In Baseball Fiends and Flying Machines, I connected the dots and credited Leech Maskrey with planting the idea in Alfred Lawson's mind of making a baseball tour to England. Had I had more room for images, I would have included Maskrey's Old Judge cigarette card:
I can't put my fingers on the references now, but as I recall, when Maskrey retired from baseball he became an art teacher. The above image is from Find a Grave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6428956
Recently digitized editions of Sporting Life have provided more details on the amateur players that accompanied Lawson on his 1892 and 1895 tours of England. In the case of the 1892 team, I only had fragmentary information before, but now some of the blanks are filled in:
In the case of the 1895 team, I had all of the names, but the places where the players hailed from is more accurate:
In Baseball Fiends and Flying Machines I leave open the possibility that the 1895 team, in particular, might have been loaded with minor league pros sailing under aliases, but now I tend to give Lawson the benefit of the doubt. Sporting Life also ran the ads he placed for players, and he was angling for amateurs or unoccupied semi-pro players.
On page 108 of Baseball Fiends and Flying Machines, I state that Al Lawson rented a bungalow atop Mt. Penn in Reading, PA from his his local partner in baseball ventures, businessman William A. Witman. The site was not far from the landmark Pagoda building that Witman built a few years later. A recently unearthed article from the Aug. 2, 1903 Reading Eagle describes the abode, but this new information suggests that Lawson purchased the land (and not from Witman); and, moreover built the house himself with his brother Colin.
This article presents a side to Lawson seldom evidenced elsewhere. For one thing, it shows he was still (as of 1903) close to his family. His brother Alexander came to Reading to help manage Al's team; Colin helped build the house; and their mother and sister visited (which sister? Kate?). Another striking element to the story is Lawson's attachment to a place--when all other evidence suggests he embraced the life of a nomad.
Angora Rd. on Mt. Penn still exists, set amid a Berks County Park. There are a few private homes there, but it is a wealthy neighborhood. Nothing as humble as Lawson's bungalow still stands.
The misspelled "Jefferis" is, of course, Jim Jeffries, the then-current heavyweight champion of the world. Another article in the Eagle states that Al Lawson managed Jeffries during a promotional tour he made as a celebrity baseball umpire (something ex-champion John L. Sullivan had done years earlier). So Al Lawson was friends with two of boxing's greatest champions, Jeffries and Kid McCoy. As it turned out, Jeffries did visit Lawson, but could only stay a day. He beat Corbett and remained champion until he retired in 1905. After six years of idleness, he was recruited out of retirement to serve as the Great White Hope against Jack Johnson. Jeffries embraced the role of defender of racial superiority, but was well past his prime and had to lose 100 pounds just to get in fighting shape. After losing to Johnson, Jeffries gave him due respect, which has led many to suggest that Jeffries' racist posturing was more hype than reality, and served to help bookmakers rake in foolish wagers made based on ignorant bias. In his prime, Jeffries was a superb athlete, and some boxing experts still consider him as the greatest heavyweight ever.
"Phila. Jack O'Brien" was another Hall of Fame boxer, a light heavyweight champion. There was a baseball player named Jack O'brien that played for Lawson on different teams of his, but the boxer and ballplayer were probably not the same person. So Al Lawson hobnobbed with boxers John L. Sullivan, Kid McCoy, Philadelphia Jack O'Brien, and Jim Jeffries--the best fighters of his generation.
Just as newly digitized editions of Sporting Life have illuminated Alfred Lawson's misadventures in England during his 1892 baseball tour, so have they shed light on his activities once he arrived in Australia after leaving England. When I was writing Baseball Fiends and Flying Machines, a good sample of Australian papers had already been digitized, and mention of Lawson was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, the secretary of the nascent New South Wales Baseball League, a New Zealander named J. A. Chuck, sent regular reports on baseball's progress Down Under to the American weekly Sporting Life. Therefore two reports previously unknown to me from Chuck are found in Sporting Life that give a lively account of Lawson's sojourn.
