100 years ago in The Saratogian
Thursday, April 26, 1917
Captain A. deR. McNair of the Saratoga Springs naval recruiting office is urgently seeking volunteers, but can’t accept everyone who walks in to his headquarters at the city post office. On some mornings, he can’t accept anyone who walks in.
The Albany recruiting district, of which Saratoga Springs is a part, has barely raised half its quota of 800 volunteers for the wartime Navy. The recruiting deadline is May 6. To date, only two Saratoga Springs volunteers have been accepted into the Navy.
Capt. McNair’s first visitor this morning is Virgil C. Brigham. “I’m not a slacker and I want to offer my services to the government, if it wants me,” Brigham says.
The Saratogian describes Brigham as “a finely built specimen of manhood,” but he happens to be 42 years old.
“I wish there were more men like you,” McNair tells Brigham, “You have shown that you recognize the obligation you owe your government and I am proud of you. But I can’t take you because you are over thirty.”
The next applicant is Alfred Scott Crannell of 4 ½ Church Street, accompanied by his mother. Crannell is two years old, but “announced his very clearly-defined wish to enlist in Uncle Sam’s navy.
“He meant business, too, and neither Captain McNair nor the volunteer’s mother dared risk a smile. It required a great deal of tact and explaining, not to speak of invention, to convince Master Crannell that the time was not yet ripe for him to leave his father and mother helpless and alone while he marched off to combat Teutonic periscopes.”
Finally, Mildred Blackmer appears. She doesn’t want to be a sailor, but offers her assistance to McNair as a clerical worker. It’s unclear whether McNair accepted her offer.
“No new recruits appeared at the Post Office today,” a reporter adds.
Local baseball
School No. 3 breaks a twoyear losing streak in The Saratogian School Baseball League with a 9-1 victory today over School No. 7.
Pitcher Holden throws a three hitter and “from the way they hit the old horse hide [School 3] looked like real contenders for the cup this year.”
School 3 scores seven runs in the fourth inning on five hits and a large share of School 7’s total of ten errors.
Among the grown-ups, an old contender returns to the lists when the Texas Colts announce their 1917 lineup and issue a general challenge to “Capitol District” amateur clubs. Shortstop Bump Crumpler boasts a 1.000 batting average at Saratoga High School, hitting two home runs, a triple and a single in four trips to the plate.