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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 2, 1906)
4& THE SUNDAY OREGOJTtAX, POKTLAU,' SJKFTKJrBlSK 2, 1906. ON. Jo I n i Told br .mmie. ddeh DCAR IAD: Today school opened, and the very prettiest girl in all the world was there. When I saw her I knew that after all there were some girls at least, one who had a right to be around where boys were. She didn't seem to be a bit cheeky and want to boss things like most girls. But I have something else to tell you before I tell you about the first school day. only I happened to re . member how pretty she was and put that down first. Eggy and I went out to Grandpa's one day last week to see if the chest nuts trees were ripe yet, and Grandpa said they were not ripe until after a frost came. But he said that it was a curious thing that Grandma had hap pened to make some fresh doughnuts which Mafy told me how to spell and that we could play around until we were hungry, and then have some doughnuts. Eggy said a boy could play around any time, but that a big crock of doughnuts were not around every day, so we'd best pretend that we were hungry right then, and eat some of the doughnuts to see if we would like them when we really were hungry. Grandpa said that boys were the same now as they were when Mam ma was little, and even when he was a boy, because he always used to think it best to eat when he had a chance, especially doughnuts, and take his chance for a time to play afterward. We played Indians. No shooting ar rows or throwing tommyhawks above the belt on account of the eyes. Grand ma said, or no doughnuts. The little girl's name is ElolseWent worth, but she is called Pussy, which I think is a pretty name, and I saw her first while we were doing arithmetic on the blackboard, and 1 never was more surprised in all my life. But girls are strange humans, because she pretended not to see me, though I was looking at her as hard as I could. Miss Mary said that that was a fact about girls' eyes, that they couldn't see boys who stared at them, especially girls as nice as Pussy, and that if I didn't stare at her so hard she would be more likely to see me. I guess she will, for her eyes are so bright I think she could see anything she wanted to. At Indians I was Bear Fighter and Eggy was Panther Skin, and we played down by the pond, where there are cat tails, water lilies, frogs and blood suckers, and a lot of corking things which country boys have to enjoy and which they know about as well as city boys know which vaudeville show has . the best acrobats. But ponds are more fun than theaters, because at the ponds , you do your own stunts Instead of sit ting still watching other men doing them. It doesn't take long to get tired of playing Indians when the other In dian can throw a tommyhawk as straight and hard as Eggy can, even If you do take all the death wounds on your shins; so we took the canoe and played voyagers. We went after water lilies and frogs, because Eggy knows how to skin and cook them over a fire. Water lilies were easy, but frogs are not where they were when you get there, so we paddled toward the end of the pond around the turn, where Eggy said it looked good and froggy, and not to disturb them we paddled as quietly as we could. The rushes are high Just before you get to the turn, and we heard voices before we could see around the point. J whispered "In dians!" but Eggy whispered "Tramps!" and stopped the boat to listen. They were talking a lingo I couldn't understand, but Eggy's eyes got big as could be, and he motioned me to lie low while he worked the canoe deep ' into the rushes. Pretty soon we could see through, and there, over a fire, were two tramps cooking a chicken. They seemed to be awfully interested in what they were saying and didn't i hear us, though I thought they might have heard my heart beat, for it was thumping so loud it made me deaf. , But Eggy listened close, and after a while he motioned to back, and we got to the far end of the pond before he said a word, and then he only whis pered, "We must see your grandpa right away." I could see that there was something up. but I didn't ask what 1t was, for I was afraid that If I opened my lips at all I'd scream. We ran back to the house as fast as we could, and as soon as Eggy got Grandpa away from the house he said: "Mr. Hamilton, did you sell your hay yesterday and get cash for it and not put the money in bank yet?" Grandpa took off his spectacles and wiped them round and round before he said: "Yes, Eggy. why do you ask?" He told grandpa about the tramps, and id they were talking about it in their slang, but he understood enough of it to make him think they were going to try to pet the money that night. The only thing grandpa said was: "Don't let urandma know a thing of this. You boys ran come with me if you want to." We went down to the barn, where he got Towser and a hired man, who took a pitchfork along, and we all walked to the pone and came upon the tramps before they knew there was anybody about. I was proud of grandpa, for he spoke as ouletly as if he were at home talking to grandma. He said: "You rascals can have Just 20 minutes to get over the town ship line. That will make you move lively, but if you are not across the line by that time I'll have you both in the lockup. If you pay me a visit tonight I promise you a warm reception. Now get!" The men were wicked-looking and scowled at grandpa, but he only looked at them pleasantly, took out his watch, looked at it and said: "Keep your eye on them. Towser." The men started off, with grandpa and the hired man follow ing after them In the buckboard, and Towser sitting on the seat between them, looking as if he were as much a part of the business as anyone else. I guess he was. , Efifilajl L. practiced tackling a pillow U II Cil II Tf Ills. I I jl ii hi i) u a , ir H - . ffl ft u Jl I V - I I ySS7yX I I.I 1 Fll I aM- III M ,iJ--f izwr i j1 yrsrz ' jjj! :$m$&:M Mlf -III If IP dm grandma hung out on a line for us until grandpa came back and told us that the men slackened their gait at the last until he thought it was time for Towser to stretch his