[TEPaul]

"This sequence of commentary about the ongoing work and improvements at Philadelphia Country Club should provide the final conclusive evidence that "Hazard" and "Far and Sure" were clearly synonymous."


MikeC:

It would most certainly seem that any reasonable mind could both assume and conclude that. If not, then what possible literary game could have been going on with those two pseudonyms?

You got into analyzing the similarity of arrows??? Wow, that's impressive. I think they may have a job for you in the Philadelphia Police Dept's Detective Investigation unit.

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom,

I believe that one Mr. Bispham, out there directing the work surrounded by laborers and carts, has now unintentionally and posthumously proven 95 years later that A.W. Tillinghast was indeed "Far and Sure" beyond any reasonable doubt.

 

[TEPaul]

MikeC:

The thing I find interesting about the pen name game is obviously the actual writer or writers were aware that most people would never notice or even think of the connection unless they were very consciously looking for it.

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom,

Aren't you in the least curious as to the identity and true role of Mr. Bispham?    What a great name!!

Enquiring minds want to know!!

[Mike_Cirba]

Actually, Tillinghast seems to have known Mr. E.K. Bispham (Green Committee Chairman) and his work at Philadelphia Country Club pretty well for a number of years.

First writing about Bispham in March 1909, this article is also particularly interesting as Tilly puts together his "Best 18 holes" in the Philly region at the time;

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/AmericanGolfer/1909/ag15p.pdf

Again in March 1910, in one of his exception features articles, one of the holes at PCC is discussed with credit given again to Bispham.

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/AmericanGolfer/1910/ag35l.pdf

[TEPaul]

Yes I am. What is the true identity and role of Mr. E.K. Bispham? What do you think the possibility is that Tilly actually had multiple personalities and even he was not completely aware that he wrote under at least two and perhaps more pen names? I also think when he designed the mound on #5, the dolemites on #4 and the swale on #13 at Somerset Hills he really considered himself to be a Whiffensnoofer. 

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom,

I'm thinking that Mr. Bispham may have had a bit of an influence on Tilly, as AW seems to have kept up pretty seriously (along with making personal site visits) with Bispham's ongoing changes at Philly Country Club over a five-year period, writing about his work from 1909-13.   

Bispham certainly seems to have been an influence on Joseph Roseman of Chicago fame, as Roseman wrote in the 20s of having learned from Bispham and others.

I also find myself wishing that I could have seen Tillinghast's 1909 mythical best 18 holes in the Philly area.   Most of that course was made up of the old extinct courses at Merion (3 holes), Philly Country Club (4 holes), Philadelphia Cricket (3 holes) , and Huntingdon Valley (4 holes), along with a hole from Belfield, a hole from Spring Haven, and two from the defunct St. Davids course.

The only ones that might possibly still exist are the one at Spring Haven (although doubtful as that course had some extensive changes since then) and possibly one or two at the Philly Cricket Club, one of which I suspect exists today as the short 5th hole at the St. Martin's course.

[Mike_Cirba]

Perhaps Phil will rejoin the discussion as regards this question...

We know that Tillinghast also did sketches, and a number of his mythical creatures like "Whiffensnoofers", and such.    Do we know who did the sketches that show up in many "American Golfer" articles by Hazard, as well as Far and Sure (and possibly others...I'd need to check)?

Tom Paul,

On a related point, I've also yet to find where "Hazard" definitively stated that he was indeed Tillinghast, through 1919.

Did that happen later, Phil?

[Joe Bausch]

Okay, today's blurb from Tilly comes from the January 10, 1915 issue of the Philadelphia Record.  I really like his style of writing concerning the development of the 13th hole at PV:

[Phil_the_Author]

Mike,

You asked, "On a related point, I've also yet to find where "Hazard" definitively stated that he was indeed Tillinghast, through 1919. Did that happen later, Phil?"

No, it didn't. During the years that Tilly wrote for the American Golfer  letters with questions addressed to "Hazard" were often received. Occasionally some of these were answered in a separate section. Several of these were answered directly by Tilly using his name and refering to the article that he wrote, thereby identifying himself as "Hazard."

I'll see if I can find one of them. Unfortunately I can't remember which specific issues and will have to go through them all when i have the chance.

[Mike_Cirba]

Phil,

Thank you....I'll be interested to see what you come up with there.

Also...I received your book the other day and I'm looking forward to reading it.

