Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-26

sometimes balls that sh ould have been strikes
went the other way, just because he was
ketching, He got sorer and sorer and then
one day he fixes up the plate on little rollers
= and springs SOS when he touched one spring
it'd glide gently to the left foot, and when
he touched another spring it'd glide gently to
the right another foot, and when no spring
was touched it stayed right where 1t was, and
nobody the wiser
Say I'm pitching. He signs an out curve,
and give it to him. The batter amt fooled.
He lets it urve away from him and go foot
outside the plate-that is, outside O where
the plate was Now it has slid over an, " One
strikel" yells the umpire: The batter starts
to kick looks down, and zip! I've got a
straight one across and two strikes on him.
Then the puzzled hitter c'ncludes he must
have backed away unknowing, and bitches
up to the rubber. l send one in an inch from
his chest, and,
You're outl" shouts the stern arbitrator
of the di mond. The batter lets out boiler,
then looks down and he's standing al
most on the plate and walks back with line
between his eyebrows an trouble painted on
his face.
That worked fine for days, till a clumsy guy
ketches his spikes in the movable plate slidin'
in from third an all the nefarious bolts and
bars and springs is laid bare. Then there's a
riot, but nobody hurts Dwarf Duffy. He amt
the kind O. man anybody'd walk up to and
lam just out o cussedness.
: So things run on, and Dwarf began to have
a touch O. hard luck. as ketchers will. Every
man that slid in FIN third spiked him some
where's Every foul tip hit him. Every bat
sung by ardent hitter dashing for first
ketched the ketcher. There wasn't inch of
skin on his shins, and fingers, kneepans, an
shoulder blades generally busted.
One night when he'd been spiked twice,
soaked by two fouls in the neck under his
mask and got finger tore off by wild pitch,
he comes into the dressin room, sings his
chest p'tector an mask down, an announces
himself.
Them there things amt protection to
man in ball game as they're played now
adays. They was meant for times when the
struggles was crackers an milk affairs, an the
players begged pardon for bunkin into you,
an CUFF like that. I'm goin' to ketch to-
morrow in new uniform that'n preserve
this bunch O. great ball playin' ability for
Suggtt Corners and the championship
Sawed Off SPOTS an Chopemout Clancy
an Long Arm Leary all laughed at Dwarf, 81
an called him gutter. But the next
you think? why, regular suit of armor
like you see knights on the stage. Only
this wasn't bright and shiny, with big plumes
and tassels and such, but rusty, and the
hinges creaked, cause Dwarf had got it in a
-~hock shop.
idea" says Dwarf, slippin' up the barred
front O the head piece which took the place
of his mask SOS he could talk " | been readin
up in books, and got it straight that they used
to use these here outfits in ball games hundreds
of years ago. And they showed their sense
in inventin' get-up like this. Why, my Sims
feel safe an secure I'm all alarms for the first
time in month.
Outside O. the fact that he sounded like a
movable boiler factory when he walked
Dwarf made out all right in the suit He told
us it was armor, made to fight in first, and then