The
PART TWO
EDITORIAL
PAGES ONE TO EIGHT
unday
PART TWO
SOCIETY
PAGES ONE TO EIGHT
VOL. XLIV NO. 10.
OMAHA, SUNDAY MOKN1NU, Al'(UST 'J:, li14.
SINGLE COPY PIVH CKNTS.
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By ELLA FLEISHMAN".
"Hit Via ball ctre they ain't win a the game,
A hit and a run makea the tin.'
T
HIS is Mrs. V. A. Rourke's favorite
recipe for a base bait game to the
uninitiated. Mrs. Rourke is "Pa"
Rourke's wife, "Pa" being the presi
dent of the Omaha base ball club.
Mrs. Rourke used to be "Mamie"
Kelly of Nebraska Telephone coni
Everyone who has ever had anything
3
pany fame
to do with the telephone company knows Mamie.
She made hundreds of friends during the many
years of her service at the company and the tribute
paid her by the highest officials in the company is
enough to make even "Abe" Lincoln jealous.
The Mamie that was bo thoroughly informed on
office matters is going at base ball with the same
degree of efficiency and desire to know all about
It, even to the business end- You can't "feaze"
Mamie by asking her polntblank. what a "fielder's
choice" or a "squeeze play" is. She comes right
back at you, even if these are terms that many an
ardent base ball fan couldn't define. And she tan
tell you what a "triple play" is right off the bat.
even though she admits that she has never Been it.
Mamie appreciates clever playing. "Isn't Krug
the 'heady player!" she exclaimed. And she will
tell you in a minute which member of a team is
"solid ivory." When Mamie isn't pleased with the
umpire's decision, she vents her displeasure by tell
ing him to "wipe the sand out of his eyes."
"Pa" Rourke's wife has the genuine Irish blar
ney down pat. She knows the base ball fans by
name and greets each and every one with a smile
and a cheery word in her own naive manner.
"Boosters day," when the game wasn't called
until 4 o'clock, the temperature had been flirting
with the 100 degree mark all afternoon. It was
Friday and a double-header had been advertised for
Sunday. Just before the game was called the tele
phone rang sharply out at the park. Mrs. Rourke
excused herself and hastened to answer.
"What Is the score for the first game?" came
In a woman's voice.
"The first game has been postponed on account
of the rain," replied Mamie; "the second won't be
called until 4 o'clock."
Mrs. Kourioe travels right along with M
Rourke and the team and hasn't missed one game 1
this year, with the exception of the last few played
In Topeka, which she did not attend because they )
received a wire to come home.
"Why, I Just naturally look forward to
o'clock for the ball game to start," she said. "It'rft
fun to watch the people who come to the game.)
The most Inveterate base ball fans are professional!
men and women, doctors, lawyers and nurses, whrt
tell me that they come here to relax from thei'r
brain-fagging work. They say that they go bai:k
to the ctty .very much refreshed and many of th em
tell me that the base ball park is perhaps the cool
est spot In town."
Mrs. Rourke lines to travel along with the t-eam
and enjoys the entertainment that Is accorded t hem
a well as the funny experiences with which, she
meets. When they were in Denver in June. Mr.
and Mrs. Rourke and the ball club were jnter
tained at a box party at the Broadway theater by
Nat Goodwin, when Nat interspersed a grerat deal
about the Omaha team between the lines,1 of the
play. He is an old friend of "Pa" Roun(ke, and
never misses a game when he can get awiay from
the theater. y
At the game in Sioux City the sat next ira typical
farmer, who confided to her that "Oniat ia had a
rotten team, gosh durn it." It so happened that
the break in luck was with Omaha that c'ay. which
didn't feaze" the country gentleman liy the least-
"Goll ding it, that Sioux City team hain't got a
thing on Omaha," be yelled, stamping laiis feet all
the while. Showing that the fans get ) so excited
over a good play that they are apt to be aas change
able as the wind or weather.
