The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1909-06-10
OLD ADAM IN BOYS
PuelLIsTlc ENCOUNTERS OF THE
FAIRGROUNDS.
~"E-e.e.e-yo! Feilsrs! A Fight" 10
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 a light. 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 a mere
school fight would interfere. So you
know it's come when you see q crowd
OF boys swarming and hear shrill
cries of: 4&aYr t Ft
HE said" yer dassent-" II
didn't neither say" We'll, 70 ahead
and" You're a liar!" You're an
other!" $50 are you'll" Back it up!"
Yes, I will" "Will yer?" Eyes, I
will" Come ont" "E-e-e-e-yo! Eel
lers! a f1ght!"
IT always starts that way, and some
times it is sever 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
q blinker. The giver Of the blinker is
q 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 q really good fight
happened, though it 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 it 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
n of them had almost struck q
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 it out. But
that happened while the shrill voice
OF Georges t%en-year-old sister &C.
cused Ollie of having caused the
light and encouraged it. He tried to
explain, to back away, to cover up,
and do all other compromising and
s~afety-seeking things. It was in vain.
She was after him like a terrier after
q frankfurter, and safety for him lay
In flight, SO he broke and ran.
The derisiye cheers that followed
MIN 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
field 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
tackled Georges sister.
The result was that in the after.
noon ne 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. butt of the whole school.
The fighting hardened him and trained
him, and when the other boys found
that he would fight on any .proyoca-
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