Let's set the context for Chuck's first report to Sporting Life, which appeared in the Dec. 24, 1892 issue. Chuck wrote his letter on Oct. 29, 1892, but because of the length of time it took for mail to arrive from Australia, it was not printed until late December. Chuck said that Lawson had arrived in Australia on Oct. 23. This followed his desertion of the team of New York Amateurs he had led over to England. Lawson had left England sometime in mid-August, and sailed first to South Africa and India before reaching Australia. Meanwhile, an anonymous letter had been sent from England detailing Lawson's alleged swindling tricks and had been printed in the September 10, 1892 edition of Sporting Life. That article ended with a warning that Lawson was on his way to Australia. J.A. Chuck received a copy of the Sep. 10 article just before Lawson arrived on Oct. 23, so Chuck knew exactly who Lawson was and the nature of the claims made against him. So Chuck reports:
"On Thursday last, Oct. 23, I was addressed as follows:--"'Mr. Chuck?'
"'Yes, sir, that's me; all that remains.'
"'My name is Lawson. I am a professional base ball player from America.'
"'Is that so? I have heard of you, Mr. Lawson, and expected your arrival. Are you here on business, or simply taking a run-around?'
"'Well, Mr. Chuck, to tell the truth, I am trying to kill two birds with one stone. If there are any chances in the base ball business of making money, I am prepared to offer my services either as player or instructor.'
"'The chances of doing something in that line, Mr. Lawson, at least so far as you are concerned, at present are not very great.'
"'What do you mean, sir?" I do not understand.'
"'Then I will explain and come at once to the point. Your English record has preceded you, and unless matters can be put right and satisfactorily explained, I, as representative of the N. S. W. ball players, decline to accord you the welcome that should and would be given to any straight-going member of the fraternity.'
"'Of what am I accused, Mr. Chuck?'
"'Read for yourself.'
"I then handed Lawson a copy of The Sporting Life which he eagerly scanned. What his thoughts were I do not know, but I can say he appeared much astonished and broke right up. Having finished the article and recovered from the shock, he replied: --'The writer of that letter is an unmitigated, mean and contemptible liar, filled with gall to the neck, a despicable hound, a creeping crawling scoundrel of the yellowest dye. The facts of the case are as follows...'"
Lawson then gave Chuck a vigorous defense of his actions during the tour of England, rolling off the financial figures from memory. Lawson concluded, "...I give it an unqualified denial. Wll C. Bryan, Sporting Life correspondent, can speak the truth. I invite him to do so; when he does we will see who comes out on top. This is my statement. I will, if required, cover it by affidavit."
Lawson's explanation gave J. A. Chuck pause. He wrote, "Someone is cutting it very thick. Who it is, in justice to Lawson and in the interest of base ball, should be decided." So he concluded in his Oct. 29th report from Australia. What Mr. Chuck was unaware of is that Will C. Bryan had already weighed in with his version of events, which were printed in the Oct. 8 edition of Sporting Life. Copies of that edition would not reach Australia until several weeks after Lawson washed up on shore.
And so Lawson was given the benefit of the doubt and Mr. Chuck arranged for him to serve as an instructor in the South Australia leagues. After a month, Chuck sent another letter to Sporting Life. His letter dated Nov. 27, 1892 (which was printed in the weekly's Jan. 7th issue) even compliments Lawson: "Notwithstanding the fact that Lawson is somewhat under a cloud, his appearance in our midst has, so far as instruction is concerned, been conducive of good.He has given our pitchers a few pointers, and helped in no small degree to awaken interest in the game."
