Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1914-06-05
CASEY At THE BAT
IN PROSE RHYME
GREAT BATSMAN FAILS WHEN
SAFE CLOUT WOULD HAVE
ICED THE GAME.
CAS- Walt Whitman might have writ
ten it,

CAS- Walt Whitman might have writ
ten it,
The outlook wasn't brilliant for the
team representing Mudville, a pros
porous New England manufacturing
town of 1898 inhabitants, that day
The score stood to 2, with bu
one more inning TO play; and whez
Mulcahy was declared out at first on
questionable decision by the UNI
pire. and Barrows did the same, (
sielzly silence fell upon the patrons
Of the game.
But Flynn, at best a .23O hitter. ana
who had not made the sembIance Of 4
hit in his three previous efforts. Let
drive a single to the wonderment Of
all, and Blake. the much despised. Il
you will pardon me. comrades. for
dropping into the venacular Of our
great national game tore the cover OF
the bali And when the dust had lift
ed and men saw what had occurred
thsre was Johnny hugging second.
while Flynn was safe on third.
Then from 5000 throats-4327 OF
which were paid admissions, sworn ard
subscribed 10 by the secretary Of the
club before a notary public-thers
rose a lusty yell. It rumbled through
the valley and it ratified in theden it
knocked upon the mountain Gn po-
etic sense only, as Mudville is not in q
mountainous region) and recoiled up
on the flat; fbr Casey what ho,
Comrades. mighty Casey was advanc-
ing TO the bat
Nine thousand nine hundred and nine-
ty-nine eyes were upon him, there be-
ing one man in the crowd who hac 3
glass eye, due to a mixup in boiler
explosion. as he rubbed his hands with
dirt; 5000 tongues applauded, the man
with the glass eye joining in the DEM
onstration, as he wiped it on his
shirt. Then while the writhing
pitcher ground the ball into his hip.
defiance cleaned in Casey's eye, a
sneer curved Casey's lip.
Close by the sturdy batsman the
ball unheeded sped. THAT amt my
style" said Casey. Il couldn't have
it with a fishing pole. you
great big slab-sided underslung sun
OLA blind-Tom. Strike one,' the
umpire said. He signalled TO the
pitcher and once more the spheroid
flew. And in spite of the earnest pro-
test of Casey and a loud and vehe-
ment demonstration on the part Of the
partisan crowd assembled the umpire
said. Strike two,"
The sneer is gone from Casey's lip.
his teeth are clinched in hate: he
gives an exhibition Of petty childish
ness and shows his caliber right there
by pounding with cruel violence his
bat upon the plate. And now the
pitcher holds the ball and now he lets
It so. And now the air is shattered
speaking. of course. as it
s n well known fact that the vacuum
treated by the passage Of the bae
through the air would Immediately
Ill up again by the force of Casey's
,low.
Now it is reasonable to suppose that
in this favored land the
un is shining bright; and it is equally
to assume that there are
places where the omnipresent brass
,and is playing the popular music OF
ne day and hearts are correspondingly
light; and somewhere men are laugh
ng and the children romp and shout;
,ut all the Joe Millers in the universe
ouldn't get a smile out of Mudville,
ue to the fact that mighty Casey
ad struck out. c. Davis in the
t. Louis Post-pispatch.