The Irish standard., 1908-05-30

! umpire seemed about to call the game.
The two captains rushed toward him
to protest and the opposing rooters
united in howls to Play ball.
Suddenly Capt. Slugger Burrows of
the Lilies began to gesticulate wildly
as though struck with a brilliant idea.
Capt Cy Priest of the Roarers slap
ped his knee with delight at the Slug
gers suggestion, but the umpire SEEM
ed doubtful. He drew a book of rules
from his pocket and began to thumb
the pages.
| FINALLY he, too. seemed convinced
of the feasibility of the Slugger's
scheme. whatever it might be. and ap-
preached the grand stand Motioning
for attention he made a trumpet of his
hands and hawled:
"Is there any gentleman present
with a fast horse who is willing to
drive three miles to the Mesmer Poly
technic Institute on an errando If so,
I think this contest can be carried on
to a definite conclusion. Otherwise
not
For a moment there was compare.
tive silence. All eyes were focused i'm
cuiringly upon a little gray haired man
in the center of the stand.
He leaned over his neighbor as
though to ask what had been said. The
neighbor shouted something in his
ear The old man sprang to his feet
and hurried down the aisle. At this
there was an outburst of joy that made
all previous noises seem like a sound
vacuum. for everybody present recog-
nized. the little gray haired man as
Old Doc Quackenbush, owner of the
fast pacing mare Allie Monte, named
in memory of his divorced wife Mary
Jane.
Only stopping to receive. instruc-
tions from the umpire the Doc hur-
ried off to get his rig from the shed
outside. During his absence men were
sent to get lanterns-red. green and
white. The white lantern was placed
on second base. the starboard light on
first and the port light on third.
I'm exactly % minutes-it had taken
him four minutes to find the profess
sor of chemistry, he explained-Doc
Quackenbush was back with every
ounce of phosphorus the Mesmer Poly
tcchnic Institute could spare. First
the umpire sneared the home plate
with 1t. Then he rubbed it on the ball
until it shone out through the fast
falling darkness like alike a-well.
anyhow. 1T made the ball so it was
dead easy to see.
THE pitcher would shoot the lus-
trous ball over the illuminated n,ate
and crack!-when the lbatsman con-
nected with it you'd see a fiery comet
arching over the field only to come to
rest in some outf1elder's, waiting hands.
The only trouble was that for the
first few innings it was hard to keen
track Of the runners when they were
between bases. But the players hands
soon got bright from handling the
phosphorescent ball and after that vo,,
could keep track of 'em as we'll as
IT had been broad daylight
Well sir, the game dragged along
for hours and hours without either
side scoring. Shortly after midnight
the thirty-eighth inning, I think It
was-the Roarers had to take cy
Priest out Of the box. Home Rim
Hankins caught him on the head with
line drive
II think 1t must have raised lump
on his bump Of generosity, because be-
fore the swelling went down he gave
two men their bases on balls and would
probably have given the whole game
away if they hadn't taken him out
when they did. However. Spud Nc
Kaig. who took his place, struck out
the next three men and nothing fur
tEer happened until the wee small
hours of the morning.
"Then came that eventful f1fty-sev-
enth. Bull Thompson was at the ba
for the Lilies. and two were out. Nc
Kaig. knowing that Bull usually let
the first one go by decided to take a
chance with a straight one
"Whack!
Say, you may have seen home runs
In your time, but never hit like that
ere. On. on, up and on it went like
a ball of fire in the starlt sky. You
can get some idea of what a. whallop
it. must have been when, tell you that
the professor OF astronomy at the
Polytechnic Institute three miles away
took an excellent photograph of it
from his observatory and has since
written a very scientific. paper proving
conclusively that 1t is inhab abited.
y1,n% NH