1877 Telegram from Eugene V. Baker - Sports Antique of the Week November 25th- December 1st 2012

SPORTS ANTIQUE

OF THE WEEK

NOV. 25TH- DEC. 1ST 2012

Featuring Standout Items

By SportsAntiques.com

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June 22nd 1877

Telegraph from

E.V. BAKER to J.E. WHITEHEAD

Conveying Yale vs. Harvard Baseball Game Score

Harvard 1 Yale 10

Large bronze plaque displayed in Yale Trophy Room

Eugene V. Baker
Yale class of 1877
Played Five Years on Yale Football Team 1873-1877
Captain 76’ and 77’

….Did people fill out their own telegrams back in the day?...or did the clerk fill it out?...that was the big question…I asked around and the consensus was it could be either way…

Since I usually just collect things that display well with a lot of eye appeal…larger things like signs, posters, statues, etc…I’ve never been much of an autograph collector. Over the last twenty five plus years I’ve acquired only a smattering of them…Generally I prefer they are part of something interesting like at least a personalized photo, or letter with interesting content. Something like a signed check, a cut, or autographed ball, just doesn’t do it for me…I need something intriguing to connect with more than just ink. Moreover I prefer an autograph be very rare…even obscure…If the sig is right on this telegram, it would be so me!..“thee” perfect storm…the perfect example of a meaningful autograph!

This telegram conveys the score of the Harvard Yale baseball game played June 22, 1877 in Cambridge MA. It was sent from E.V. Baker to J.M. Whitehead and appears to have been sent from New Haven Ct. to Stratford Ct. I didn’t recall right away who the sender E. V. Baker likely was when I came across it on eBay … Slowly it came to me…Didn’t I see a large bronze plaque in the Yale Trophy Room with Eugene Baker inscribed on it? Which I featured in a story I did on the May 2011 Brimfield Antiques Fair. Eugene Baker, class of 1877, played football for Yale from 1873-1877, and was Captain of the 1876 and 77’ teams.

New York Times Jan. 1st 1894 Excerpt

http://sportsantiques.com/pg12brimstory.htm

Wasn’t he huge in early Yale football I thought? …Who gets a bronze plaque erected to him in the trophy room sixteen years after he graduated? When you read about the Yale Trophy Room in the Brimfield story, you’ll see Baker not only captained the team…but did so during a pivotal juncture in the game’s history. He played a large part in the evolution of football at Yale from the old Eton soccer style to rugby.

Now let’s take a look at this telegram…It’s a pretty simple message…they don’t get much simpler:

Harvard Ten

Yale One

E.V. Baker

Having never owned an antique telegram and knowing nothing about them, initially I assumed it was Baker’s autograph. Particularly since it was such nice early American dip pen handwriting…but after thinking it thru I concluded I needed to look into it before making that assumption.

Did people fill out their own telegrams back in the day?...or did the clerk fill it out?...that was the big question…I asked around and the consensus was it could be either way…and I would have to find a copy of his signature to compare it…Which turned out to be harder than I thought…I contacted Yale and they said they would get back to me eventually, but that they get a lot of research requests. To date I haven’t heard…So I figure at the least I have a telegram that was likely sent by Eugene V. Baker…even if it isn’t his sig!

Baker started law school at Yale in 1876…I haven’t found much on his life after Yale. One reference I found put him in Los Angeles practicing law in 1906….As for the recipient J.E. Whitehead…he graduated in 1877 same year as Baker and became a lawyer and politician in Wisconsin. As for why Baker sent the telegram…I can’t find much reference on Mr. Whitehead during his time at Yale…The most significant thing I could find was an announcement in the Yale Banner he sat as a judge for a match debate which argued the pro and con of “whether our government would be better served by an educational restriction on the right of suffrage.” Other than that I couldn’t find him on the radar of anything flashy. No sports teams or fraternities.

Initially I thought I would learn he was a high profile student…perhaps associated with Yale athletics in some organizational roll…chairman of this…student director of that, etc…Then BMOC big man on campus Baker, and he, would have easily been in the same circles…But no, I couldn’t find anything significant about young Whitehead. Based on what I found, or didn’t find on Whitehead, I surmise Baker and Whitehead were just simply friends, and probably fellow law students….Apparently Whitehead couldn’t make the trip to Cambridge that day. I speculate Baker and Whitehead must have been pretty close friends for Baker to send him the telegram…I’d compare it to sending a text message today…Think about it…you don’t just text anybody…Generally you just text your close friends.

