John Henry Smith | Page 8

club house is
one of the finest in the country. In addition to the links we have tennis
courts, croquet grounds, bowling alleys and other games, but why one
should care to indulge in any game other than golf is a mystery to me.
We also have bicycle and riding paths, flower gardens and all the
luxuries and artificial scenic charms possible from the judicious
expenditure of nearly four hundred thousand dollars. Nothing can
surpass it.
I live here during the golfing season, and one is unfortunate if he
cannot play nine months in the year in Woodvale. In the winter it is

safer to go to Florida or California, and I propose to do so in the future
rather than risk a repetition of last season's heavy snows which made
golf impossible for days at a time.
My suite of rooms in the club house is as finely furnished as any in the
city, and the service and cuisine are excellent.
One saves a vast amount of time by living in such a club house as that
of Woodvale. The hours expended by golfers in travelling between
their places of business and the links will foot up to an enormous total
each year. I remain here and thus save all that time.
Not that I neglect my business; far from it. Once a week my private
secretary comes to the club house from my office in the city. He brings
with him letters and other matters which imperatively demand my
personal attention, and I sternly abandon all else for the time being.
On the days when he is here I play twenty-four holes instead of the
usual thirty-six or more, but I find the change diverting rather than
otherwise. Without claiming special merit for an original discovery, I
believe I have struck what may be termed the happy medium between
work and relaxation.
I do not class the keeping of this diary as work for the reason that I
shall not permit it to interfere with my golf. When I feel disposed to
make a note of an event, an idea or a score I shall do so, but I do not
propose to be a slave to this diary.
I have just returned from a walk on the veranda. Miss Ross came to me,
greatly excited.
"They are here!" she exclaimed.
"Who; the Hardings?" I asked.
"No, their trunks are here. And what do you think?"
"I would not make a guess," I declared.
"Miss Harding has only six trunks, and I had seven myself."
The sweet creature was happy and immensely relieved. I forgot to ask
her if any golf clubs were included in the Harding luggage.

ENTRY NO. III
MR. HARDING WINS A BET
I have met Harding, the western railroad magnate, and he is a character.
His wife is in the city, but will be out here in a few days.
Harding--I call him Mister when addressing him, since he is worth

thirty millions or more, and he is old enough to be my father--Harding
strolled out to the first tee early this morning and stood with his hands
in his pockets watching some of the fellows drive off.
I should judge him to be a man of about fifty-five, or perhaps a year of
two older. He stands more than six feet, is broad of shoulder and
equally broad of waist, ruddy of complexion, clear of eye and quick of
motion. He is of the breezy, independent type peculiar to those who
have risen to fortune with the wonderful development of our western
country, and it is difficult to realise that he is a real live magnate.
His close-cropped beard shows few gray hairs, and does not entirely
hide the lines of a resolute chin. He looks like a prosperous farmer who
has been forced to become familiar with metropolitan conventionalities,
but whose rough edges have withstood the friction. His voice is heavy
but not unpleasant, and his laugh jovial but defiant. He reminds me of
no one I have seen, and I shall study him with much interest.
He was with Carter, who seemed well acquainted with him, and he
greeted each drive whether it was good or bad with a sneering smile.
This told me that he had never played the game, and that he had all of
the outsider's contempt for it. I knew exactly what he thought, for I was
once as ignorant and unappreciative as he is now.
A mutual contempt exists between those who play golf and those who
do not. Those who have not played are sure they could become expert
in a week, if they had so little sense as to waste time on so simple and
objectless a game. Those who are familiar with the game