But Chuck's endorsement was limited to Lawson's role as an instructor. Al Lawson couldn't resist testing his mettle against the neophyte Australian batters, with predictable results. In a separate letter to Sporting Life, Chuck was so appalled by the effect of good pitching that he thought something in the design of the sport itself must have been inherently wrong:
"When Al Lawson succeeded in striking out twenty-two batsmen during one game any close observer could have noticed that the unprejudiced mind clearly saw something wrong in the State of Denmark...I am fully convinced that base ball will not assume the position that it should until the present power given to the pitcher is somewhat modified." (J. A. Chuck in Sporting Life, March 4, 1893)
At any rate, Chuck's view of Lawson's character likely took a downturn when the October 8 edition of Sporting Life arrived in Australia with Will C. Bryan's damning account of Lawson's actions in England. With some relish, Chuck reported Lawson's reaction:
In Baseball Fiends..., p. 55-58, I laid out the charges and counter-charges made between Al Lawson and V.E. Harvey over the debacle of the New York Amateurs tour of England in August of 1892. As additional issues of Sporting Life have been digitized, now another witness can be heard. In the October 8, 1892 issue, the weekly printed a long column by Will. C. Bryan, the American who was recruited while in England to fill a roster spot on the short-handed New York Amateur team:
From Old England: Further Details of Lawson's Swindling Operations: "The Sporting Life's" Story Fully Confirmed by Mail Advices--Lawson's Methods Described
Manchester, Eng. Aug. 25--Editor SPORTING LIFE--Well, the great and only Al Lawson "has been and gone," as the nigger said. [Note: this casual racism comes second-hand from a minstrel dialect poem Minding the Hens, by then-popular author/poet Frederick Wadsworth Loring.] Like a meteor he came and went, leaving a trail of rascality behind him that I am afraid will do our game no good in England. It seems destined that base ball must receive a severe check each season that overcomes the good done before. Some worthless scamp crops up and does some rascally thing that leaves a blur upon our game and causes people to sneer and belittle it. It is a shame. But what are we to do?Lawson's Devious Ways
Lawson's visit to England was a short one, but he did a great deal of harm during it. Why he came here a brought a ball team none but himself knows. When he wrote me months ago, asking me about his bringing over a team, I answered him and told him it was a folly to think of it, and that if he had $2000 or $3000 to blow in, to blow it in in America, for he would lose it here, as there was no field for an American team. Only about three cities would have given him games, and it would not pay him. In the face of this he came. He advertised for me in a sporting paper and I wrote him. The result was I met him in Preston on the 12th inst. (for the first time in my life). He took me on one side, told me he had brought over a team, but was three men short, and would I play with them and help them out? Of course, I volunteered to do so, and did play. He had the nerve to tell me that he had games arranged with Derby, Middlesboro, Wallsend, Newcastle, and Liverpool. Ten games in all, he said. I knew better, for I knew none of these cities would play him, unless it was Middlesboro and Derby, and I had word a week before that Derby had refused to make dates with his team, as just at that time Mr.Ley was on his ear over the cup competition trouble spoken of in my last.
A few minutes after this Lawson told me that the team had to return to New York by a steamer sailing on Aug. 18, just a week from then. Yet he had ten games arranged to play in these seven days, and a Sunday in between, when he could not play. He also asked me if I knew where he could sell three return tickets, that he was not going back to New York, but to Australia. I put one and one together, and made up my mind Mr. Lawson was up to some funny work. I had not, as yet, met any of the boys of the team. When I did I found them to be a fine lot of young ball players, and just such a smooth, slick man like Lawson could do about as he pleased with. They were a fine, gentlemanly lot of boys, and deserved different treatment than they received from Lawson, who swindled them unmercifully according to their statement. And here let me say that what I write here I have gathered from statements of Cummins, O'Brien, Sullivan, and Carrick, the men composing the team, and my own observations.The First Game
Well, a nine was made up to play Preston on the 12th. It rained hard all afternoon up to time for calling game, but a crowd of 1500 enthusiasts paid their threepence to see the New York boys. It was so wet and slippery that it was impossible to handle the ball, and finally the rain was so bad we stopped playing when five innings had been played. The score is a large one, also the error column, but the condition of the ground is the cause of it. The score:
As Preston had no catcher Cummins and Sullivan, of the New Yorks, took turns in catching for them. When the game was finished I asked Lawson where he played next, and he said: "Oh, I think at Liverpool on Saturday, Aug. 14. But can't we play here instead?" This seemed strange to me, that if he had ten games arranged, how could he lie idle on Friday and play Preston on Saturday. But he arranged to play Preston on Saturday just the same.
