One hundred plus years ago, boating on Darby Creek was a major recreation spot. I have several pictures of the "Darby Navy" and their docks. Boating was a important getaway.
NOTE: One hundred years ago this September, Darby and Delco baseball games being played on Sunday came to a head. The Darby mayor went to the Norwood District Judge to get arrest warrants not trusting his own to do the job. He also went to the county sheriffs and state police for enforcement not counting on the Darby Police to enforce the "Blue Laws". Darby Churches wanted the "Blue Laws"
enforced!
DARBY BASEBALL IS NEAR CLIMAX
Warrants
for the arrest of eight members of the Delco baseball team of Darby, charging
then with breaking the Sunday “Blue laws,” have been issued by Magistrate
William H. Robinson of Norwood.
The
warrants were issued at the instance of Burgess George Grayson, who, it is
reported, swore to them before a Norwood Justice as a result of finding Darby
Justices in sympathy with the baseball players and fans who support them.
Another
baseball game has been booked for next Sunday.
The
warrants for the arrests of the baseball players are in the hands of Fred
Welsh, a Darby policeman.
A baseball game at Darby yesterday was halted in the early
stages of the contest when Chief of Police Clark back up by a score of armed
police after listing names of the players ordered the teams from the field.
State
police headed by Lieutenant Smith, and a delegation of deputy sheriffs in
charge of Sheriff A. R. Granger stood in readiness to aid the Darby police in
the event of trouble. It had been
rumored that baseball was not to be interfered with, or there would be trouble.
Feeling
in Darby is bitter as a result of the Sunday baseball question. This was demonstrated yesterday when a crowd
of fans hooted a reporter whose paper, fans claim, championed the cause of the
church people opposing Sunday playing.
Yesterday’s
game was between the Delco team and Cramp’s Champions of Philadelphia. The game had progressed only an inning and a
half when Chief of Police Clark put in appearance. The policeman called the managers and
informed them that he was acting under instructions of Burgess Grayson and was
going to stop the game.
When
uniformed State police and deputy sheriffs standing about the managers after
some discussion called the teams from the field.
Warrants
will be sworn out today for the baseball players and hearings will be held
sometime later in the week. On the other
hand the baseball fans have promised to retaliate by issuing warrants for the
arrest of golf players and some of the church who drove to services in their
machines yesterday. The fans claim that
automobile riding is a violation of the Old Blue laws and in the same class as
baseball.
DARBY FANS FIND SABBATH BLUE
Baseball Lovers Seek Their
Inspiration in Orangeade
“The
Darby Borough Baseball Blues” is the title for a syncopated ditty Irving Berlin
might have been inspired to dash off had he paid a visit to Darby yesterday
afternoon. Great gobs of blue cluttered
up the atmosphere. Darby’s baseball
players were wearing their Sunday clothes – blue serge. Wild flowers and blue grass were untrampled
on the baseball diamond at Fifth and Main Streets. For the first Sunday this summer, the blue
laws of 1794 were battling nearly .400 in Darby, and the blue-stockinged champions
of the Sabbath chortled with glee.
But
even blue laws have a silver lining. The
Darby fans were not to be denied the privilege of a Sunday afternoon ball game,
not even if they had to leave the borough, as all of them did. And when the baseball fans leave Darby, the
place is another “Deserted Village.”
At
“Dad”, Shaw’s confectionery shop, which is the hub of Darby’s athletic element,
the fans and players had congregated early in the afternoon to drink their
contempt for the blue laws in brimming beakers of orangeade. There wasn’t even a church service they could
attend until after dark, and it’s a fact that every one of the players is a
church member.
Then
the Darby fans decided there was but one thing to do. So they took another drink of orangeade,
called up their girlfriends and walked across Cobbs Creek, which separates Darby
from Philadelphia and witnessed the first of a series of three games for the
championship of West Philadelphia.
The
bitterest pill of all for the fans was that Darby was about the only large town
in Delaware County where a ball game wasn’t in progress.
The
game just across the creek from Darby was between the St. Clement’s team and
the Paschall nine and was played on the grounds of St. Clement’s Church,
Seventy-Second Street and Woodland Avenue, before the biggest crowd that has
been there this season. The Paschall
players won the first game of the series by 5 to 2.
ADVISED
NOT TO PLAY – Samuel Shilladay, manager of the Delco team, spoke for Darby’s
fans and players, he said, when he assured the newspapermen that the game
wasn’t called off because of any profound respect for the blue laws or because
the players feared arrest.
“We
were advised by our counsel, John J. Stetser of Chester not to play while our
case is pending in court,” said Shilladay.
“Otherwise our game with the Woodland All-Stars would not have been
called off.”
A
petition has been filed in the Delaware County court appealing from the
decision of Magistrate Robinson, who fined eight of the players $4 each for
playing on the Sabbath.
Another
phase of Darby’s baseball war promises to develop tonight. At the instance of certain citizens, the
editor of the Darby Progress weekly, on Fridays), has called a citizens mass
meeting to take place at the Odd Fellows’ Hall, where a law and order society
will be organized. The Darby fans, 500
odd say they will be there to help elect officers.
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