The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1909-06-17
OLD ADAM IN BOYS
PueILIsTIc ENCOUNTERS OF THE
FAIRGROUNDS.
"E-e-e-e-yol FeIIersl A Fisht!" ls
the Slogan That Will Draw the
Crowd Even from the De-
lights of Baseball.

There probably isn't a school in the
country in which there doesn't arise
each day some cause for fight II it
isn't in one class 1t is in another, and
it is the strictly proper thing to pull
the fight OF in the noon hour. After
three o'clock baseball is in order, and
as that has fights of its own mere
school fight would interfere. So you
know it's come when you see crowd
of boys swarming and hear shrill
cries Of:
HE said" Yer dassent-" Il
didn't neither say" We'll. go ahead
and" You're liar!" You're an
other!" so are you'll" Back 1t up!"
Yes. | will" "Will yer?' Yes,
will" Come on!" "E.e-e-e-yo! Eel
lers! a fight"
1t always starts that way, and some
times 1t is severe enough for all con.
cerned to get up an extra appetite. OF
course, accidents will happen. and &C.
casionally one boy runs into another
boys fist with such force that he gets
blinker. The giver of the blinker is
hero for some hours, but his repu.
tation usually forces him into another
fight and he is apt to lose the reputa'
ton.
But the other day a really good fight
happened. though 1t wasn't one that
was on the calendar. George Helm.
rich held Willie Burke responsible for
the disappearance of his baseball
mitt-though he found II later at
home-and from accusations the thing
developed through recriminations. de.
frances and challenges to actual war.
fare. The combatants had been fight
ing in deadly earnest amid the throng
OF bowling boys for ten minutes, and
one of them had almost struck a
blow when the crowd was violently
jostled.
Ollie Swift, aged 10, had been one
of the loudest yellers and advisers,
but he certainly was not expected to
be so violently smote on his class but
ton that it was nearly driven through
his chest Neither was he expected
to have a handful Of fingers Irvine in
his hair and nearly pull 1t out. But
that happened while the shrill voice
OF Georges ten-year-old sister &C.
cused Ollie of having caused the
fight and encouraged 1t. He tried to
explain, to back away, to cover up,
and do all other compromising and
safety-seeking things. 1t was in vain.
She was after him like a terrier after
frankfurter, and safety for him lay
in fight, so he broke and ran.
The derisive cheers that followed
him told plainly that he had forever
sacrificed the esteem of that crowd.
Still he didn't dare return and face
her, though she had no cause to at.
tack him in the first place.
When she had driven him from the
Held she broke out weeping, and half
of the crowd would have been willing
to swear that not only did Ollie start
the fight, but that he had also at.
lacked Georges sister.
The result was that in the after.
noon he received a dozen challenges,
and after school received two lickings
and gave two. For the next three
days his hands were full, and it was
only by desperate aggressiveness that
he managed to keep from becoming
the mark and h,tf IF tbo u,h1,a 49,,
The fighting hardened him and trained
him, and when the other boys found
that he would fight on any provoca-
ton, and on almost none, they
stopped picking" on him. In a
couple of days more the matter was
forgotten, and Ollie has even been
seen walking home with Georges sis.
ter and carrying her books.