Rascally Conduct
One Mr. Van Epps Harvey, a gentleman from New York, was with the team as business manager, and he also played first base on the team. It seems this gentleman represented the parties who furnished Lawson with the money for the trip. On Thursday night when Preston's secretary settled with Lawson, Mr. Harvey, naturally, as business manager, asked to have the receipts turned over to him. This Lawson resented and took the money-bag himself. In a few minutes Mr. Harvey requested me to go with him and be a witness to what passed between him and Lawson. I went, and I was present and I heard Lawson abuse and insult Mr. Harvey outrageously, and I hardly knew what to do, being a spectator of such a scene and being a total stranger to either party. I was finally asked my opinion and advice in the matter, Mr. Harvey explaining how business matters stood, and in the role of peace-maker I patched up a treaty with them for the time being. During the whole of this heated scene while Lawson raged and stormed, Mr. Harvey never forgot he was a gentleman, but sat quietly listening to Lawson's abuse without a harsh word in reply.
It finally came to turning over the receipts of the day to Mr. Harvey. I was watching Lawson by this time, and when I saw him pay to Harvey a certain sum as the total gate receipts, and then walk off with over 3 pounds ($15) in the bag, I was not at all surprised. And Lawson knew I saw him, for he leered at me cunningly whilst doing it. It was none of my business at the time. Lawson had paid me for my playing on that day and also for the game to be played on Saturday, so I was safe for what was due me. Yet I made up my mind to tell Mr. Harvey of it soon as I got him by himself.
Skipped By the Light of the Moon
When we came down to breakfast Friday morning there was no sign of Lawson. His baggage was gone from his room, and the porter said he had gone the night before on the midnight train, and Lawson had said to Liverpool.
Everyone of the team came to the conclusion that Lawson had deserted them, and they, in a body, came to me and asked me what I could do for them, placing themselves entirely under my charge, Mr. Harvey particularly requesting it. I told them to await developments Saturday; give Lawson a chance to return; if he did not, I would see what I could do for them. But I told them I was confident that no games could be had, as Derby had refused, and there was no other place to look to; but I would do what I could, if Lawson failed to turn up. When it became apparent that Lawson had decamped, the boys began to compare notes and it came to light that he (Lawson) had secured from each of the young players sums from $50 to $100, promising them a dividend from the receipts of the games to be played in England.
Besides this he had secured an old uniform from an amateur team somewhere, had it cleaned, the old name--Seton Hall, I think--removed, "New York" put on, and charged this to his backer as the highest priced uniform that could be had--$200 I understand he billed it at. What did he do with the money he confidenced out of his team and the money charged for the "finest uniform that can be had," as he says in his letter to you, in all about $500? Echo answers "What?" Besides this he had three steamer tickets, which he wanted to sell. The boys figured it up that he had made between $500 and $600 (a pretty good haul in a short time) besides having a nice trip to England at others' expense.
Singular Conduct
Saturday came, but still no Lawson, so we gathered several amateurs together from a team in Preston and prepared to go to the ball grounds, when we discovered that there were two uniforms short, which could not be found anywhere. Lawson had charge of them, and he was not there to account for them. We went to the grounds and were in the field practicing , and game was about to be called, when who should walk on the grounds but bold Mr. Lawson, dressed to kill, with bag, umbrella, etc., smiling blandly, and greeted us with "Hello, fellows, did you think I had sloped." No one answered him at the time. He dressed and played the game, pitching the game like a man with the hay fever, tossing the ball over the plate, and as careless as the papers said he was in one game in Atlanta. We managed to beat Preston, but by a small margin. There were some 2000 people there. The following is the score:
When the game was over, and before we had time to change, Lawson had donned his clothes and skipped, and not a sight of him has been had from that time to this. When the fact the he had at last deserted the team became assured it was found that he had jumped his board bill and had left nothing to pay the team's board bill, and had taken two of the uniforms with him, as they could not be found.
