The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-06-17
FEs1IsInE BASE HALL.

From the World.

From the World. s1e
The " clergy and medical faculty Of the
city /" were invited Saturday afternoon to
game of base ball between mines Of young
women, on d vacant lot at Fifty-ninth street
and Madison avenue, and quite a crowd, not
distinctively clerical or medical, was assem-
bled. Out on the dusty open field the eight
cen young women pranced about essaying
base ball until the audience reared itself
hoarse. The mines were styled, of course,
" The Blondes = and g The Brunettes " and
wore respectively blue and red shirts and
legsings. They have been in practice for
four weeks. Such playing had never before
been seen, but it was certainly earnest and
even savage playing. The viciously whacked
ball often passed the pitcher, and the running
from base to base was a cross between a skip
and a dog-trot. The players wore small jock
ey caps atop of their top knots of plaits, and
whenever the hats came of, which they al
ways did, all thoughts of the ball were pro
tempors dismissed until the disaster was re-
paired. The " mufing - was supreme. In
| the course of three hours Of vigorous work
about three balls were caught on the fly in
an accidental sort Of way. There were few
OF usual ball-field incidents. The red catcher
took a missed ball on her eyelid, but allowed
it fall off while she sat Town to endure the
ministrations of the first and third base wo-
men. The styles of playing were as various
as could be. The blonde captain was very
tall, and once having made q hit Skinned
around the quadrangle in full confidence that
tho mufing Of the fielders would permit her
to get through all right. The blue catcher
wore her hair down, ana when the umpire
had called three " strikes " for her she dash
ed off in a nebulous state, pursued by the
ball, and generally made her base, since the
ball was thrown wide for fear of hitting some
of her. The batting was unique. The bat
was held above the head as nearly perpendic-
ular as might be, and brought down with the
grace and force that adorps the act Of domes-
tic discipline administered with a broom.
Naturally, almost every ball hit was q
" g%rounder," and was scrambled up n
thrown with an overland stroke. TIL changes
in the innings were picturesque, q cloud of
blue skirts and forest OF blue legs advancing
to the shelter tent, while q flock of red legs
and caps scared out over the field. The blue
legs were the longer and won the match by
this virtue, hut the red young women did the
best catching and fielding. Now and then a
home run was made, and then there was q
general hugging and kissing as the victor
came in. The captains were specially digni-
fed. The red leader was q broad faced, stout
limbed young woman, whe at one time was
known to the public as the chief victim Of q
" show of beauty " in this city. Two of the
blues years ago were fat riders of Barnum's
Hippodrome. Female trapezists, song and
dance g a~rtistes I" and such made up the rest
Of Mays and Gypsies of the troupe. When
the band played Killarney four of the feeders
kept time to the air with their feet. Now and
then a ball flung with more than usual vim,
and caught Inadvertently in the region Of the
stomach, brought out a suppressed scream
from the victim, and a litter from the other
Jennies and Graces and Jessies on the field.
At s O'Clock it was declared that the score
stood as follows:
Blondes. ...S 2 4 8 8 0 5 4 1916
Brunettes...9 Z s 4 8 l l Isl
The manager Of all this novelty put his
hand npon his heart and declared /: My OBJ
jsct is to start a new thing. To develop the
women of America l am going TO open here q
field for their physical perfection. There is
to be base ball, lacrosse, archery, polo, walk
ing, running, velocipede riding, and every
thing. The ponies are now in training.
Doctors tell me it will knock seven-eigthths
of their business sky-high. l I'm going to
have a tent made $50 feet square to travel
round the country from Omaha to Boston.
1t is going to work a revolution in this coun-
try and the world. These ladies are all cul-
tivated women who off the field are able to
grace any drawins-room. l tell you it is the
biggest thing that has ever occurred for the
women of America"
One of the women players added hat she
" was a-going to get S. on Monday or know
the reasons why"