The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1896-06-27

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my mouth In amazement Dressed in d
plain little skirt and waist Of red and
black. our clubs eolors, with franks
own cap on her head, she walked quiet
Is by me. with a nod and smile, and
straight up to the captain.
Sim Franks substitute" she said.
Well, / don't believe Ed Brown has
gotten over his surprise to this day.
With his eyes about as big as saucers,
he looked down at her and then at the
rest of us to see if be was dreaming.
Then he stammered;
"What2p
81 am Franks substitute she said
again; Gam 1 late?n
"a little" I managed to answer ''but
do you mean it, Nellie? Are you going
to play in Franks placer
EYES" she answered. laughing at my
establishment, / suppose. why, ditnf
you know / could play ball? Frank
practices with me all the time, and |
know all his signals and his curves. He
told me to tell you-all of you-to play
just as if he were pitching, and to for
get that / am his sister. For to-day 1
am Frank himself"
A o surprised set of boys would
have been hard to find anywhere. The
very idea of this little ~12-year-old girl
playing real baseball, and knowing
Franks wonderful curves, the pride
Of the Invincibles, was almost beyond
belief; yet we knew she must be telling
the truth. Before we could say much
more the umpire called time, and the
game began.
"Remember,i' said Nellie, as she
walked out and took her place in the
pitchers box, for to-day l am Frank
And she was! Talk about a girl not
knowing how to throw a ball. Iwish
you might have seen that one do it, sir!
If ever you saw more beautiful curves
than she shot over the h~ome-plate
straight into Smiths hands 1 would
like to know it. She stood up there and
pitched the first inning without a break
or a mistake, striking out two of the
astonished Red Stockings as if they
weren't the best batters in the city, and
watching the bases as if she had eyes
~ kAAS GaNA "a AC ANdAa OLlIIAA OdbNCA
for her when we were Elm and she
ran-like a deer, too. The way she put
out Dawson on second, in the third in
ming. has gone down in the history of
amateur ball-playing in this city for all
time.
Well, we were glad; we almost lost
heads. AS forth Reds, they seemed
to get more and more dazed as the
game went on, for it was against all
their boy ideas that a girl could throw
q ball a she threw that day. The
folks who watched the game o o
caught on to the fact that there was a
surprise in it-for both sides, too-and
they cheered themselves hoarse over
cur little pitcher whenever she made an
especially fine play.
But it was in the last inning that size
made herself famous. Haxel, the Reds
pitcher, had put a ball straight over
the plate-he was somewhat excited, I
guess, over the way things were going,
though we had not gotten ahead OF
them yet-and Smith, whowas striking
Tor Nellie Hartman, made a three-bag-
ger, just out Of shortstop's reach. It
was very plainly only a three-bagger,
and not a boy on our nine would have
tried to do anything more than make
his third on it; but do you think Nellie
stopped there? Not a bit of it. She
just SKINNED around the diamond like
a regular little racer, and instead of
checking up on third kept right on. Ed
yelled to her to go back, but she didn't
hear him, or wouldn't-and we all
groaned aloud as we saw the fielder
gather up the ball and slam it home.
Nothing but a miracle would save her,
and she seemed to realize that fact, too:
but she didn't hesitate as most of us
would have done. She just caught her
breath, ducked her head, and an.
Then, when she was within Is feet
of home, what did she do, but throw
herself on her side and slide! Yes, sir:
believe it or net, as you like, but that
girl, seeing that she had risked the
game, slid home to save it. AS her flu
gers touched sthe plate, the catcher's
hand with the ball in it swept over her
not two inches away, and the umpire
yelled: "Safe!"
Did they cheer? They simply howled.
It's a wonder to me to this day that the
seats held that shouting, yelling mass
of boys and girls; you positively
couldn't hear yourself think. As
for the Inyincibles, they went
crazy--that's the only word, sir:
We danced and hovled like a
lot of dervishes. We picked her
up and carried her off the diamond on
our shoulders, with her curls full of
dust, and her face as red ss her dress,
with excitement and happiness. The
Red Stockings crowded around, too,
and shook hands with her as heartily
as the rest; and if you ever see them
now, they always inquire about the
"girl who made the home-run on the
three-base hit"
That was the first and the last7game
of baseball Nellie Hartman played; but
II will never be forgotten by those who
saw it. Her mother says she can't do
such things any more, even to save the
InvinciDles from defeat, but she lets
her come to all the games; and as Smith
says, there isn't a mere popular boy in
the city than she. And ifyou V want