[TEPaul]

Phil Young or Ed Homsey:

Similar to "Hazard" and since the pen name "Far and Sure" was apparently used in American Golfer for over two years are you aware of any letters or questions to that pen name and how they were answered in American Golfer? Have you ever tried to check answers to questions to "Far and Sure" against whomever supplied answers?

Furthermore, if questions in American Golfer concerning articles under the pen name "Hazard" were answered by Tillinghast under his own name obviously he must not have been that interested in keeping his identity unknown.

I suppose the question should be asked again---how important is it to know the real identity of "Far and Sure"? I'd say it's no more or no less important than being sure of the real identity of "Hazard". To us in Philadelphia and this region it may be more important than to most because those pen names covered this region in American Golfer. I think knowing the writer's identity goes to the crediblity of the reporting. For instance, I think both Hazard and Far and Sure reported on Shawnee. It would be interesting to know if the writer was Tillinghast in both cases as he designed that course.

[Phil_the_Author]

Mike,

You asked, "We know that Tillinghast also did sketches, and a number of his mythical creatures like "Whiffensnoofers", and such.    Do we know who did the sketches that show up in many "American Golfer" articles by Hazard, as well as Far and Sure (and possibly others...I'd need to check)?"

Tilly did most, but not all, of the sketches that accompanied his articles in American Golfer, Golf Illustrated, Golf, etc...

Tilly loved to sketch, draw and paint and carried a sketch pad, drawing instruments, canvass and paint supplies whenever he travelled. The family has a number of his non-golf related sketches and drawings.

Just as Tilly used course and hole drawings done by others, as well as photographs, when he wrote about golf courses he didn't design, he allowed his to be used by others when they wrote about his.

[TEPaul]

I would also like to recheck to see if "Hazard" occasionally referred to "A.W. Tillinghast" in those articles. I know "Far and Sure" did.

[Mike_Cirba]

I would also like to recheck to see if "Hazard" occasionally referred to "A.W. Tillinghast" in those articles. I know "Far and Sure" did.

Tom,

Both Hazard and Far&Sure referred to Tillinghast and courses he was involved with repeatedly and about equally...way more than anyone else.

[Phil_the_Author]

Tom,

You stated, "I would also like to recheck to see if "Hazard" occasionally referred to "A.W. Tillinghast" in those articles..."

Yes he did. here is an example. These can be found in the 12/1913 issue in Hazard's column on p. 151:

In par. 2 - "Mr. George A. Crump, accompanied by... Mr. A.W. Tillinghast played golf there [Pine Valley] for the first time..."

In par. 3 - "Mr. Tillinghast secured a first par - a four on the first hole played, and likewise the first 'bird' - a 2 on the third. To the same player must be given the doubtful distinction of slapping first into the lake in front of the fifth teeing ground..."

in Par. 5 - "Mr. A.W. Tillinghast, after four years of service as the chairman of the Philadelphia handicap committee, has resigned..."

 

[Mike_Cirba]

"Two years ago, Mr. Chas. B. Macdonald, who had been of great assistance in an advisory way, told me that Merion would have one of the best inland courses in the country, but every new course is "one of the best in the country" and one must see to believe after trying it out." - "Far and Sure" - January 1913

"For the space of a year or more golfers have been curious about the new course which is being developed by the Pine Valley Golf Club at Sumner, New Jersey.   Much as been written about it and every one who has visited the spot has spoken highly about the possibilities there, but this is true of so many new courses, for each is "one of the best in the country", until it is played over and found to be wanting."  - Albert Warren Tillinghast - November 1917

[TEPaul]

Phil:

Thanks for post #315. I have all those articles in the files but I appreciate your help with the question. What I was interested in is to see if "Hazard" (who we and I believe you as well think was Tillinghast) referred to "A.W. Tillinghast" in the very same third person way as "Far and Sure" did. 

Perhaps I missed your response to me but I would love to know what the articles were you referred to where Tilly actually admitted he was "Hazard". You mentioned one was the article where "Hazard" admitted he was Tilly was the one he reported the death of B.G. Tillinghast. As I said before it may look that way to you or to some but if you read that article very carefully I doubt you'll miss the fact "Hazard" did not actually say he was A. W. Tillinghast in that article.

Again, would you point out the two other "Hazard" articles where you said he actually admitted he was A.W. Tillinghast?

[Phil_the_Author]

Tom,

Please see my response as to why I have yet to furnish the article citations you seek in the other discussion topic about "Far and Sure."

