The sun., 1901-01-01
Gas House Maffit.
How He Got on to
the Football Team
By HARRINGTON KIDD.

o.~o.o~o~o~o"oo o"o."o"os'o"'o.so
"Did ever tell you," asked the un-
dergraduate, "about the time Carl Maf-
fit got on the football team by smoking
a cigarette?"
NO." said Storrow, you didn't, and
you needn't tell us, either, unless it's n
good story"
The undergraduate chuckled. "Oh,
it's a good story all right enough, but
1 ought to have picture Of old Gas
House to go with it."
"a picture Of old who?
"Old Gas House Maffit. That's what
they used to call him on account of his
size. He played center rush after he
broke training"
81 don't see how he ever could have
made football man." said Storrow.
"That's exactly what Bill Connors
told him." continued the undergradu-
ate. II remember the first afternoon
we got Carl TO come out to the field and
play on the scrub side. He moved
around something like road roller. He
must have been up to $50 pounds. Con
nors, the trainer, threw up both hands
and swore. Blessed day he shouted.
an office buildingr Carl turned red,
but sailed In.
"Well, they made n monkey out Of
him. Every time the ball was snapped
they pushed him down and climbed
over him, and then the play went on
10 or 20 yards beyond, and old Carl
would come numbering up just in sea
son to get the same treatment on the
next signal.
.'But after awhile the coaches began
to notice that every time Maffit went
down four or five other men went down
with him, and the fellows who happen.
ed to be underneath were rather disin.
terested in the next few scrimmages,
And they observed that Carl, although
he was being used as a punching bag
and everybody was laughing at him,
never lost heart, but puffed and grinned
and went at it as If he was having the
time of his life.
Between the halves Jack Perkins,
who was coaching the center men, took
Carl one side and gave him few
points about keeping his feet. Now,
Carts feet looked like dry goods boxes
and moved about as easily. lie didn't
all. Well, when the two teams lifHHed
up again the varsity had the ball, and
fnr
through the center. The famous half
back tucked the ball in the pit of his
stomach and dashed forward with his
familiar cannon shot rush straight for
his hole. But the hole was missing
Carl was there instead Brant bound
ed back, aud Gas House fell over ON
him. When they got up, Brant looked
white, and Connors took him ont Of
the practice. Carl was awfully scared
and began to be afraid he'd hurt some.
body else, so he was worse than use.
less for the rest of the afternoon.
"The next day he turned up again.
smiling, and they had some more fun
with him. But once in awhile n coach
would take pity on him and give him
little tip, and Gas House would
scratch his head and grin his thanks.
By and by 1t was remarked that the
scrub was stiffening on center PLAYS.
The scrub guards were two disap.
pointed candidates for the varsity
They knew they had no chance to get
on the team and had been playing list
lessly until Maffit came out.
Look-a-here,' he said to them bash
fully, 1 hate this dang game as much
as you do, but now we're out here we
might as well get to them. They ain't
so much
The husky scrub trio certainly did
get to 'em' in great shape. After n
fortnight Carl, instead of being a joke,
began to be serious proposition. The
TWO big guards would boost him, and
war;, the little scrub quarter, would
push him and pinch him in the legs to
make him mad, and old Gas House
would snort and lurch through the vet.
eran varsity center like an OK break.
hg through snowdrift. He was slow,
put he was almighty sure.
But this slowness was a fatal fauIt
rs Tar as getting on the team was con
cerned. We had been licked the wear
oefore because our line had been over
weight, and the coaches were determip.
ed that 1t shouldn't happen again. Riu
Jonnors couldn't take pound off Carl
70 save his life. The big fellow would
ger on the scales after every practice
with confident look, only to be disap. /
pointed at seeing that he hadn't LOST an |
'unce. IF we could only make n he. |
BIZ would say desperately.
50 Mafiit kept on, hoping against hope
md training faithfully until certain
yentful night.
1T happened after the fall boat races.
1ur class crew had won for the first
lme IN Its history, and a few OF us
tarted out to have celebration. Aft.
T supper we bought n lot of fireworks |
hd started In under the mistaken i'm
'resslon that we owned the campus.
'ut the police wouldn't stand for that
OFT or thing on such trivial occasion
s the class regatta, and the INNER
lassmen came out Of their rooms and
discouraged us.
wait for a college victory they
ald, before you burn your money
III tell you what Wen do sue-
ested Davie Peterson. Let's 90 down
the shore and celebrate. The atmos-
here In this neighborhood is too I'm,
This seemed like good idea. The
more was the local Coney Island, about
Wo miles out Of town. We piled our
reworks into a ramshackle hack and