Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-01-07

| admitted 70 a STAB man
| yesterday the exact To-
cality of his residence
on various occasions has depended largely on
the activity Of the vigilance committees. His
reputation for truth and veracity in the COM
munity in which he is best known 10 something
that no one east of the Mississippi knows any
thing about. But he was an interesting and
| instructive talker
| I'm not dead certain what effeteness means,
but it il a phrase that we always use around
| my section when We speak Of you paople
| We're fan dc syacle, and that means up to date,
| see? Why, you people think you know some-
| thing about foot ball, when the fact Is you're
| not in it for either half with US. We've got
| more wrinkles into the game out where live
| than all the foot ball professors at Yale or
Princeton could teach in a whole college course.
| Say, If Won want good story and are sure that
/ the editor who'll read your copy amt too
| squeamish about details I'll tell you simple
and unvarnished tale of foot ball was foot
| ball. Or, maybe you've heard of the great
| foot ball game we had at Horse Springs. N NJ,
| last Thanksgiving day. No? Well, saw, what
sort of sporty editor have you got, anyway.
Well here goes:
FOOT BALL FOR THANKSGIVING DAY.
Horse Springs isn't much Of place to
look at, but it's plumb game, and any sort Of
| our money, too. This fall troop Of the
eleventh cavalry stationed down there
| and in the crowd was a little lefteuant who
| wasn't long out of West Point. but he always
| seemed 10 me to be able to stay right up with
| the procession. no matter what was going on.
| He was the one that made the suggestion that
We get up Thanksgiving day foot ball game,
| for he had been in the business himself when
| he was at school and had played against the
boys from the Naval Academy and knew a full
| back from a goal post as far as he
| could 'em. He called meeting of
the crowd one night down Mt the drug
| store and when he got to telling about how
| the game WAS worked they ali got so interested
that nothing short of dog fight could have
! brought them out. Tho liquor was passing
round rather promiscnous, but not enough to
| hurt One of the boys wanted to know il the
| players used axes and he kind o lost interest in
| the story when he found that they weren't even
| allowed to take their guns onto the foot ball
! field. 1 think myself that they wonid be al
most necessary to real good playing. But
when the boys found out that man can get
thrown onto the ground and have about twenty
| men fall onto him and have his face pounded
! into jelly and most Of his ribs broken
and yet didn't have a right to clean
out the whole crowd with six shooter
after the game and that even there
| wasn't good Kentucky feud between tho two
| teams after the assault and battery, why us
fellows just naturally said we wouldn't touch
no such game with ten-foot pole and Lippy
Bill he said that he thought that foot ball was
just about the sort of game for guv ment
mules to play.
BURRos VS.. MULES.
''Well. that idea led to the next as one thing
leads to another until finally Tom Murray, that
used to be something of broncho buster be-
| fore he got his right leg shot off in friendly
encounter in Lcadville some Years ago, said that
/ he had just come down from the range, with
| pack train of burros, and that give him couple
| of weeks For training purposes and he could
| get up foot ball eleven out of them burros
| that conld walk away from the best game that
the leftenant could put up with all the pack
mules his troop could furnish.
The challenge was accepted in course and
its health was drunk. and so was Lippy Bill and
one or two others by this time BY the way.
But before the crowd adjourned to the faro lay
| out ii was decided that owing to the difference
in weight in the two teams eight mules was to
| play against a dozen burros and the betting was
begun right then and there, with the odds some
in favor of the army team.
TRAINING THE FouR-FoorEp TEAMS.
'This was about two weeks before Thanks
giving and so both Of the trainers had plenty
OF time to get their teams into good shape for
the fight. The leftenant took the big horse
corral back of the barracks for his training
| ground and he put corporais guard at the
gate to keep any of the rooters from the other
side from getting in to the tricks and the
tactics he was drilling them mules onto. He
was mighty secret about 1t all, but we noticed
that the other officers we're very free with their
cash, SO that the odds got longer on the heavy
weight team.
''Some one told Tom that there WAS an old
college man from the east who was down on his
luck and was chasing cows a range about
twenty miles away, SO he sent for him to come
down to the Springs and pu. the burros onto al
the latest fads and fancies in the way Of foot
ball carvings on. Every afternoon when
things was little duh we used to go over and
how his team was getting along, and it
really amaziog to see how them burros
improved in their play under his coaching.
They were all in pretty good physical trim, for
they had been carrying heavy loads all the fall,
SO Tom let them rest a bit and fed them well
upon grain and such hard food, with some
whisKy to sort of keep up their nerve. The
whisky was a bad thing for burros /, mean
for when the big game began they came up
rather groggy.
READY FOR THE GREAT GAME
The game began at noon. and /. was de-
cided that they would only play one-half, be-
cause they knew tina, when the fun once began
they never could separate them animals for no
| internission. There was some trouble about
! getting q referee and an empire, cause we all
had our money on one side or the other and the
ieftenant said that it was necessary that they
| should be impartial. But finally we picked on
| two rank outsiders who had just struck town
that morning and had never seen game played,
and hadnt even been to any OF our meetings
when the leftenant blew all of us in on the fine
points OF the game. Tho referee and the other
chap was furnished with good saddle horses and
each one took aioag rawhide nriat
to put stop to any foul tacklins
/ We used a regulation foot ball that we
| had sent up TO Frisco for. ONLY we
tied piece Of rope to each end so that crittcr
| could pick it up in his mouth I'm case he wanted
to run with the ball. II was clear from the
| start OF the first round that the mule team were
going to try hard kicking game while the
little chaps who were kindo' on the defensive
would have TO resort to blocking tactics.
FOOT BALL As WAS root BALL
| We'll, the game started with the ball in the
possession Of the burros and they made about
| twenty yards on what we Was told by the left.
tenant was trick. But they lost the ball on
of side play, when little son-of-a-gun Of q
| burro ran around the right end and began
Kicking the mule teams full back in tho ribs
Murray drew His gun. but he wasn't soon
enough, for the burro didn't drop until after
the referee had seen the play and the ball went
TO the army team and substitute took the
| a hurr H. IA