Now, although it is true that in the article in May of 1918 where "Hazard" tells of B.C. Tillinghast's death he does not defintively say that B.C. was his father, both what and how he wrote in the column leaves no question that he was.

“Hazard” wrote, in preface to B.C.’s final poem, that “It is with unconcealed regret that I publish this last contribution of that rare gentleman…”

Where did he get it from? Had “Duffer” sent it to “Hazard” in preparation for this article? No! For he prefaced the above by saying that “For the March issue he had prepared some verses but they were not discovered until after his death.”

So the question then is WHO “discovered” them? Obviously it was Tilly, as he would have been the one to go through his papers. Do you mean to even imply that anyone other than Tilly would have then published them? Or that anyone other than Tilly would both know and be able to report that, “The hand which penned them was weak and trembling, for he knew that death was hard upon him…”

Both B.C. & Tilly knew that his death was imminent or “hard upon him” as “Hazard” wrote in this column because he also reports that, “His only son was called home from golf architectural work, just in time to be with his father for a few hours before he died.”   

Also, only someone who was there with him would be able to write, “The world is full of partings, and not without pain does a man, who has followed the game for a score of years, utter the dread word, ‘Farewell.’” B.C.’s final words… Can you cite a single instance in any other column written by “Hazard” wherein he quoted the final words of the personage whom he reported as having died? This is one you don’t have to look up because the answer is he never did, and this includes the report of the death of Mr. Harry W. Rhoades, in this same column IMMEDIATELY following the announcement of B.C.’s death.

No, this is something that only a son would do, just as only a son would also include the private message that his father had written for him before his death that was to be given him in case he didn’t arrive in time. These words were also included in the column. It is these words which were penned by that “weak and trembling hand” which “Hazard” stated were the last words by B.C. which “are a worthy tribute to the game he loved so well.”

This is that last message lovingly penned by those hands for his dear son: “It is a melancholy hour in a man’s life: ‘melancholy’ is too strong a word; ‘tragic’ is perhaps too strong;-- it is a ‘sorrowful’ hour then, when one bids good-bye to the game for ever and a day. When men quit golf for whatever reason, it is doubtless usually with a secret reservation that they will return to it again, some day. But one does not realize how much he is leaving, until he comes to the hour of positive separation. The world is full of partings, and not without pain does a man, who has followed the game a score of years, utter the dread word, ‘Farwell.’”

Only a son would have written this column and included all of the above…

[Mike_Cirba]

Phil

I believe that Hazard was Tilly as well but I also don't see why all of that couldn't have been written by a close family friend or BC's best friend who may have been at his deathbed.

[TEPaul]

"Now, although it is true that in the article in May of 1918 where "Hazard" tells of B.C. Tillinghast's death he does not defintively say that B.C. was his father, both what and how he wrote in the column leaves no question that he was."


Philip:

That article may leave no question "Hazard" was A.W. Tillinghast to you and to me because we suspected Tillinghast was "Hazard" anyway. And clearly there were a number of people back then who knew Tilly well and knew he wrote as "Hazard" for whom it was no question that Tilly was referring to himself in that article.

I'm talking about how the article is written for someone who did not suspect that, and I'm quite sure there were plenty of them back then.

If Tilly wanted to make in loud and clear to everyone who read AG and "Hazard" articles he was A.W. Tillinghast and B.G.s son he could have and probably would have simply said so in that article but he didn't do that.

The way that article is written it can easily appear to a general reader that the pen name writer ("Hazard") simply spoke with or interviewed B.G. Tillinghast's son (an unnamed architect in the article) following B.G's death.

When we do this kind of research and analysis we need to look at this question through the eyes of a general reader who was definitely not a dedicated researcher of this particular subject the way we are. Would a general reader automatically pick up on the fact "Hazard" was A.W. Tillinghast in that article? I, for one, don't think so. When Tilly used pen names he seemed to understand this literary game in this particular sense remarkably well and how to write it and play it to keep a good number of readers constantly guessing.

Although we can't technically prove Tilly was "Far and Sure" any more than it seems anyone can technically prove he was "Hazard", and since we do feel that Tilly wrote as "Far and Sure" as well, it seems to me Tilly did an even better job keeping the literary pen name identity game going with "Far and Sure."

[Mike_Cirba]

To date, I'd suggest that we have far more evidence that Far and Sure was Tilly than Hazard.

