V (IS.SN 0043-6,534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 77, No. 4 • Summer, 1994 L'|jpr"™ **^ *" * Vf rrr;** i ^iOi^.K '.••-5?ls?^g r^'Jj.2 "L^-^-. «^* f/- i Biw ^ I **i^-IW *«.^' 9f» r*cf* I...-TE tl r.i'i:^' • tiiC'-j::^'* II "X ,0 Mar, Y3,'.kef Home M-% ' .*5^ , .,'T*':JO^I I ^^ ; :u-L • -..L- .- •-•• 'I ttmt "ft *. 'fk> «i^Jtnai«nr », THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN H. NicHOiAS MULLER III, Director Officers FANNIE E. HICKLIN, President GERALD D. VISTE, Treasurer GLENN R. COATES, First Vice-President H. NICHOLAS MULLER 111, Secretary JANE BERNHARDT, .Second Vice-President The State Historical Society of Wisconsin is both a state agency and a private membership organization. Founded in 1846—two years before statehood—and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and disseminating knowledge of'Wisconsin and of the trans-Allegheny West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic materials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and research facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it administers a broad program of historic preservation; and publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular. Membership in the Society is open to the public. Individual membership (one person) is $27.50. Senior Citizen Individualmemhership is $22.50. Family membership is $32.50. Senior Citizen Family membership is $27.50. Supportingmemhership is $ 100. .Sustainingmemhership is $250. A Patron contributes $500 or more. Lz/e membership (one person) is $1,000. Membership in the Friends of the SHSW is open to the public. Individualmemhersh'ip (one person) is $15. Family membership is $25. The Society is governed by a Board of Curators which includes twenty-four elected members, the Governor or designee, three appointees of the Governor, a legislator from the majority and minority from each house, and ex officio, the President of the University of Wisconsin System, the President of the Friends of the State Historical Society, the President of the Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the President of the Administrative Committee of the Wisconsin Gouncil for Local History. A complete listing of the Curators appears inside the back cover. The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1488, at the juncture of Langdon and Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. The State Historical Museum is located at 30 North Carroll Street. A partial listing of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows: General Administradon 264-6400 Library Circulation desk 264-6534 Affiliated local societies 264-6,'j83 Maps 264-64,58 Archives reading room 264-6460 Membership 264-6,587 Contribution of manuscript materials 264-6477 Microforms reading room 264-65.S6 Editorial offices 264-6461 Museum tours 264-6555 Film collections 264-6466 Newspaper reference 264-65.S1 Genealogical and general reference inquiries 264-65,^,5 Picture and sound collections 264-6470 Government publications and reference 264-6525 Public information office 264-6586 Historic preservation 264-6500 Sales desk 264-6,565 Historic sites 264-6586 School services 264-6567 Hours of operation 264-6588 Speakers bureau 264-6586 Institutional advancement 264-6585 Ox THE COVER: A montage of dippings and memorabilia relating to Babe Ruth, including a replica of his Louisville Slugger. An article about the Babe's "called shot" home run begins on page 243. Photo by Robert Granflaten. Volume 77, Number 4 / Summer, 1994 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF Published quarterly by the State HISTORY Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1488. Distributed to members as part of their dues. Individual membership, $27,50; senior citizen individual, $22.50; family, $32,50; senior citizen family, $27.50; supporting, $100; sustaining, $250; Babe Ruth and the Legend of the Called Shot 243 patron, $500 or more; life (one person), $1,000, Single numbers fohn Evangelist Walsh from Volume 57 forward are $5 plus postage. Microfilmed copies available through University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Consumptive Citadel: Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106; The Crusade Against Tuberculosis in reprints of Volumes 1 through 20 Eau Claire County, 1903-1917 264 and most issues of Volumes 21 through 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, Route Mary Ellen Stolder too, Millwood, New York 10.546, Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume Over Here: responsibility for statements made The Wisconsin Homefront During World War I 295 by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin, David Zonderman POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wisconsin