legs, and then the men made a record run for the township line, and were running yet, he guessed. . He gave us a ride back to the village when he went to deposit some money in the bank, and patted me on the head and said: "We don't want those yeggmen taking any of your inheritance, do we. Ham?" But he took a $5 bill off the roll and gave it to Eggy, saying, "You're a pretty cute little chap, son." I was glad he staked Eggy, even If the money was to be my "Inheritance." I wonder what he meant by that! I know a good little boy who is short of funds and could use any part of 95 but no more of that at present. The first day in school is jolly fun. There were a lot of boys and girls I had never seen. They are farmers' kids, who live four and five miles out of the vil lage and drive in and out every day, bringing their lunches with them. We all take our lunches and sit about under the trees eating, and trading, too, for the farm children have the bull lest things to eat I ever saw. The little girl I spoke of had gingerbread, and It was smelly of fresh butter, fresh eggs, fresh spices, brown sugar and fresh baking. I wanted some so much it made my mouth water, but when I discovered it I couldnM. trade, for my lunch basket was as empty as my purse but no more of that at present though the money mar. ket with ma is as .tight as a kite suing LWl in a gale of wind. After school I was walking along with a fellow and he be gan to look at his pail as If it might have a rat In it, and then he said: "This isn't my pail." He opened it and I saw it was Pussy's, for there was a lot of that gingerbread in it. He had taken hers from the hat hooks by mistake. He was for chucking it out on the road, for he said his mother would see that he had brought home the wrong pail If he left the gingerbread in it. but if the pail was empty she might not discover, and he wouldn't have to go out and cut a birch switch for being such a fool. I said I'd get his pail, and took the one he had to Pussy, and she was just wonder ing what had happened, for the pail she had was half filled with cold roast pork. That was the way I got acquainted with her, and she is ripping,- with no cheek or nonsense. I am going to study hard now. for she is at one end of the class and I am at the other. Her end Is called the head. She gave me some gingerbread, and It was like eating a perfume. Cousin Bob was hanging about school when it let out to see if Miss Mary had lived through the day. He said he hadn't, being stone dead from loneliness. He said that if Mary or I didn't play hookey with him he would enlist in the army for com panionship. But when I wane companion ship I will look for the gingerbread girl. In school we have gramuiar, geography and arithmetic, but no poetry. So I told Miss Mary she would have to give me private lessons in poetry. She asked me why, and I said that being short of funds I bad nothing to offer the gingerbread girl Ml FIRST except poetry, and I would like to offer her some. Mary said an apple would probably do more good for the cause, and I could get an apple just by sliding down the cellar door and pinching one from the barrel, which would be no more trouble than learning to write poetry. Cousin Bob said he had tried both poetry and apples, but hadn't made a hit with either. Mary laughed, and said Bob's poetry Learning to TO FIND a way to play baseball at home has long been the ambition of every patriotic American 'boy. Any boy who can shoot a marble can play indoor.- baseball. The "field" should be a bed or large table, with pillows -or a pile of books or boxes for a "backstop." An old sheet with a dia gram of the diamond in chalk or Ink should be spread upon bed or table, the diamond at one end and the outfield at the other, as on real grounds. The bases should be two feet apart, marked by round spots the size of a silver quarter, and the pitcher's box should be a foot from the home plate, the lat ter .belug a postage stamp. " jiie 'pitch. and his apples were alike; both lacked tang, both were well rounded but some what seedy, and when you got down to the core of each you had nothing more to do but throw it away. I thought that was nearly as good as a riddle, but Bob said he saw nothing funny about it. He said if I was truly in earnest about the ginger bread girl not to waste time over such silly things as verses, but to hitch up a fast horse, run away with her, marry her before she got breath enough to say. Play Baseball er's and batsmen's boxes should be marked as well as the foul lines. The players are spools just ordinary sewing silk or thread spools and they are all selected for their ability to roll straight. The name of each player is written on a slip of paper pasted on "nis heaej. The nines secured, the ball and bat are all that remain to be found. The latter is a round leadpencil not sharpened. The team In the field are all placed in their accustomed positions as in the actual game, except that the three basemen remain on the bases in stead of "playing off." The operator or "manager" of the field team stands be side the table nearest first base and. reaching his arm over that position, places hia right hand beside his spool pitcher Uia siaxbla ia th hfttli. .The 1 "This is so sudden," and live happily ever afterward. - But I'm going to try the poetry game first, and I've already made up love .and dove and true and blue, but "ginger bread" is awful hard ,to rhyme with un less a fellow has long hair. Mine Is grow ing, because football needs long hair or small stones get Into your scalp, and then Aunt Jane puts on a salve which would blister the hide of an elephant. Affection atelv. your son, HAMILTON. in the Home manager of the team at bat, putting one of his men in the batsman's box at home plate, 3tands on the other side of the field from his opponent and places his right hand, grasping the bat. in front of his player. Then the game begins and the actual rules are followed closely. A third boy may act as umpire, or the two man agers can agree easily enough on de cisions, for few will be found uncom fortably close or uncertain. The bats man cannot judge the ball well, be cause the pitchxr is so