July 6, 1907 (Saturday)

CLERGYMAN WANTS TO BECOME A CITIZEN -- AND LEAPFROGS OTHERS IN LINE AT COURT: Dr. Charles Frederick Aked, who recently took over the pastorship of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church in Manhattan, took out his first naturalization papers yesterday at U.S. District Court. In passing the first threshold to citizenship, Aked -- who came here from Liverpool, England -- formally renounced his allegiance to King Edward and also stated he was neither a polygamist nor an anarchist. An article about this was on the front page of today's New York Times. The story mentioned in an oblique way that Aked had received some preferential treatment in the process. The relevant paragraph put it this way:
Dr. Aked expressed himself as greatly impressed with the proceedings and declared that the method of naturalizing citizens was really beautiful. A long line of would=be citizens was still curling its way through the corridor when Dr. Aked left with his first papers.
The Boston Globe put it a little differently:
When he reached the U.S. court the distinguished divine found a long line of ragged aliens waiting and was about to take his place at the foot of the line when he was saved the annoyance and his case was at once attended to by the clerk.

BALL STICKS IN THE FENCE, SO LAJOIE TROTS HOME AND BEATS NEW YORK: With Cleveland and New York tied 1-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Cleveland's Nap Lajoie came to the plate with nobody on base. A home run seemed unlikely. He hadn't hit one since 1905. He took the third pitch and drove the ball to deep center field at Cleveland's League Park (shown above, after a renovation in 1910). Hoffman raced back as the ball hit off the screen. To Hoffman's horror, the ball STUCK IN AN OPENING IN THE SCREEN. According to today's New York Times, Hoffman "wildly began to claw the ball and CUT HIS FINGERS in a vain attempt." The ball fell to the ground, but by then Lajoie had crossed the plate with what was to be the winning run.
(Note: When the park was rebuilt in 1910, it had some very interesting dimensions.)