Holworthy Hall

“ Seven nations came into the market with frantic appeals for war-material at any price, and Hobgood and Company, standing alone with vast facilities, vast stocks, and no entangling alliances, wrote its own ticket while its competitors, glutted with those earlier orders at a third the price, frothed impotently, and hailed Richard as the wizard son of a fairly successful and fortunately superannuated father. ”

“ I've thought it all out, Richard. If you want to work with us, your name can't be in the papers to advertise anything but Hobgood leather. We can't afford it, and you can't. From the day you start, you ain't Hobgood, the famous quarterback from Yale; you ain't Hobgood, the golf champion; you're Hobgood, of the city sales force of Hobgood and Company. Everybody'd criticize us if it was different. I'm not going to harsh. You've had a long vacation, and it's time you got serious. All I'll say is, in five years, if you work hard. I'll make you junior partner and then you can do anything you like. ”

“ I don't believe a young man ought to be noticed hardly at all before he's thirty-five or forty, except as a good, hard, steady worker. If folks keep thinking of you as a football player, and then a pool player and then a golf player, you'll find it's going to be awful hard to talk business when you want to. And when you go out representing Hobgood and Company this fall, I want you should be regarded as a representative of Hobgood and Company, and not as an athlete with his picture in the papers. What do you really want out of life, Richard? ”

“ He discovered that without the intoxicant of competition ahead, there was little charm in informal practise, considering that his time was steadily growing precious. Therefore he didn't even practise,
A year's absence from Meadowbrook and Garden City had put him into the journalistic discard. He had ceased to be news, except to the extent of casual mention among those ancient heroes present at the Princeton game. To his father's delight, and to his own rather bewildered but at the same time flattered realization, Hobgood now meant leather exclusively. ”

“ Hobgood, cumulatively chilled by his son's diffidence, prepared to drive.
“I expect to see Central Leather Common, above par by June,” observed Richard soberly. “Want to buy some with me?”
Mr. Hobgood lowered his driver. “The only kind of a par that interests me right now is the par on this next hole,” he stated flatly. “I didn't bring you out here to keep blatting about leather all the time; I brought you out here to play golf!” In the resultant silence, he drove creditably. Richard, bathed in deep thought, sent a fast grounder hopping into the nearest trap, and never used an expletive. ”

“ Hobgood stood for a moment, gazing out of the window to the practise-greens, where Richard was absorbed with a putter and a dozen new balls. He observed that Richard was vibrant with energy, and that his expression was happier than Mr. Hobgood could remember. And Richard was putting exceptionally well.
“Joe,” said Mr. Hobgood to the sable doorman, “go get my putter and some balls. I better warm up for my match this afternoon. Got a good man to play with, too. ... Yes, he's my son. ... Did I tell you I shot a ninety-five to-day, Joe? Yes, sir. ”

“ He still had a chance for a half, but he made his stroke too gingerly.
“Five up,” said Mr. Hobgood. “And a man who's always short on his putts has got a yellow streak in him a yard wide. Who did you ever beat in the Metropolitan, Richard—cripples? Five up and eight to go.”
He played the eleventh cautiously, and got his usual six. Richard, in deep trouble and outspoken profanity from the tee, emerged from the rough in four, put his fifth on the edge of the green, and sank a twenty-footer for the half only. The long putt consoled him somewhat for having betrayed his feelings after the drive. ”

“ Mr. Hobgood topped into the rough. “Bless my sinful soul!”
“Tough luck, father. You're not swinging back far enough.”
“Yes, I am, too. John Peacock tells me——”
“But you're breaking at the elbow. Look! Like this.”
“That's all right. You look at this!” Mr. Hobgood recovered nicely “Now you're away. Show me yourself. Put her right up to the pin.”
Richard nodded gaily. He had a good lie; it was only a full mashie to the green, with an insignificant trap in the middle distance. Confidence was strong within him. He swung the club easily, efficiently, in practise. ”

“ Hobgood followed him into the bus. “That's funny. Well, we can fix it up all right, I guess. The shop's fine. Say, Richard! I've shot one hundred and one four times. John Peacock says I'll break a hundred before the season's over! Anything over a hundred, I say, don't count as golf; it just counts for health. When you score in three figures you've got to fall back on what a good day it is, and how much better you feel. ”

“ Hobgood had begun as an office-boy, and at age fifty he had found himself a millionaire. He had also found himself the parent of a son who was frequently recognized, across the street, by distinguished people who had never met the son, nor even heard of the father. Mr. Hobgood took prompt steps to avoid criticism.
“I think you'll find, Richard,” he said kindly, “that most prominent young men fall down hard, sooner or later, on account of the same qualities that made 'em prominent. ”

“ Well, I'm still one up. Here's where a long drive won't hurt you any. Do you s'pose you can remember you're playing golf long enough to hit one in the eye?”
He had the pleasure of watching Richard whip out a beautiful shot which headed his own best effort by a hundred yards. Mr. Hobgood, however, played warily short of the pits on his second, and chipped to the green in three. Richard fumbled shamefully into a trap, overplayed, and came back in four. Mr. Hobgood won the hole by a stroke, but Richard displayed no chagrin. He halved the next in six, and the short hill hole in four. ”

“ You can't even brace up so's not to get licked by an old man. Well, you've got to. You've got to get some relief from business, or—— Why don't you enjoy this, Richard? Why don't you like it the way you used to? Why don't you begin to play at Garden City again?”
Richard had managed to pay sufficient attention to give a coherent answer.
“The competition was what I used to like, father. Something at stake. Tournaments, you know. Some kind of stimulus. But the Hobgood Company means so much more than——”
Old Mr. Hobgood reached out to touch his son's knee. “All right, boy. ”

“ Nobody criticizes what you do after you've succeeded. In the meantime, no tournaments of any kind whatsoever, no titles, nothing to pull attention away from the one fact that Hobgood means leather. Is it a bargain? ”

“ Your ideas of a fair match are sort of humorous.”
“I'll give you a week's practise, and putt you a round on the clock for a hundred dollars a hole. Darn it!” said Mr. Hobgood, dolefully, “I'm beginning to wonder whether you were always a four-flusher!”
“Keep still when I'm driving!” said Richard furiously. “If you expect to hold me to your crazy wild ideas, for Heaven's sake don't play mucker golf, father! Keep still and give me a chance!” He smote powerfully, straight and true; and thereafter achieved a beautiful second shot. He was dead to the hole in three, and took a four to Mr. ”

“ You've got to get some diversion, or you'll go all to pieces. And you say it takes competition to get you excited. A stake. All right. Listen to me. In 1915, when I put you in to run the company, the partnership agreement was that you'd be the managing partner, but I'd be the directing partner wasn't it? ”