The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-06-09
He is About 10 be Turned Out of the Church
and the B4ssb, Fans Are Mad
Because He Didn't Stop
the Game.
washington Post.)

mover for holiness and discomfort on the
first day of the week. the deacon let him
self be led aStray by his desire to see Bill
Medford make home run. And now
the deacon has both scandalized the re-
ligious element and lost popularity with
the baseball fans.
About two weeks ago the deacon came
to me with the air of man who is about
to inaugurate a moral movement that
will make sinners think they have bumped
against a spiritual cyclone.
g I'm told, said the deacon in his SOL
emn, earnest way, that men in whom all
sense of moral obligation is dead are
banding together to lacerate the ears and
hottest feelings of the truly good
:" The Boxers certainly are making it
warm for the missionaries. l replied, sort
of puzzled. for thought he was talking
of the Chinese outrages, but / hadn't
heard they were slicing off ears yet
It's net those poor, benighted heath
ems on the other side of the globe that
I'm referring to- said the good man, sort
of impatiently. It's that gang of high
binders they call the Williamson baseball
team. They're coming over here Sunday
with their own umpire and ringer pitcher
to break the holy calm of the Sabbath
and try and take the championship from
our town. But when they strike the re-
ligious sentiment of this burg they'll find
they are against the real thing The I'M
sanctified exhibition won't be allowed to
last more than one inning, unless our
boys happen to have them on the run,
he added in meditatiye sort of man
ner.
LOOKING FOR TROUBLE.
There's going to be more bumps than
game, ] warned the deacon. You're a
good man and a pious one. There amt
a man in town who would look better in
a martyrs crown. But there's no use of
hurrying it up
But the deacon was obstinate and in
sisted that it was mis- duty to stir up the
authorities and have all violators of the
law arrested. The next day he called on
the sheriff. The sheriff wasn't any too
pleased at the job the deacon had marked
out for him.
I'm here to uphold the majesty OF
the law, said the sheriff, and I'll do it if
l have to hire a derrick To preserve
fill the Jail with nom voting criminals. But
there's time and place for everything,
and this office is having troubles of its
own trying to capture criminals who have
failed to pay their fines | don't believe
/ can attend to the question at present.
Call around again in few days, say in
November or December. Then I'll get af-
ter the violators of the Sunday law in a
mill al
dor for reform look like a victim of an
ice trust
THE deacon. seeing that he wasn't go
ing to get much assistance from the
sheriff. determined to act himself So
he called on the minister and the Sun
day School superintendent and explained
to them his plans
'''Well go to the game Sunday, said the
deacon, representing in our persons the
majesty of the law, the sanctity of the
Sabbath. and the Moral Reform Club You
can distribute the first two to suit your
selves, but | want it understood that if
this Infamous Dissertation is stopped it
is through my efforts. and the presidency
of the club is coming to me at the next
election. The minister and the Sun
day School superintendent agreed to this,
80 Tic uNdCOH NSII OIl WIFI Tie ueIdllS
of his scheme.
- Even the noble men who conduct
reforms should sometimes display common
sense, continued the deacon. Now |
understand the sinful game of Sunday
baseball better than either OF you do, SO
/ will take the leadership. We can't
very well stop anything until it has be-
gum so we might as well let them play
an inning or two. When l give the sig
nal. You can both step forward and or
der the unholy exhibition to cease. The
crowd will have a reverence for your char
acter and offices which they might,
through some oversight, fail to display to-
ward the humble man who is at the back
of this movement for good
DEACON AT THE GAME
1t seemed to both the minister and
the Sunday School superintendent that
they were going to be put in a position
where more bumps than tokens of es-
teem would be coming to them. But
they were in sympathy with the moxn~
ment. and the deacon had been the. one
who had started it. So they agreed to
do as he directed.
Sunday afternoon the deacon, the min
iSlel' dhu the ounuay ScnoOl SupeFlDtend-
ent all bought tickets for the baseball
game, and took their seats in the grand
stand. In his younger days the good old
deacon had been a pretty swift article
as a baseball player himself, and the
crowd and the sight of the men practic-
ing brought back the memories4of form
er days and stirred his sportingSblood
It's a degrAding exhibition, ,observed
the minister.
IA oartoi11,