Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-08-20
ON THE OWL CAR.

He sat in a seat by himself. His
| eyes were half closed and there was a
smile on his face. The last hooker
was just beginning to get in its work.
There was a phony diamond on his
| left hand, but the clothes had the APP
pearance of having been worked over
| time. Two blocks from the bridge
more passengers blew in. a lad
dropped in the seat alongside the
rounder with the bun. They were dis
GUESSING Rock andSpringficld base
ball game. The one with the package
opened one eye and threw glance at
the fans. There was something said
about heavy hitter tanning when men
were on base and run would have
tied up the score. This reused the
sleeper.
Say. boys, listen to your Uncle
Freddy for a minute while you are
talking baseball" he said. throwing one
arm over the back of the seat to brace
himself. when you talk baseball you
are getting on my busy wire. | know
so much about the game that | do not
know where TO start to discuss it. Me?
OF course you don't know me. But
that's all right. | was veteran in
the game before you youngsters had
a voice in the community. You have
a pitcher over in your town, | am
told, who has been trying 10 Outshine
the record set by old Cy Young. They
say he came pretty close to beating
it. too. Well. that is going some. of
course. hut say. ! don't like 20 talk
about myself and | don't want to be
little the performances of the men
who are doing the pitching these days.
but. say, if | was to show you the
records of some of the games | twirled
back in the 70's you would swear that
| was not in my right senses. Where
did | play? Well you don't suppose
I'm going to let you know as much
about this little affair as | do myself.
You ought to- be satisfied to hear what
| did. Listen: Not man got hit
| there was not base on balls, not a
man got in the way of the ball, and
there were just l0i balls pitched.
That's me. That was the best | ever
did | pitched no-hit games without
number That happened in 4 small
town not a thousand miles from here.
but il was 50 long ago that ii is diff
cult to induce people to believe that it
actually occurred. That season
cleaned up $1,000. | made money so
fast in my baseball days | was afraid
TO put il all IN one bank"
| The conductor interrupted the con
versation and asked for fares. The
erstwhile pitcher fingered at his vest
pockets, and in his trousers. but could
not meet the nickel that he was in
search of
Thank you. boy. I'll remember you
for that. You see | have plenty of
the cush. but | thought | had nickel
somewhere on me. It's very annoying
you know. 10 4 conductor to have a
big bill flashed ON him during a rush
Well. cut out the pitching game after
seven years at il. I had enough 10 lay
back on my oars ana take it easy.
had bunch of farm land that was
raising paying crops. There was a
friend of mine in the town who had
become interested in a western mining
proposition. He was making money
fast. he told me. He and | had been
IsparkinS the same bundle of calico
say pass ME the makin's. thanks. He
wealth in short while | didn't see
how | could lose. | pushed the whole
pile in. Finally | went west to inves-
ltiSate. | learned that my friend did
not have a dollar in the mine He
was simply an agent. lost every
dollar | had. He knew | would do it.
That was his game. He married the
girl. l have never gone back TO the
burg. Here | am. fellows. But. say
on the level. I'm going TO cut out the
booze. oh. | forgot TO tell you that
my friends wife has blown him That
girl was too good for him. that's no
lie. She is visiting over the river
Tomorrow I'm going to brace up and
call on her. l wonder if she would
be glad to see me-
At Twenty street he whirled
into the darkness. No one knew who
he was. No one knew where he came
from. No one knew where he was
going.
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