"I was always interested in base ba (u, ever since
I was a little girl, because my brot Wrs always
talked so much about it." snid Mrs. Roirke. "Every
Saturday afternoon or Sunday that I could slip
away to the game I always did so." Bi. ,t she stoutly
denies that base ball had anything to"? do with her
meeting "Pa" Rourke. She says thatl her mother
and "Pa" Rourke's mother were friendj., for a great
many years and the friendship betwee n them grew
up hi that manner. -
Mrs. Rourke laughs as she tells the following
incident to her betrothal days. Som. one who had
heard Mr. Rourke familiarly spoken o f as "Pa" had
mt lui-a mat ne was a
elderly, bewhiskered gentleman.
"Why, Mamie," sho exclaimed. "yc' re no
to marry such an old man, ar', vou?
he's 'na! ' " id ' " '
n exceedingly
ot goinij
Why
Neither Mr. or Mrs. Rourke ha
, . . , v Hc h"'" 'Jii
.ue,r noneynioon yet and are constantly recalling
incidents of that trip. Mr. Rourke Wells an amus
ing joke on his wife, much to her discomfiture
at dusk and I hadn't gotten my beaming, correctly.
HI, mC ,08t 80niewhere Korty-second
street. My wife went up to a big rlBn policcm(ln
who -.. stand.ng on the corner ..r4 asked to be
greeted to a certain address. Well, y ,amie was .11
dolled up in her 'go-away- gow and thi Irih boob
thought she was trying to flirt with him so in
stead of answering her question, he Ju .8t stood and"
smiled at her and answered not a word ne thought
he wa. all alone. Well. I caught the 'situation im
mediately, but Mamie she couldn't un lerstand why
he grinned at her without answering. She doesn't
think very much of New York policem en."
Mr. RourKe tells another one abc jut his wife.
, On their recent trip to Denver they i met his old
'friend Jim Flynn, the prize fighter, j
, "Well, sir, Mrs. Rourke refused to believe that
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such a small fellow aa he could be a prize fighte-r.
She imagined they had to be giants."
He said that this spring Mrs. Rourke used to
"pan" him every day about the players. "Why
don't you get new pitchers?" she would say, just as
if you run out and pick them off the street.
Mrs. Rourke has a hont of amusing stories to
tell of women who attend the base ball games.
Some of them admire base ball players as much as
matinee idols and give them niiknames also. One
player especially Is quite a ladies' favorite and be
cause of bis dignified manner the women tall him
"Colonel."
One day one of the best ball pluyers booted a
ball that cost a couple of ruus. "Why doesn't your
husband fire that man, Mrs. Rourke?" a woman
asked ber.
K they are pleased with his playing, they hay
"Tell Mr. Rourko never to let him go."
Mrs. Rourke tcll.s this one about a woman who
didn't understand the game but was enthusiastic
anyway. She had been watching the game intently
for some time and had her attention focused on
the pitcher.
"Oh, Mrs. Itourke," she exrlaiined, "1 think he
is tho loelicst pitcher. Every time he throws a
ball hi; Liis tho butter's bat."
One day a party of women came out as guests
on ladies' day.
"I think this is the rotteneot ball game I ever
saw." f.ald one of the women.
"How many have you seen, Mrs. Blank?" asked
Mamie, of the quick Irish wit.
"Oh, this is the first gume I've ever attended,"
was the reply.
The oft-repeated quebtiou, according to Mrs.
ltourke, Is "Arc you going to win today?"
Mrs. Uourke looks forward to entertaining the
women who will be here In November when theti
men folks come to attend the convention of ths
National Association of Professional Base Ball
Leagues In Omaha.
Mr. Rourke w-as the originator of ladies' day in
the Western league and has been sponsor of the
movement In organized base ball to have a national
children's day each year, the proceeds to be turned
over to the public playgrounds fund. Mr. Rourke
will push this matter at the convention this fall.
Over 10.000 children attended the last child
ren's day game when Mr- Rourke turned over the
whole direction of the affair to Mrs. Rourke. be
cause he was too busy to attend to it. All the
children of the public institutions were especial
guests of honor and many of the children came up
to her after the game to thank her for the treat
and ank that it be repeated next year.
