Distinquished Representatives Of The Beauty Of American Beer And Liquor

Dave Rowe and the American Association St. Louis Club are fighting. Mr. Von der Ahe claims that Rowe agreed to sign with his club, but when the contract and advance money were sent to him, he returned them and signed with the Lucas Club. Of the latter fact there is no doubt, but the fight has caused Mr. Lucas to publish Rowe's telegrams to him. In one of them Rowe refers to a "good man" that he can secure, and in another that he had contracts awaiting him from Cleveland, Providence and the St. Louis American Association Club. This shows that Rowe has used tricks. He never had a contract from Cleveland in his possession. The "good man" was evidently Dunlap.

Meanwhile no new Union Association Clubs are being organized. It is still hard to see the ability of the Association to gather the knot of clubs necessary to play through a season. If one is raised by one syndicate, the public can and will have no faith in it. If the St. Louis Club is to be run round the country on the old Hop Bitters plan, it may pay its owners as an advertisement for a brand of St. Louis beer. In the latter case the judgement of Mr. Lucas in selecting such men as Bill Taylor, Mike Mansell and "Little Buttercup" Dickerson is to be commended. They are distinguished representatives of the beauty of American beer and liquor as applied-in liberal quantities-to the ball player...In a letter to the editor clear-headed Frank Bancroft, in commenting on the St. Louis Club, says: "I met Ward recently, and he denies signing with the St. Louis. A League player who joins any such wild-cat scheme, certainly can be questioned closely as to his sanity, for the League, who has fostered base ball and nursed it into its present flourishing state, does not propose to let such mountebanks take its talent away without doing something to convince deserters that they will be remembered."

-Cleveland Herald, November 29, 1883

It's not everyday that you see "mountebanks" used in a sentence. That's a word we need to bring back.

And, for the record, it looks like Dave Rowe was the one who recommended that Lucas sign Dunlap.