near, therefore, he is allowed to strike at each delivery. A cigar box Is laid on its bottom di rectly behind the catcher. If the mar ble hits the broad side of this box when pitched, a. "strike" is called; if it shoots over sx beside the box, li ia a "ba.IV Hush-aired by IlCory lllvert 9 0 Four "balls," as in the real game, en title the batsman to his base. There are no "foul strikes" in spool baseball, but when a hall touches the bat and rolls foul the fielder nearest the point where it stops is rolled from his position toward it, and if he touches it the bats man is "out." A fair hit that knocks over a fielder is an "out" if the fielder rolls further from the plate then does the ball and it scores as a "fly caught." When a fair hit is met by no fielder, or when It strikes one and goes beyond him. the one nearest where it stops is rolled toward it. and If he touches It it Is an out. Should he miss, however, the batsman Is rolled from home plate toward first base and. hitting the baseman there. Is declared "safe"1 and may roll for second, third and home In order. The field team waits to move until the runner has tried, and if he fails at any base the ball is thrown from where It stopped toward the baseman missed. Should the ball then hit the latter the runner is out. Should it not hit, the run ner has again to roll from where he stopped toward the baseman, and tf he fail again the ball is thrown from its place, and so on until the man is either safe or out. Once safe on first base the runner remains there until the next ball other than a foul has been delivered. Then he may try to steal the next base under the same rules as applied to his reaching first, but he may take but one base, of course, on such a run. Should a hit be made when a runner is on first base the ball may be fielded to second base Immediately to force him out. as in the real game, and this may often develop a true double play if the batter fails to get to first. For a throw to home base the catcher fs brought up from behind the bat and placed upon the plate. In the case of a hit off the field (that is. the bed or table) the bail is brought back to the point over which it passed in going off and the nearest fielder has his chance to run for it as if it were a real "hit to the fence." A Fool and His Money A Well Known New York Sonh rette Comments on Youth of the Harry Thaw Type. BY CARRIE DE MAR. APPARENTLY the public was amazed at the facility with which many of Mr. Thaw's footllght friends (?) who had enjoyed his lavish hospitalities turned against him and rallied to the flag of Mr. Jerome. To the player-folk this was the expected thing the inevitable. How ever much the chorus maiden may enjoy so-called bohemlanism at some one else's expense, the foolish spender becomes the laughing stock of the very young women upon whom he is lavishing the hard earned wealth of his fathers. From ridi cule to disloyalty there Is but a step. The reputable actor regards the college lad spendthrift with pity not unmixed with contempt. The colleges patronized by the newly made multi-millionaires might well Include In their text-books "A Life of Harry K. Thaw." It would be more effective than tomes of ordi nary ethics. We have heard and read a lot of mor alizing, clerical and lay, of late concern ing the sort of thing that led Kipling to pen "The Vampire." and Bume-Jones to paint it. I do not know how much of It has been absorbed by the persons at whom it was directed or seemed to be directed; perhaps they were doing some moralizing for themselves: However this may be. It Is not going to do much good this moralizing, I mean. Moralizing, as I look at it, is a subjective, intangible thing the weapon of the casuist and the policy of aggression pursued by the soph ist. Were Is not better at times like this to be objective that is, to say or write, or at least think, something- that Is meas urable and applicable in the same way that a coat of whitewash or a gob of soapsuds is applicable? What Is the use. for instance, in welling on the folly of the brainy, brawny Ironmaster or ship ping merchant or banker or what not who rears his son in Idleness, luxury, ease and that sort of "independence" that is the most slavish form of downright depend ence? Fathers will go on making money and leaving it to sons as long as the worlds goes round. There's nothing in blamfrrg dead fathers or in talking the Lecalogue to living, -11 ve-wire sons. Point out to the latter, when the chance comes, how others see them; that sort of ridi cule will tell. Thus, what must be the feelings of that prodigal who. having proved himself a fat-headed calf, gets Into trouble, to find that those on whom he had lavished his attentions and professed his utter lack of Intentions are the ones who regard him with the most contempt? What Bort of myopia Is It that blinds an educated cul tured young American or Englishman of today, when newspapers are served with the breakfast and other forms of the world's thought and experience . with luncheon and dinner, to the fact that he is the antithesis of a hero in the eyes of the will-o'-the-wisps of the show-girl line and the chorus? I think the very best thing that could happen to the jeunesse doree of today who haunt the stage doors of the town would be to organize themselves into a composite sort of eavesdropper and de vote their collective energies to gather ing one scrap of good report about them selves from all that Is said of thorn by their divinities of the footlights. But, I fear, all this has been said In another and a better way: "There was a man -and he made his prayer" Other Rewards Than Money. The Pilgrim. York a man who has won eminent suc cess, . and yet he died In poverty. Brigadier-General E. S. Sherrell was a military, engineer. He it was who first surveyed the interoceanic canal routes across the Isthmus of Panama. He built the Hoosaic Tunnel and planned the constrution of the Niagara suspension bridge. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Sci ences, was" three times thanked by Com gress, received nine medals and decora tions, and lived to be 80 years of age. There are other compensations than money. -