Magazine of History, Madison, Wisconsin 301 53706-1488. Copyright © 1994 by Book Reviews the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Book Review Index 312 The Wisconsin Magazine of Flistory is Accessions 313 indexed annually by the editors; cumulative indexes are assembled decennially. In addition, articles Wisconsin History Checklist 315 are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life, Historical Contributors 320 Abstracts, Index to Literature on the American Indian, and the Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in History, 1838-1974. Photographs identified with WHi negative numbers are from the Editor Historical Society's collections. PAUL H. HASS Associate Editors WILLIAM C. MARTEN ' ^t^ m4 1 4 Babe Rulh shaking hands with Lou Gehrig after hitting his "called shot" home run in the third game of the 1932 WorldSeries. From Donald Honig, The World Series: An Illustrated History from 1903 to the Present, 242 Babe Ruth and the Legend of the Called Shot By fohn Evangelist Walsh T was a crucial and exciting event cen­ Saturday, October 1st, at Wrigley Field. I tering on the actions of one man. It Counting its necessary preliminaries, the took place in plain view on a sunny after­ performance lasted three minutes, more noon in Chicago, on an open field before or less, with the core of the action on view 50,000 avid spectators. Watching from for only a few seconds. special vantage points were dozens of At bat in the top of the fifth inning, trained and experienced, in fact profes­ runs the claim. Babe Ruth did something sional observers. The reality of an event done by no player before or since. When so amply witnessed should be as firmly the count had progressed to two balls and established, as incontrovertible, as is pos­ two strikes, in the midst of a thunderous sible for a public happening to be, at any razzing by Cub fans and players, he raised rate before the advent of television. A few an arm and boldly pointed to the distant of its minor details might be argued, but bleachers. With that gesture of lordly there could be no question that the inci­ scorn, it is said, he deliberately and defi­ dent itself had occurred. antly announced to all in the park that on Yet that is exactly the case with one of the next pitch he would hit a home run. the supreme moments in American sports The pitch was served, Ruth swung might­ history, a World Series drama focusing ily, and in the stands there echoed that on the circumstances of a particular home tell-tale cracM signalling a long drive. On run hit by one of baseball's immortals. a fast-rising trajectory the ball went speed­ Babe Ruth, Did it really happen? That is ing to the farthest part of center field the surprising question which, even sixty where it sailed past the flagpole, flew over years afterward, remains in hot dispute. the wall, and bounced off one of the box offices ringing the stadium. About its be­ ing the longest home run hit to then in HE setting for what has long been Wrigley Field—its total flight easily ex­ Tknown as the Called Shot (a term ceeded 500 feet—there is no argument. borrowed from pocket billiards where a The memorable part of the feat, it player designates his target in advance), hardly needs saying, lay in the fact that was the World Series of 1932, played be­ the home run is a thing of uncertain tween the New York Yankees and the occurrence. For even the most talented Chicago Cubs. It occurred—if it did—on player it remains far outside the realm of a bright afternoon in the third game on predictability. Stories in baseball lore Copyright © 1994 by the State Historical Society' of Wisconsin 243 All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. WISCONSIN MAG.A.ZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1994 about Ruth promising to "hit one" for sick these two go on record, and then they little boys are quite different. In those contradicted each other. Root, inevita­ cases the accommodating Ruth, impul­ bly, offered a vehement denial: "If he sively responding to a request, simply tried to show me up like that I'd have promised to try for a home run, and all knocked him on his tail!" In his 1950 understood that there would be no dis­ autobiography, Hartnett has Ruth vaguely grace in failing.' motioning "in the general direction of the stands in right center" while shouting defiantly "It only takes one!" The doubt­ F course, any reasonable hope of ful worth of such long-delayed opinion is Oreaching the truth about Ruth's big well illustrated by the curiously wary atti­ day, six decades later, must rest almost tude early adopted by Yankee manager exclusively on a study of contemporary Joe McCarthy, no great admirer of his records.