We've seen any number of articles written by F+S that were almost verbatim to writings of Tillys in style, tone, content, and verbiage but I've yet to see examples of that from Hazard.

[TEPaul]

"We've seen any number of articles written by F+S that were almost verbatim to writings of Tillys in style, tone, content, and verbiage but I've yet to see examples of that from Hazard."


MikeC:

There seems to be no question of that at all. It sometimes gets so close to the very same wording it prompted some of us to bring up the issue of plagiarism. If the similarities of some of the articles written by Tilly under his own name with some of the articles written under the pen name "Far and Sure" don't constitute plagiarism if written by two different people I just can't imagine what would constitute plagiarism.

Of course if it was the same writer writing under his own name for one periodical and for another periodical under a pen name there would be no issue of plagiarism whatsover.

[Phil_the_Author]

Tom,

When you write, "There seems to be no question of that at all." You MUST state prior to it, IN MY OPINION!

There is no question in my mind that you guys are simply jumping to conclusions you had pre-ordained. That, of course, is MY opinion.

[Mike_Cirba]

Of the 22 articles written in American Golfer by "Far and Sure", the name A.W TIllinghast appears in 11 of them, mostly in tournament scoring and summaries, although every single course and region that Tillinghast was working on (or was trying to work on, like LuLu) in those days are also mentioned, usually in relation to needing to upgrade their course or beginning much-needed work on their course, or in the case of Shawnee, repeated detailed assessments of goings on there of both architectural and tournament events.

Of the articles where Tilly is mentioned by name, here's a few examples;

"A number of prominent Philadelphia golfers have started a testimonial in honor of Jack McDermott, the open champion. He is a Philadelphia born boy and before he had any thought of being a professional was a caddie at the Aronimink Golf Club.   As he is the first native born
professional to win the open title Philadelphians are very proud of him. It will be a dollar testimonial and the committee in charge hopes to get enough subscriptions to buy him a suitably inscribed watch and fob as well as send him abroad next year in quest of the British open title.  The committee in charge is made up of Messrs. H. W. Perrin, Harrison Townsend, E.F. Henson, A. W. Tillinghast, J. P. Edwards. F.C. Robbins and George A. Crump, the latter being custodian of the fund" – Sept 1911

"The serious part of the evening was preceded by a song fest, consisting of parodies of popular songs by Mr. A.W. Tillinghast, and a vaudeville performance.  Here are a few of the golf parodies:

THE PATENT GOLFER.
Tune—"I Want a Girl Like Dad's."
I want to play, just like the day,
When I was not so punk;
Now I'm a quince, have been ever since
I bought this bunch of junk:
I've Dreadnought drivers—a Schenectady,
Corkscrew mashies and a rubber tee;
And when I play the caddies say,
''Whose turn to lug the trunk?"

GOLF WEATHER.
Tune—"Stein Song."
Now, what matter the weather,
When golfers all get together?
Be it rainy or snowy,
Let the day be bright or drear.
The cold winds of winter fret us;
Though the rains try to wet us,
In the heart of the Golfer,
There the sun is shining clear.

DOUBLE-FACED GOLF.
Tune—"Oh, You Beautiful Doll."
Oh, you wonderful golf,
You pleasing, breezing golf;
Gee, I want to sing about you,
I could never live without you.
Oh, you blunderful golf—
You teasing, squeezing golf;
Some days never miss
A drive or three putts take,
Then I get so rotten
That my clubs I break.
Oh! oh ! oh ! oh ! oh !
You double-faced golf.

DUFFEROO.
Tune—"Mr. Dooley."
Whenever we go to the show
And see the tattooed man,
The Hoochee Koochee Dancers,
And the famous Darby Ram,
We gaze upon their antics,
But we pass them with a smile,
Because we know a fellow
Who has got 'em skinned a mile.
Chorus.
He is the Duffer—the poor, old Duffer;
He swings and swipes, but never follows
through;
He twists and pivots, he's fine on divots—
Is Duffer—uffer—uffer—ufferoo.
Repeat Chorus.
Yes, he's a Duffer, a poor, old Duffer;
What if he makes the air a trifle blue?
He loves the game, boys. What's in the
name, boys?
Here's to you, Duffer—uffer—ufferoo."– Feb 1912

"The Golf Association of Philadelphia handicap list as arranged by the committee made up of Messrs. A. W. Tillinghast, Francis B. Warner and A. E. Barnes, includes about 800 names, and is the most complete list ever devised of the Quaker City players." – March 1912

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