The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1896-11-30
ONLY FOR FOOTBALL.

It was q great cross to Mr. ana MRS.
Bartlett thu. Roger was apparently quite
devoid OF any worthy ambition. He was
devvtsd to football.
"ls that the height of your ambitionY"
his father asked bitterly. DO you sup
nose that any one wants a fellow who has
willfully wasted his best opportunities? L
l. had oven aspired To seeing you some day
In our lending law Office with my old
friend-Wilkinson Smalloy, bnt It's NJ
use. Sinalley wants only young men OF
the highest promise" And Mr. Bartlett
sighed wearily.
"It does no good to talk to Roger" he
oonfided to his wife afterward, "for hardly
ten minutes had elapsed after / had been
demonstrating with him about the evils OF
football before ho isaluired IL i wouldn't
bring YOU down to SEQ the game on Satur-
day, and informed me that he had saved
two tickets for us"
"wbat did you say to him thenr she
queried.
''I told him certainly not,'" DIR. Bart
lett exclaimed warmly, "and / expressed
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 ridicnlous game, 1 told him, and
y
but not till them.
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
TRANSFORMED. Keen, alert, cool, rising
splendidly to every emergency, no one
wonld have known him for the same slow,
Indifferent, easy going specimen OF hu-
manity who grioved the ambitious souls
of his parents by his small aptitude for
Greek.
Not that Roger was by any means a
dunce-for bis class standing was fairly
good--bnt what pained his father and
mother was tho recognition of what he
might have accomplished had 1t not been
for that arch enemy, football
The great game over, the victorious
team hastened back to their gymnasium
with all possible speed. They had some
littlc distance to go, as the gymnasium
was not very near the ball grounds, SO
that in order to reach 1t they wero Obliged
to traverse the center Of the town and
GROSS the railroad tracks.
A. Roger stepped upon the platform he
became conscious that something unusual
was going on, and he Immediately per-
oeived that the eyes OF the multitude were
riveted upon a figure half way across tho
tracks, figure pausing there In bewilder-
ment
"Thers's . train coming each way"
somebody gnsped. "Why doesn't he get
of the traokf"
The station agent and one or two other
officials were shouting loudly. but the
m, y, who was old and very deaf, appeared
1v
A. tb. crowd of bystanders shrank back
With horno stricken faces figure In
n,nch b.ar,,n.1 4 canvas jacket sprang out
from among them, anu c'ear'ns 'ne 1raoAs
at O bound alighted beside the sway'ng
form of the other. 80,
A shudder and wave of piO. III regr9' @
swept over the motionless crowo... no
can never drag him back In s.nie," e.'o'
breathed. they will both be killed.
But tho football nan had no thought OF
dragging tho unsteady figure In front OF
either approaching engine. In an instant
no had &. .ckled tho man and thrown him
fiat apon the ground between the tracks.
Then no dropped lightly on top OF him,
and lay there motionless wnIie tho two
trains thundered past Oil each side of them,
ana the crowd stood waiting spellbound.
Abashed and quite overwhelmed by tho
cheers Roger made haste to elbow his way
through the crowd, and in no doing nearly
overthrew his own brother Fred, who hap
pened to be standing directly in his path.
"For heavens sake, was that you, Rog-
err" hc cried, confronting him in astonish-
ment.
"Do let me get out of this" his brother
responded impatiently. "They needn't
r.. 1-Corl-oI fl,o
| old dufrer over" And he bolted in the di-
roction Of the gymnasium.
On this particular Sunday evening all
wero assembled before Roger camo In.
| Fred was all agog to describe the scene
| that no had witnessed. but he unsellshly
held his tongue. "I'n not spsil his story
| for him, but will give him q chance to do
| justice to it," he mentally calculated as lie
watched his brother swallowing his soup
with unruf1led composgre
But Roger s.,a notbiss upon the vital
suhject, and Fred looked at him with in
creasing surprise as he judicially set forth
tho respective merits Of the opposing foot
ball teams and called attention to their
most vulnerable points.
"I'll turn In early tonight, think" nc
yawned as he withdrew from tho dining
room. II put pretty solid work into the
last half of that game" And he leisurcly
wended his way up stairs.
"I wish that Roger would put q little
solid work into something else, his father
volunteered.
At this Fred, who had In times past re
peatedly scoffod at his brothers athletic
prociivities, instantly fired up.
"Father," ho burst forth, you're max
ing big mistake about Roger. He's go
moro genuine stuff In him than all tn
. rest of us nut together" And then he pro
I oceded to give graphic account of tn
afternoons experience, which caused hi
father to blow his nose loudly and repeat
q edly. while his eyes glistened with happ
pride, and sent his mother weeping j
r search of tho sleepy athlete, who couldn
9 understand what ho had done that wa
a worth making such fuss about
L.~ lAkx IxrxSry