Hope Abandoned
I at once called the boys together and proposed that Mr. Harvey take advantage of an excursion to London, go there and see if we could make a couple of games with the "Wild West Base Ball Club," who had been playing a few games. Mr. Harvey volunteered to use his own private funds for this purpose, as Lawson had left none. We went to London, spent two days there with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show trying to get games with them, but they told us they could not charge admission as the show came on at 2:30 P.M. All they could do would be to play a friendly game and invite an audience, game to be played in the morning. Of course this would be of no benefit to the New York boys, so we had to come away disappointed. We went to Liverpool and tried for games there, but were told there was no chance for a game as all available time was taken up playing finals for the "rounders shield," so we were blocked again.
I then knew there was no earthly chance, and I told Mr. Harvey so and advised him to get home on the steamer on the next day (Thursday), and not stay in England a moment longer than he had to. He went to the steamer office and got tickets from Liverpool to Glasgow for himself and the team and went on to Glasgow, giving me the tickets and a sum of money to give to the men at Preston. I went to Preston, told them the result of our trip to London and Liverpool, and advised them to go to Glasgow at once and catch the steamer for New York, as each had his return ticket. I wanted to do more or them, and told them so, but I was not in a position to help them as I desired. They all thanked me heartily for what I had tried to do for them, and I left them with much regret, as each and every one of them were fine, gentlemanly Yankees, and my intercourse with them had afforded me more pleasure than I had had since I came to England. When they read this I hope they will accept the kind regards of the writer, and I hope at some future day to meet some, if not all, of them and talk over their memorable tour of England.
Another Trick
Oh, Lawson, Lawson, what manner of man(?) are you, and can you ever dare show your face amongst your fellow ball players in America? I should think not. Today I received a post card with this inscribed on it:--"Sailed for Australia to-day, Aug. 24, '92.--Al Lawson." That's all; no address or anything to show where he sailed from. So he is off (maybe) to the Antipodes. God speed him, I say. If he gets caught at any of his fine tricks there they will make short shrift of him. I hope copies of THE SPORTING LIFE will be sent to Australia with his "physiog" in and my letter to warn people against him.
I learn Lawson took a man to the steamer office in Glasgow and introduced him as Van Epps Harvey, so he could do some business, and when Mr. Harvey introduced himself he nearly lost his passage home through it. Vale, Lawson, you are a slick one if there ever was one, but don't rob your fellow players any more. More anon.
WILL C. BRYAN
In Baseball Fiends... I imply that the bad blood between Alfred and George Lawson likely started in the aftermath of the 1895 Boston Amateurs tour of England. Additional circumstantial evidence from 1897 was also offered to suggest that George tried to undermine Alfred's efforts to organize his North Adams team into a league; and that George was probably the con-man who impersonated Al in North Adams. The feud erupted in full force in New Hampshire in the spring of 1898, and at that time the fact that the brothers were fighting each other made it into the papers there.
However, newly digitized editions of Sporting Life from February and March of 1898 make it clear that the Lawsons were warring with one another before they got to New Hampshire. In late February, as George was getting on a steamer to go to England on theatrical business, he decided to regale a reporter with a story calculated to drive Al apoplectic, It appeared on the front page of Sporting Life on Feb. 21, 1898:
George went on to give a sketch of the state of baseball in England, sounding like a seasoned authority. Moreover, he took credit for being the manager of the 1895 Boston Amateurs tour of England.
George must have chuckled to imagine Al's reaction when he read the story. Al's rebuttal appeared in the Mar. 12 edition of Sporting Life:
A couple of weeks later, Al Lawson's refutation of George's story was affirmed by Joseph Wright, owner of the Middlesborough team. (I had quoted Wright on another occasion on page 63 of Baseball Fiends..):
And so it seems that the first public scuffle between the Lawson's gave the last word to Al. However, only weeks later, Al was being branded as the scoundrel and George as the upright businessman in the Battle of New Hampshire (Chapter 8 of Baseball Fiends...)
Shown below is the latest mention of Continental League activity, from the most unexpected source, the Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel of May 31, 1921. What were the New York and Cleveland teams doing in Northern Massachusetts? Why four games?
On page 137 of Baseball Fiends..., I say: "Fitchburg appears to be one of the loci of the chaotic Lawson universe", but I had no idea of this 1921 incident!
Jerry is an ekectronic resources librarian and an independent scholar
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