The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1895-02-22
A FOOTBALL HERO.
He Was More of a Man Than He
Got Credit for Being.

Bartlett that Roger was apparently
quite devoid of any worthy ambition.
Their two older boys We're SO utterly
different. Fred had been graduated
from Yale with the highest honors and
Horace was making remarka BILE prog
ress az the scientific school; in fact,
they were both exceptionally fine stu
dents. which made the contrast all the
more striking.
For Roger was sadly unlike his broth
ers- He seemed to labor under the i'm
preston that he had been sent to col
lege simply and solely for the purpose
of learning to play football. Appar-
emily nothing else had power to kindle
the slightest enthusiasm in his slug
gish breast. and his father and moth
er argued and eXpostula ted with h i'm in
vain.
1o ou are frittering away your valua-
BILE time" they argued again and
again, and are letting slip golden op-
portunities, which, once gone, never
will come back to you; and what have
you to show for it all but broken
nose and a fractured collar bone?''
rs there any prospective benefit to
be derived from these hours spent in
scrabbling after football?" his father
questioned, severely; to which Roger
merely responded in his usual finland
style: WHO knows but / may be
elected captain of the varsity team
next year,
is that the height of your ambi-
tion?' his parent returned bitterly. Il
am terribly disappointed in you, sir;
are you To 20 on playing football for
ever and ever, or what do you propose
to make of your life? Perhaps you
think that your reputation as a foot
ball player will prove an open Sc
same to- all desirable positions. Do
you suppose that anyone wants fell
low who has willfully wasted his best
opportunities? l had hoped to make a
professional man of you, not Il pro-
fessional athlete. and had even as
pired to seeing you some day in our
Leading law office with my old friend
Wilkinson Smalley: but it's no use,
Smalley wants only young men of the
highest promise" and Mr. Bartlett
sighed wearily.
1t does no good to talk to Roger"
he contided To his wife afterward, for
hardly ten minutes had elapsed after
had been demonstrating with him
about the evils of football before he
inquired if | wouldn't bring YOU down
to see the game on Saturday, and in
formed me that he had saved two
tickets for MS"
Mrs. bartlett regarded her husband
helplcssly. What did you say to him
them She queried.
Il told him certainly not" Mr..
BARTLETT exclaimed warmly, "and | ex-
pressed my surprise at his daring to
suggest such a thing. Show me some
lasting benefit, or any abiding good,
that is to be derived from this ridicul-
Gus game. / told him, and then come
to me TO abet you in such folly, but not
till then
And so Mr.. and Mrs Bartlett failed
to witness that memorable game in
which their youngest son gained for
himself such enviable laurels Once in
the field Roger was like one trans
formed. Keen, alert, cool, rising
splendidly to every emergency, no one
would have known him for the same
slow, Indifferent. easy-going specimen
of humanity who grieved the ambi-
tious souls of his parents by his small
aptitude for Greek.
Not that Roger vas by any means a
Ounce, for his class standing was
fairly good, but what panied his
of what he might have accomplished
had it not been for that arch enemy
football.
The great game over, the victorious
team hastened back to their gymna-
sium with all possible speed; they had
some little distance to go, as the gym
nasium was not very near the ball
grounds, so that in order to reach it
III 70
ter of the town aud cross the railroad
tracks.
Roger who had been detained a mo
ment or SO longer than the others.
reached the station a short time after
they had crossed, and found the plat
form crowded with people who We're
returning from the game, mingled
with those who were alighting from
incoming trains. As he stepped upon
the platform ne became conscious that
something unusual was going on, and
he Immediately perceived that the
eyes of the multitude were riveted up
on a figure halfway across the tracks,
a figure pausing there in bewilderment.
There's a train coming each way,
somebody gasped. why doesn't he
get off the track"
The station agent and one or two
other officials were shouting loudly,
but the man, who was old and very
deaf, appeared thoroughly dazed; as
he was prepared to step upon the
track nearest him he had caught sight
of one train coming down upon him
and he now staggered back and was
about to plunge in front of the other
down-coming express when suddenly
sonnet hing very unexpected hap
pened
AS the crowd of bystanders shranI
back with horror-stricken faces. con
vinced that they were about to wit
ness the terrible fate which must in
stantly overtake the old man, a figure
in a much-begrimed canvas JACKIE
sprang out from among them, anC
clearing the tracks at bound alight
ed beside the swaying form of the
other
A shudder and a wave of pitiful re
gret swept over the motionless crowd
"He can never drag him back in time,
they breathed; they will both be
llilled-oh, the pity of it,
But our football man had no thought
of dragginT the unsteady figure il
front of either approaching engine
In an instant he had tackled the maT
and thrown him fiat upon the round
between the two tracks, for all the
world quite as if he had been an op
ponent on the football field; then he
dropped lightly on top of him aud la
there motionless, while the two train
thundered past on each side of then
and the crowd stood waiting spell
bound.