Archibald's Benefit

A short golf story

Archibald Mealing tries to play golf - he tries really hard as he zig-zags down the course of the Cape Pleasant Golf Club, Jersey. Fortunately, at his club such play is acceptable, as is he. So much so that when the club secretary learns that Archibald is engaged, he conspires with other club players to let Archibald win the club championship to help his union along. But there's a snake in the rough.

Characters

Archibald Mealing	a golfer
McCay	the club secretary
Sigsbee	a fellow golfer
Gossett	a keen golfer
Margaret Milsom	engaged to Archibald
Stuyvesant Milsom	her brother

Publishing Information

The Man Upstairs and other stories

First published 19 March 1910 in Collier's (US), it was probably adapted from Reginald's Record Knock which was first published July 1909 in Pearson's Magazine (UK).

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Notes and Quotes

'I see clearly before me the solid phalanx of men from Missouri, some urging me to tell it to the King of Denmark, others insisting I present my Eskimos.'
- obviously meaning 'I must present or show my proof'. The first part is an allusion to two sentences accredited to Willard Duncan Vandiver, a Missouri congressman, in a speech.

I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.

- The second part is more obscure and might refer to the (then) fresh events surrounding the claim by Frederick A. Cook to have reached the North Pole with Eskimo team members in April 1908, his praise and awards from the Danish King and subsequent denouncement as a fake (the arguments for and against his claim continuing to this day).

Brassy
- a number 2 wood golf club.

Buck-and-wing dancing
- dancing a type of solo tap dance with leg flings and leaps.

Foozle
- to make a poor stroke.

Walter J. Travis
- (1862-1927) Australian-born US amateur golfer who only started playing just before his 35th birthday. He won both the British and US Amateur Championships.

St. Andrew's
- a club in Scotland, the home of golf.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox
- (1859-1919) US writer of optimistic prose and poetry.

Browning
- probably Robert Browning, the English 19th Cent. poet.

Half-Nelson
- a wrestling hold.

Svelte
- slender, lissom, graceful.

Gaby
- a simpleton.

Guffin
- a stupid person.

George Cohan
- (1878-1942) US vaudeville and musicals star and song writer.

'... Tennyson's critique of the Island-Valley of Avilion.'
- refers to Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur. The quotation is correct.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
- a compendium of quotations first issued by John Bartlett in 1855 and updated periodically ever since. Wodehouse had a copy and made use of it.

Like-as-we-lie
- said when players have made an equal number of strokes on a hole at that time (match play).

Gorgon
- a creature from Greek mythology, seeing her face turned the viewer to stone.

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A story of misunderstandings and a very sneaky trick.

'... on the links most of his time was spent in retrieving lost balls or replacing America.'