The seller of the telegram also had a receipt for $1.00 made out to J. Whitehead which indicates he had a season ticket subscription. It’s safe to say if he had season tickets he was an avid fan….Baker may have attended the game in Cambridge then returned to New Haven and sent the telegram…or perhaps Baker just received the news in New Haven and simply relayed it to his friend 17 miles away in Stratford. Apparently the startling loss to Harvard 10 to 1 commanded immediate notification. If I had the time and energy I’d look into the semester time frame to try to decipher why Baker was in New Haven almost 1/3 thru the summer, and why Whitehead wasn’t.

What can we tell about this telegram from its face value…that is, what can we learn about it based just on its content and structure? Without an independent example of Eugene V. Baker's signature for comparison, two main aspects should be examined

ITS ORIGINALITY

ITS HANDWRITING

AND WAY ITS FILLED OUT

ORIGINALITY

It’s fair to assume the telegram is a genuine Western Union document from the large vertical watermark "W. U. T. CO", seen vaguely right of center. Which is as handy today as it was in 1877 for confirming its authenticity. Moreover the disclaimer at top also confirms it as an official Western Union telegram form.

This company TRANSMITS and DELIVERS messages only on conditions, limiting its liability, which have been assented to by the sender of the following message.

Errors can be guarded against only by repeating a message back to the sending station for comparison, and the companies will not hold itself liable for errors or delays in transmission or delivery of UNREPEATED MESSAGES.

This message is an UNREPEATED MESSAGE and is delivered by request of the sender under the conditions named above.

Then to make doubly sure of their limited liability there is another notice printed vertically along the left border in bold capital letters: READ THE NOTICE AT THE TOP.
I think it’s safe to speculate lawyers were involved in that disclaimer. Not to get off our focus of the sender of our telegram, but the disclaimer clearly implies that, whether human or technical error, mistakes were possible in the telegram business. No doubt lawyers anticipating possible law suits caused by undelivered or under-delivered telegrams, endeavoured to make every telegram two-fold: 1. A personal message vehicle. And 2. An airtight legal document protecting themselves from lawsuits. But from a non-legal aspect, the disclaimer was very practical.

Ok so back to our telegram…We know from the disclaimer text it was an UNREPEAETED MESSAGE, therefore we know our telegram was the first generation original, and therefore subject to being handled personally by one of football’s greatest pioneers. Even if it wasn’t filled out by him…which is unconfirmed at this point and still a point of speculation.

THE WAY ITS FILLED OUT, AND HANDWRITING:

As we begin our examination of the handwriting and way it’s filled out, which are closely related, let’s start by understanding that after four years as an undergraduate at Yale, Baker started law school at Yale in 1877. Therefore, it’s reasonable to surmise by June 22nd of that year he had ended or was near completion of his first year of law school…four years of undergraduate study and one year of law school…That’s a lot of academic training…at Yale…I think we can skip the question of, did Baker have the ability to fill out the form…More the question would be, is the handwriting consistent with someone of his schooling…

The things I notice about the handwriting is the main content is very clear and readable and has a classy flair…The lower part however, that says “to J.M.W. at Stratford”, looks to have been written by a different person than the main part, and is nowhere near as nice of handwriting….As a matter fact…if you stop and think about it, why is it even there?...It seems redundant except that it conveys where it’s to be sent to.

My speculation says college boy Baker would have had nice legible handwriting for something important. We all write different depending on what it’s for. If you’re making out a shopping list for the supermarket, your handwriting isn’t going to be the same as it would filling out an important document. If Baker went to the trouble of going to the telegraph office he obviously felt a strong urgency to send the message. I speculate with that resolve he would have focused.

As for the difference in handwriting between the upper and lower parts….I speculate Baker filled out the form, then gave it to the clerk, and verbally told him where he wanted it sent….The clerk in turn probably made the lower notation to himself as a matter of record.

AND FOR MY FINALE' SUSPICION ITS BAKER'S SIG

My final thoughts on the matter culminate in the flair...the bravado of the underline persuades me of a confidence inconsistent with a telegraph clerk. -Carlton

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