Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1912-08-09

! practice days went there In hay
I wagon.
Nevertheless it was not long before
| the men students learned that. the
goods had organized a football team
and were practicing. Then it leaked
out that they were intending to chal-
lenge the men. Innumerable were the
jokes perpetrated at the girls expense,
which luckily they did not hear. Miss
Horton was working with some espe-
cial purpose in view, but since she
kept her own counsel no@'one knew
what II was. she urged the team TO
learn the game and changed few OF
the strongest. especially some VINO
were feet runners. to prepare for some
real work on the last Saturday In NO
| vember.
The university team and the WON
ans college team were in fine practice.
there being about two weeks remain
ing before the end Of November Then
formal chaIleuge passed. which was
accepted by the university team cap
tain with great formaiity. but with the
| belief that the affair was Il joke. Soon
/ after this IL was noticed that change
| had come over the women students.
| Up TO this time there had appeared no
disposition on their part to dirt, bun
now il was observed that several OF
the prettieSt had abandoned their
naidenly reserve and were showing
disposition to he wooed. But what was
not especially noticed was that the at,
traction for them seemed to lie not in
the honor men. but in the, stalwarts OF
| the football team
The truth is that the joke attending
the proposed game with the girls was
| overshadowed by Il more serious mat
ter. The annual game between west
moreland and pompton was TO come
off on Thanksgiving day, As to the
game with the girls on the following
| Saturday, no one believed IL would
| take place. or. If il did. 1t would be
| sham game Intended for a sort of So
| cial function. \ couple Of weeks be-
fore Thanksgiving Captain Ashton OF
| the Wesrlnorpland university team be-
gan TO have. trouble with his men.
| Several OF those ne most relied on
/ became very las in their training. and
not practice game was played but
| one or more men were absent. The
| CAPTAIN stGrmed and threatened and
vowed lie would resign. but 70 no effect.
The irregularities grew instead OF de-
creasing until during the last week be-
| fore the great game the condition or
the team approached decentralization.
Ashton questioned the big fellows
as to what was drawing them. but re-
ceived no satisfaction. His best man,
Tomkins. suddenly cast the captain
into the depths OF despair by accl-
dentally shooting himself in the foot
/ while cleaning his revolver and thus
rendering himself unfit to take his
part In the annual game. Wharton.
another good man. was called home
the day before Thanksgi wing by tel
egram announcing that he was want
ed there Immediately He did not re-
turn fill the beginning of the next
week.
1t was only two days before the
game that IN incident occurred which
cast faint light on what was the
/ matter with the Westmoreland team.
Skulpins. who was relied on to do the
punting, while his team was out for
/ practice was seen walking on by
lane with Beatrice Wheaton. one OF
the prettiest girls in the woman's col
lege. The fact was reported to Ash
ton, who began 10 see through a mill
stone But it was TOO late. His
team was obliged TO go into the game
with Pompton shorn of several OF Its
best men and with others whose nom
attendance upon practice had united
them for their parts. 1t subsequently
leaked out that no less than seven
of them had the evening before been
sumptuously entertained by young Ia.
dies of the womans college. The re-
suit was that al the match game the
score at the close stood: Pompton. "a;
Westmoreland, ..
This defeat of the Westmorelanders
seemed to he especially gratifying to
the goods They were observed con-
graduating each other. and the defeat
was celebrated by spreads given in
several of the girls rooms. Four men
who had been attentive to four diff
ferent girls left college on Thanksgiv-
ing night. and three out of the four
never returned. II was rumored that
they had made propositions of mar
rage and been rejected.
On Friday. the day after Thanksgiv-
ing, the captain of the woman's team
wrote note to the captain of the
Westmorelands asking some question
pertaining to the game to come off
on the morrow. The messenger, re-
turning, announced that the captains
room was locked and bolted. Messen-
gers sent to other members of the
team failed to find any one Of them.
Not a man Jack of them was left In
town.
On Saturday evening a notice was
posted ON the college bulletin board.
signed by the captain of the woman's
team, claiming the game to have been
played that afternoon. since the mems
team had run away
The girls scheme of revenge was
out, and to no one was it palmer in
I'LL its details than to Captain Ashton.
The triumph of heart over muscle had
been complete. Miss Horizons man
agement had been eminently efficient.