National Republican., 1883-05-21
WOMEN AT THE BAT.
A Novel Game OF Baso Ball Between
Teams OF CoIorod Girls.


A Novel Game OF Baso Ball Between
Teams OF CoIorod Girls.
Philadelphia Press.
If poor, patient, melancholic Job could
have seen the game of base ball played yes
terday afternoon at Lamokin, Pa, between
the Dolly Warden and the Captain Jinks
clubs, of South Chester, he would have
laughed heartily. The two clubs were COM
posed exclusively of young colored women.
Some of them were attired in ordin ary female
garb, but some were not. Three of the play
ers in the Dolly Warden club wore salt bag
Jerseys" over their petticoats, with holes
cut for the arms and legs. When they ran
they looked like sugar cured hams on stills,
and when they remained motionless and per-
pendicular they most resembled Dore's pic
lures of BeelzebNb. They ran like deer,
threw tho ball like a boy, with the right
arm, and batted with lusty grace and free
dom from restraint that was, to say the least,
novel.
The grounds were decidedly rural. On
one side was q scrap Of woods, on another the
railway, on tho third a muddy brook, and
fronting the field, on the remaining side,
there ran a row of dilapidated wooden
on the djacent fences, were perched as mis-
cellaneous an assemblage of colored folks as
ever the sun looked down upon. The Dolly
Warden club was tho first to arrive headed
by Ella Harris, the captain and catcher. The
Captain Jinks club was two minutes and
thirty seconds late by the brass watch of
Jennie Pepper the umpire, a lank, dusky lass,
who wore striped calico dress, stockings to
match button shoes minus the buttons, and
an old sunbonnet that looked as il it had
been baked by the suns of 1000 summers.
Jennie tossed up battered copper penny.
The Dolly Vardens shouted Heads /"
and, after scramble, it was found
in the long green grass, heads up.
The first inning was comparatively unevent-
full. Fannie Watts, the catcher, nearly broke
her back reaching for q zigzag foul. Ella
Harris batted ball over into the woods. The
center fielder, in climbing the fence. tore her
| skirt, and in rummaging among the under
brush for the missing ball, ran thorn in the
big toe other right foot, whereat she sat down
ON stump and wept and delayed the game
fifteen minutes hunting for the thorn. The
Dolly Vardens were retired with two runs.
The Captain Jinkscaptain, Fannie Watts,wen
to the bat. She drove high fly away out
past the left fielder, and ran around the bases
| twice before il was recovered. The Dolly
| Vardens stoutly maintained that only one run
could be scored, but Fannie Watts slapped the
scorer in the face, and made her put down two
runs Then there was a squabble.
Martha Mustard broke her bat banging II
| against the home plate, and Anna Maria Jones
sent "grounder' skipping along the muddy
grass to the pitcher, Ella Robertson. Thai
| industrious and agile young colored woman
| attempted to catch it with her apron, but II
whistled through hole that she didn't know
was there and hit Pbilopena Morris, the
short stop, on the nose.
There were no other interesting episode!
until the final inning, the fifteenth The
Dolly Vardens had So runs and the Captain
Jinks 62. The excitement was great. Fan
ME Watts knocked the ball into the water
can, filling it with grease, and dirt, and grass
Jennie Pepper allowed Anna Maria Jones tC
hit at four balls, because the former de,
clared the first ball was a foul, although
she hadn't hit at it at all. There wal
another squabble. Philopena Morris ripped
the ball on high fly that wen
down the chimney of one of the houses
Hannah Kates knocked the first base mis-
tress down and tore her salt-bag Jersey
Rose Feely hit the umpire in the head with
| the bat for calling her out on O foul. Marif
Thompson ran around the course with tho
ball in her pocket to keep from being put out
and dared anybody to lay their hands on her
Susie Corbitt tripped and fell and ploughet
up the ground with her dusky nose filling
her ears with grass. Martha Mustard rar
away with the ball, and has not since beer
found, and the game was declared draw
| with siXty-seven runs scored on both sides
The match broke up in free fight and will
be confined some day next week. Both clubs
walked back to Chester lively as hornets, {
melancholy array of disjointed knuckles
ragged dresses torn salt-bag Jerseys" ant
bruised faces, dusty, exhausted, and looking
like band of Jubilee singers" on an OF
| night.