Mrs. Rourke is very much interested in keeping
the Omaha club and all that pertains to it up to
the standard and Is very proud of the electric score
board In use at the park, the only one In the West
ern league. She Is as personally interested In each
of the players as she was In each one at the tele
phone company and likes to watch them travel up
to the major leagues. If they make a pretty play,
no one cheers louder than she. They have two
pennants, that of 1904 and 1907, and a number of
base ball pictures in their home, ot which they are
very proud.
"Fans are being educated nowadays," said Mrs.
Bourke. "The base ball crowds are different than
they used to be. They come to look at a scientific
game and don't care so much about which team
wine. It's only the newspaper and scoreboard read
ers, who never attend the game, that holler about
the home team not winning. The others know that
one team has to win and go out to see the sport.
It used to be 'win, no matter how now they want
to see a scientific performance. Then there Is al
ways a fascination about the 'breaks,' luck and
otherwise."
Mrs. Rourke is very proud of the mascot of the
team, her little 3-year-old nephew, Hugh McKenna,
her sister's son. She bought him a complete play
er's outfit and on his birthday "Pa" bougnt him a
glove and ball.
"I'm going to be a base ball player," says little
Jtlirh. "hilt VOIl'lt hal-a n irnt in monlr nA
At the telephone company, officials vie with
each other in saying splendid things about Mamie.
Her genial smile, big-beartedness, Irish wit and
efficiency endeared her tp everyone with whom she
came in contact. She had been with the company
for nearly fifteen years, having started aa an
operator, later a stenographer, then private secre
tary and caehler. She was invaluable to the heada
of the company.
"We never found anyone to take her place
when she left and we never will," said W. A. Pixley,
general auditor, regretfully. "If she bad been a
man. she would have risen to the managership of
the Omaha exchange, and, indeed, many times she
did the work of a manager Not that we discrim
inate against women," he explained apologetically,
."but. you see, we can't tell what day they will up
and leave us to get married. We consider that
because of her loyal service she helped build up the
telephone company in this city."
Mamie herself tells the following Incident of
those days. "My name Is Mary Ellen, but everyone
calla ra Mamie or by my Initials 'M. K.' One day
an old gentleman, slightly deaf, had occasion to
stand by my window for some time and heard the
office force call me familiarly 'M. K.' At last he
could stand it no longer, and, approaching the win
dow, he raised hla glasses to hla eyea, made a trum
pet of the palm of his hand to his ear, and asked
querulously:
' "Young woman, are you "Aunt Kate" to all
these people here?' "
She always looked out for the welfare of the
other employee, who often came to her for advice
when they were in trouble, and she looked after
many of their bank accounts.
"Why. come to think of It. she used to txk
care of my bank account, too," said one of the high
officials. "When my wife wanted anything done
she never called me. She used to say. 'I'll call
Mamie Kelly. She'll get It done for me. Maybe
you'll think of It and maybe you won't.' "
The public would tell all their troubles to
Mamie. Sometimes a dissatisfied patron would
come In who didn't wish to pay a bill or had some
complaint to make, but Mamie always got the
money. And when it came to matching wits Mamie
was there and over.
"One of the worst half-hours I ever spent in
my life was one that Mamie gave me when she waa
bent on mischief one day," said W, B. T. Belt, gen
eral superintendent.
"One morning eight toll operators came into
my office and informed me that they were leaving,
to be married within the month. . That was in the
days when our working force was seriously de
moralized because there had been so many mar
riagea depriving us of our experienced girls. Well,
you know it takes a long while to break a girl Into
the toll work, and I was dreadfully put out about
It. However. I comforted myself, for I thought
'Mamie's here; ehe'll take care of the situation all
right."
"Upon returning from luncheon that day, my
heart jumped into my throat when I chanced to
notice a diamond solitaire gleaming on Mamie's en
gagement finger. I was so put out I couldn't say
a word to ber about it, but later I called her Into
the office and asked her what the ring on ber
finger meant. Then she told me that she bad worn
it only to tease me. My, but 1 was relieved. "
"Mamie was a winner at everything that she
undertook. Why, I look forward to a winning base
ball team now that Mamie has taken hold of it.
The reason they haven't got it now, I venture to
say, Is because Mamie isn't in full charge of it yet,"
was Mr. Belt's parting tribute.
