The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1898-09-23
By KATE UPSON CLARK.

WHEN I was a senior in the Mack
w enzie high school we had a great
baseball team there. Nearly all Of the
teams in the neighboring towns had
tied us, and we had beaten every one,
not only the high school and academy
mines, but several in which there were
grown-up men, some of them almost
twice as large as some of us. We felt
no great dismay, therefore, when we
learned by letter from their manager
that the DEMO Shoe-shops' nine, fa-
nous organization from the largest
town in the vicinity, had the first of
July free, and would like to play us
then.
Although we had heard, like every
body else, of the prowess of the Denios,
we did not know until after we had
accepted their challenge that they were
what is called tough" team-of the
kind that carry TASKS in their pockets
when they go out of town. When this
little rumor was waited to the ears of
good DR.. Sheldon, our principal, he
rather favored our canceling the en-
.gagement; but we protested so vigor-
ously that he finally yielded. He had
been great pitcher in his day, and
he was almost as proud of our ball
playing as he was of the fact that
Mackenzie fellows were never condi-
toned when they went to college.
So the arrangements for the game
went on. The first of July fell on a
Saturday. We had played only one
match-game that week, and that was
with scrub" nine from the next
town, on Wednesday. We hadn't let
Kinks, our best pitcher, play in that;
we had kept him fresh for Saturday.
We had three fair pitchers that year,
but Kinks was the daisy of all. He
had an in-curve and drop that a pro-
fessional might have envied, though he
wasn't SO speedy then as he grew to
be later.
1t turned out to be grand day, a
trifie too cool at first for the lockers
on, but not cool enough to stiffen us.
We were in first-rate trim, and had
four good substitutes, while Anderson,
the umpire, stood ready to serve US.
When the Denios came, however, we
found that they had brought their UNI
pire. We had heard ugly stories of
that individual, but the final arrange
ments had been made by word of
mouth, and of course there had been
a misunderstanding. Such matters, as
we found out by hard experience.
should be settled only In black and
white.
The game was called at two. The De-
MOS came on the 80 train, and were
to return on the five. There were 12
of them and crowd of "rooters," who
proved to be a profane and disgusting
lot; but our sheriff was on hand, and
he managed to drive little decency
into them, so that they were not al
lowed to shock the large assembly Of
the best village people, who always
came to see us play our "big games"
The Denios professed to be aston
ished that we objected in the least to
their umpire, and there was some sense
in their comments, though we had a
first-class umpire, who had never given
offense-or serious offense, perhaps
should say-to the other side. 1.-THE
home team" they said, "had all the ad-
vantage In every outside way-loads
of their friends to cheer them, and
their own familiar grounds to play on"
So Anderson, our man, went off to
the farther side of the grounds, and
watched us from beneath the trees
there. 1t was shady place and near
enough, and most of the on-lookers
preferred that position.
The Denios drew first inning. We
played sharp, quick game, and our
Inning came In few minutes. They
had not made SO much as first base.
When l stood up at bat, therefore,
being the first on the list, I was feel
ing "fine." Their pitcher, Clennan,
gave me a clean, rather high ball, and
hit it a tremendous blow over toward
left. l thought 1t was good for two
bases at least; but they had terror of
q fellow out In their left field, and
though my ball seemed likely to pass
foot over his head, he ran like q
fiend, jumped in the air what looked
like two feet, but was probably only
ten inches or so, and caught the ball.
There was great clapping at this
among their crowd. and they gave