Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-12-09

nuht LOT tnelr gas helmets. It'll Dc -
long time before that bunch Of maple
leafs forget this game. Now, get wise.
Delay the game as much as possible
while getting dub to pitch in my
place Then watch for happenings. Get
me? Are you wiser"
l didn't get him." nor was I ~wfse~
put 1 answered in the Affirmative fol-
lowed his instructions. while out of the
corner of my eye 1 watched him on his
way to the company billet.
He called to man named Stein. q
member of our company, who thought
no more of losing franc than he did Of
went over to Stewart. who whispered to
him and passed him something. What
struck me as strange was the fact that
Stein. who had Is francs on the game,
game. disappeared behind the billet.
"clink"
The rooters were getting impatient,
so put big We1shman in to pitch.
! told the umpire that. according to
the rules. pitcher being put in cold"
was allowed four balls over the plate
to warm up. The umpire agreed to
Get out in that box and take your
time, delaying the game as much as
possible between each pitch. Now, you
are allowed four balls over the plate
in which to warm up. Slam EN- into
me. but If you put one of them over
our goose is cooked"
+ y
The Welshman was mystifed, but
followed my instructions to the letter.
He threw four balls which nearly
broke my back to get. Then the UNI
pire held up his hand and called. PLAY
ball!' ! Immediately went over to him
and explained that these four balls
had not gone over the plate. He fell
for this and agreed with me. After
that rube of a pitcher had thrown
about fifteen or sixteen balls. several
to waste time, the umpire got i'm
patient and the rooters were yelling
like mad to carry on. ! still insisted
that none of the balls had gone over
quandary. Just then one of our men
passed in the rear OF me and whis-
pered: Stewart says to go on with
the game" Wondering at this infor-
nation, started in.
The pitching of that welshman was
awful. He hit the first two men up
and walked the third. was in despair.
bases full and two out Some OF the
down. throwing their hats in the air.
and one fellow was whistling The
Star Spangled Banner" This got my
goat completely.
= Near every billet hangs gas gong.
: This is a triangular piece of steel or
an empty shell case. Beside this gong
hangs an iron striker. Upon the sound
ing of the alarm, by striking on the
gong with the striker. every man az
supposed to put on his gas helmet ana
repaif Immediately to his proper sta
ton. These gongs are to warn sol
diers that German poison gas is COM
ing over.
pitcher and beseeching him to put
one over, the changing of the gas
gong rang out. dropped my
glove a GO, of 1rsb my f shest my
and soon had it on. the rooters and
players doing the same. Then l got
wise / remembered Stewards instruc-
'em hunt for their gas helmets" The
nerve and daring of his scheme took
Hy breath. away. The Canadians had
mile to GO to get to their stations. and
believe me. it is no fun double timing
: for a~mile while gas helmet is chok-
ing you with its chemical fumes.
Well those Canadians beat 1T. and 50
did we. but the game was saved and all
L nearly smothered with laughter in
my gas helmet. To the rest, not being
lin the KNOW" it was genuine alarm
Shortly after the stampede it was dis
covered that the alarm was false and
rigid investigation Immediately took
place But the Canadians had left and
our money was safe. 1t certainly would
have gone hard with the culprit had he
Deen L
got two weeks as extra fatigue on
working and tdigging parties.
Afterward, / was let into the secret.
Stewart had given Stein 10 francs to
sound the gas alarm. which. with his
Is francs bet on the game, Stein did not
have it in his heart to refuse.
Many time Stewart. Stein and my
self had a quiet little laugh when we
pictured the Canadians stampeding for
their billets.
Then orders were received to take
over a new sector of the line and base
ball was forgotten. The work in front
of us was to be of the grimmest ma
ture.
Not long after that. in my first going
"over the top" Stewart was killed and
Stein was wounded. l was also slightly
wounded.
Thus ended the career of the Fusilier
Giants on the western front.
Copyright, 1917, by the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.}