New-York tribune., 1908-08-30


another young Fellow besides myself. and he and /
had good times. higgins was ms name; but that
was not his fault He was very pleasant and
companionable person ON the premises there was
what had once been a bowling alley. 1t
single alley, and it was estimated that it had been
out of repair for sixty yearS.-but not the balls
the balls in good condition; there were forty
of them, and they ranged IN size from grape
fruit up to 4 gnum vit1 sphere that YOU could
hardly lift.
Higgins and PLAYED on that alley day after day
At first one cf US located himself at the bottom
end TO set up the pins in case anything should hap
pen to them; but nothing happened The surface
Of that alley consisted of a rolling stretch OF elcva
tions and depressons, and neither OF us could, by
any art known to us persuade ball to stay on the
alley until it should accomplish something Little
balls and big, the thing always happened
the ball left the alley before 1t was halfway home.
and went laundering down alongside OF 1t the rest
of the way. and made the garnekeeper climb out
and take care of himself.
No matter, we persevered and rewarded.
We examined the alley, noted and located a lot OF
its pecuiarites and little by little we learned how
to deliver ball in such way that 1t would travel
home and knock down pin or two BY and by
succeeded in improving our game to point
where able to get all of the pins with thirty
five balls So made it "A thirty hve-bal game.
If the player did not succeed with thirty-hve, he
had lost the game. | suppose that all the balls.
taken together, weighed five hundred pounds. or
maybe Il ton, along there somewhere; but any
way it was hot weather, and by the time that 4
PLAYER had sent thiry-fi of them home he was III
a drench OF r,ers.iration and physically exhausted
Next we started cooked hat that is to say.
triangle of three pins the other seven being dis
carded. In this game we used the three smallest
balls, and kept delivering them until we got the
three pins down. After day or two OF practice
we were able to get the chief pin with output OF
four balls: but it cost great many deliveries
to get the other two. But by and by we succeeded
in perfecting our art-at least perfected 1t to
our limit. We reached a scientific excellence
where we could get the three pms down with twelve
deliveries of the three small balls making thirty
six shots to conquer the cooked hat
Having reached limit for daylight work, We
set up a couple of candles and played at night AS
the alley was fifty sixty feet long, we couidn see
the pins: but the candles indicated their locality
We continued this game until we were able TO
knock down the invisible pins with thirty six shots
Having now reached the limit of the candle game,
we changed and played it left handed We CON
tinued the left handed game until we conquered
its limit which fifty-four shots. sometimes
we sent down a succession of fifteen balls without
getting anything at all
We easily got out of that old alley five times the
fun that anybody could have gotten ont OF the best
alley in New York
ONE blazing hot day. modest and courteous
" officer of the regular army appeared IN our den
and introduced himself. lie was about thlrty.nVe
wears old well built and militarily erect and straight
and he was Theoretically sealed up IN the uniform
of that ignorant old day,-a uniform made OF heavy
material and much properer for January than July.
When he saw the venerable alley, and glanced from
that to the long procession of shining balls in the
trough his eve lit with desire, and Judged that
he was our meat. We politely invited him to take
a hand and ne could not conceal his gratitude;
though his breeding and the etiquette of his pro-
fession made him try. We explained the game
to him and said that there were forty-one balls,
and that the player was privileged to extend hls
inning and keep on playing until he had used them
all Repeatedly y-and that for every ten-strlke
he got a prize We didn't name the prze-it
wasn't necessary, as no prize would ever be needed
or called for.
He started a sarcastic smile; but quenched it,
h. ofb biC He