hunters of small and large game. They
rove far afield during the open seasons, and some
great bags have been placed to their credit as the
result of good work on moor, meadow and upland,
and in the mountains of adjoining states to the west.
The present officers are: President, Henry 8. Mc
Donald; vice president, George Loom la; secretary
treasurer, W. B. Townsend.
Miller Park Club Hm Free links.
The Miller Park club maintains the only free golf
links In Omaha at Miller park, through the courtesy
of the park board. The club also has a tennis court,
snd has established a locker plant for Its members
in the basement of the Miller park pavilion. It has
been carefully managed ana Is growing in membership
steadily. Some improvements have been made this
year in the links, and the club experts to have a most
successful season. The officers are: President, W.
S. Wilmoth; vice president, B. C. Miner; secretary, W.
Lucas; treasurer, George Edwards.
South Omaha Club May Disband.
At this time the prospects are not bright for the
continuation of the South Omaha Country club. Talk
of disbandment and the placing of the grounds on
the market is prominent, but an element of the mem
bership Is endeavoring to prevent disbandment, and
snems to have tome hope of succeeding. The tiuh
has maintained a very homelike clubhouse on the ia-
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terurban line below South Omaha and Its golf links
have been brought to a very satisfactory degree of
completeness.
Aquatic Sport at Manama.
Across the river one ipf the livest organizations for
the encouragement of outdoor sport is the Council
Bluffs Rowing association, which maintains a club
house and rowing course on Manawa. Its regattas) j
have bad the effect of arousing a healthy Interest In
sailing and rowing and other aquatio sports. The
officers are: Emmet Tlnley, president; V, V. Everest,
vice president; Perry Badollet, secretary; Charles R.
Hannan, jr., treasurer; board of directors: IL J. Haws,
commodore; B. L. Banford, vice commodore; Charles
E. Walters, Fred B. Empkle, Byron L. Reed,
Clubs Discharge a Large Duty.
All of these clubs, adding so much to the general
pleasure of their members, fill a distinctive role la
the social life of the city. While some hold the ad
mission fees and dues so high that no family in ordi
nary circumstances can afford to belong, even i(
it cared to, most of them are democratic and cosmo
politan in the best sense. In all, characer and con
duct is held to be the essential element of eligibility,
and the standard la well maintained throughout the
whole membership. The commodious and excellently
appointed club houseB furnish the necessary room for
the largest social functions, and the club kitchens are
matters of boast among the numerous gourmets and
minor connoisseurs who know and appreciate good
cooking. The service, too, has been organized to the
point where little or no fault can be found by the
most captious. Stewards and house committees of
the larger clubs are experts in their particular line,
for when competent persons develop the right kind
of talent they are kept
Aside from the purely social side, the outdoor
clubs or, more properly, clubs which make outdoor
sport and pastime the basis of their club life furnish
renters strong enough to organize and handle In good
shape the local, interstate and national tournament
in the different lines of eport. and thus nil a large
duty that reflects favorably on the hospitable reputa
tion of Omaha. As will be noted from mention made
above, three such great tournament are already dated
for Omaha this seanon, with club organization a
sjponsors and manarvr.
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