The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-05-22
Written for Tho ArkanSac Tratrltr,
 BASEBALL.
Is Our National Game a Comedy or
 Tragedy?
By Margaret Keller.

The honest man of DlogCncs day, was not more rare, than Is baseball tyro of the present time
 Brilliant men gravely discuss this great American game high spirited youths grow enthusiastic over it; clever college students aspiring to national future, slyly skip the fine political cs. says in the daily newspapers. and greed ily devour the baseball news Lovely women give valuable hours to it's seduc- tive excitement while pretty school girls chatter breathlessly over the tri- umph of some favorite club
 Notwithstanding the universal inter est in the game l remained serenely in different By way of parenthesis l make this confession
 To be behind the times k my normal condition. catch on to the flag end of fashion, just as other people are hid ing 1t away in garret.
 never banged or crmped my hair, until fashion declared stiiliy for pompa- dour: when became at once a devotcc at the midnight mirror, and cherished the delicate curls born of such vigils. The same defect of character, which made me this caricaturc of my sex played it's part in relation to baseball l success fully eluded the popular wave, and be- ctr T h.. T gut,1 of ,aI lated ignorance Naturally, this cccen- tricity made me the subject of criticism, and unkind jests My best friends called me the last rose of summer, and Dundrearys bird, until l was forced to accept q special invitation to n trial of skill between two rival clubs, When the day came had an es- cort composed of ardent disciples of the game Each sex was represented and each individual offered to explain ey- erything an offer felt disposed to resent Painfully conscious as l was of my fatal defect of character, on this oc- casion felt unusually sclfreliant The absurdity of baseball interpreter was amusing. Besides l was called clever.
 had read Emerson Upon one oc- casion l enthusiastically declared his beautiful style, his high pure philoso- phy easy to understand When people looked askance at me fer this ! reck- lessly quoted whole paragraphs from the cover Soul and essayed few comments on the mysterious Circlet " Carlyle was my literary Gamalicl. His quaint rugged sentences dropped into my brain like some rare antique pellets of pure gold. Even that stumbling block his French Revolution had finally settled to my satisfaction. After much study had concluded that won derful production to be the ragged edges, the halfburned pages, and cor ners of the original and lamented man. uscript. Even Carlyle genius was not equal to that unique creation upon any other theory. Clearly then, an individ- ual capable of solving this literary prob lem, needed no instruction in game of baseball
 was ready in advance, to crown it with three points of excellence.
 It is fashionable, it is amusing it is remunerative It is the rival of picnics, matinees, skating rinks and literary clubs Of course it must be immense fun; but withal, it is only boys sim pie play.
 Thus my soliloquy, on our way to the baseball grounds.
 It was an afternoon in autumn; one of those entrancing days that awakens the desire to sit quite still at the root of tree. with the dying leaves drifting about while one hears the soft whisper of invisible beings It was time to dream of heaven. if one is old or of love, if one is young 4 time to enjoy the yellow sunlight. which is seen neither in winter, nor summer, nor yet in spring,