The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-11-18

Billy Parker of the senior class stood
five feet seven inches in his football
shoes at varsity right end, and never
enjoyed himself as much as when he
was getting a very large assortment of
football bumps on his body and a lot
of football mud on his face.
Though he had been three years in
college he had just one ambition And
that was 20 keep on playing varsity
right end so well that the coaches
would never think of putting anybody
else in his place, and so that no OPP
posing half-back would ever want to
try more than once in one half to get
i around his end on a play that was
supposed to be starting for the other.
See that streak of creased lightning
al right end?" fellows would ask girls
in the grandstand. That's Parker.
You ought to see him play in cham
pionship camel Why, last year.
And then Billy Parkers shabby blue
Jersey would be seen Swimming down
the field under practice punt and the
crowd of men on the bleachers would
sing out ''Yea-a-al Parker" when he
downed his man ten yards from the
scrubs goal post. There was only one
thing that Billy Parker didn't care for,
and that was girls. This was why fell
lows sitting in the grandstand had
never seen Billy Parker anywhere girls
could look at him except when he was
following down the field under punts,
and mixing in every scrimmage that
wasn't any of his business, and jogging
back to his place in the line, with his
stubby arms doubled up and his curly
hair pushed back over his forehead,
and every bone aching in his bumpy
little body.
Girls had never interested Parker. He
had never understood how fellows who
might play football bothered them
selves by coming out to the field on
football game days with dozens of
soft-eyed, laughing, daintily dressed
young women, who didn't understand
the game little bit, and who said
ooh dearP' every time anybody had
lis collar bone broken. He had heard
them from the field.
That was Billy Parker when his jul
Nor year opened. One afternoon that
year he wriggled out of a scrimmage
where he had had his arms about the
legs of a scrub tackle twice his size,
who had the bail, with his face all
grimy, and jumped around to his end
of the varsity line next to Thatcher at
tackle. He got on his toes and swung
his arms and lunged in again past three
scrubs and two ends and tackle who
had been told to stop him. and started
WIFI the klLh anu SldppC0 81 w
quarterback on the ground with a thud,
while the fellows on the grandstand
ratified their feet and jumped UP with
the play and yelled "Yea-a-a! long
cheer for Billy Parker" 1t was then
that Tommy Nolan, chewing his pencil
on the side lines. where he was taking
notes for the News, heard coach,
knocking the ashes from his cigarette,
say to another coach who strolled
back smiling from the scrimmase;
That dub Parker, at varsity right
end is 2 wonder. If nothing happens
10 him he will make the fastest end
next year this college ever saw"
Tommy Nolan. who took life seriously
~oniy where Billy Parker and football
were concerned told this to Billy that
night from where he sat on the win
dow seat in Lawrance, with Billy Par
ker's pipe that Billy couldn't smoke.
There's some sense in that, for
coaches" said Tony Nolan. Don't
YOU go and let nothing happenr'
"Shucks," said Billy Parker from the
study table where he was making
marks on the edges Of Medieval His
tory for later reference, what could
happen2'
Girls" said Tommy Nolan.
"GirIs?" Billy Parker snOrted.
yes. girls" said Tommy Nolan
.-'Thev're the deuce. For instance.
know one fellow who got engaged to a
Girl lust before a boat race Her name
is Pipkin. Just like his. Pipkin. He
rowed No. 4 that year for Yale. He
inst sat i'm his seat and imagined all
through the race that she wouldn't
marry him if he didn't win. He got
groggy at two miles, of course, and
kent saying Stella to himself every
stroke Stellar How was that Got
il from the coxswain. The cox thought
the captain was yelling 'starboard-
he couldn't hear in the internal din of
the presidential gunboats, and steered
into a flagpole at the finish"
Billy Parker looked up at Tommy
Nolan and wrinkled his nose. Quite
so" he said. musingly
Don't you go and let anything like
that happen to you. that's ALL said
Tommy Nolan.
"Shucks!'' said Billy Parker.
And nothing did happen.
That is. not until the next summer.
which was Just before his last year on
the team. when something did. as fol-
lows:
Her name was Letitia Louise Baxter,
and she was brown-haired and twenty,
and every evening danced i'm the hotel
hons or sat out twosteps on the hotel
piazza. accompanied by small flickers
of cigarette light in the nearest chair.
Billy Parker met her one morning on
the piazza Of the mountain hotel where
ne was staying through August, and
the moment he saw her he knew that
she had looked deep down into his soul
and understood MIN. And Billy Par
ker who had never known any girl in
his life before, knuckled. Every day
for a month Miss Baxter let Billy Par
ker walk beside her around the golf
links behind the hotel, and carry her
golf bags, and row her under the after