The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1911-10-04
The Big League
Copyright, Company, Incorporated
LIES e. VAN LOAN,

The college graduates and
there were many of them on the
lteam-had a hard time with Biff
at first.
Old Man Perry. who painted
very fine water colors in the whit
err and gamboled about the infield
in spring and summer, taught Biff
the folly of inhaling his soup, and
demonstrated that peas were best
conveyed with a fork; while Stats
Garrison, the Berry Wall of the
diamond. explained the sin of
made-up neckties and govern
ment sox" at five cents the pair.
Slowly and stubbornly, Biff
yielded to treatment, but not a
man on the team from the manag-
er down ever tried to tell him any
thing about mailing a runner at
second or killing a drop ball.
During his second season, Biff
began to draw more money than
he knew what to do with, and,
recognizing himself for a national
figure, attempted in his crude,
unlettered way, to live up to the
part.
Biff began to frequent Broad
way after dark, and the men who
recognized him turned around to
say: There goes Biff Bohannon.
He got two triples and a single
off Brown today" And those who
did not know him turned anyway.
An advertising tailor put a sign
4 til 7
ing that he would give away a
S1G.75 suit with each home run,
and the awakened Biff took notice
and began to hammer out a ward
robe at such a terrific gait that
the proprietor of the little shop
trembled when his morning paper
brought him the summary and the
box score.
Biff began to be a patron of the
arts; that is to say, he drifted into
theater once in a while. If it
had not been for a pair of shoes
which were too tight for him, Biff
Bohannon might never have seen
Maye Montclair, and then there
would have been no story.
Biff wandered into the Casino
one Saturday night, not because
he liked musical comedy, but be-
cause the patent feathers which he
got for making a home run were
hurting his feet. He had to sit
down somewhere. On such small
things depends happiness or un-
happiness.
Toward the end of the second
act, very pretty girl took the
stage all to herself. She danced
to the grooming music of the vio-
Inns, a dreamy, graceful little
dance SO unlike the whirl and
rush of musical-comedy dancing
that blase audiences were tricked
into applauding something so en-
tirely different.
The dramatic critics said that
Maye Montclair might have been
an elf or a fairy, dancing with
her shadow in the moonlight. Biff
did not know anything about elves
and fairies, for there was no poetry
in his big, powerful body, but
something reached across the foot
lights and took hold of Biff'sI
heart, and when the little blonde
girl with the china-blue eyes
floated gracefully into the wings,
Biff led the applause and contin-
ued to lead it for some minutes.
Miss Montclair did not reappear.
Her dance was intended to fill
up a hiatus of two minutes while
the leading woman was making a |
quick change, but Biff did not
know that, and he applauded I'M
til the orchestra leader turned
around and scowled at him.
In his laundering, Iow-browed
way, Biff wondered why a young
woman of such brilliant ability
should have no more than two
minutes of the show. He could
have watched her all night.
When he found himself in the
orchestra seat for the third night
in succession, Biff understood in
his heavy, cropping fashion, that,
there was something serious the
matter with him. He had identi-
fled the lady of his dreams. HeI
knew that Ler name was MayeI
Montclair, that she came on twice
In the first act, once in a blue
dress and once in-Biff never did
know what they called 'em, but he
thought IL was a shame lust the
same. She did not appear in the
second act until it was time for
her little dance.