The Twin City star., 1918-10-05
Soldiers With NJ c. Sporting Goods
a

The birth of baseball on one section
Of the French line where the game had
never been seen before, Is described in
an interesting report by Y. M. G. A.
secretary in charge of foyer du
soldat.
'The paraphernalia at my command"
he writes in telling of how the great
American game became popular, "cOn-
sisted Of backstop, an indoor baseball
and two bats. The bases were i'm
provised by saving plank into four
squares. AS walked out of the foyer
one evening with that equipment un-
der my arm, the lounging groups Of
French soldiers cast sidelOng glances
of curiosity and scorn. 1t was evident
they were not optimistic in regard to
the success Of the innovation.
"After I had established the home
base, there were only two Poilus au-
dacious enough to show that they enter
tanned some degree Of listless interest
in what was going on. I began batting
the ball at the backstop, knocking out
few base hits into the wire netting.
Then suddenly wheeling about, 1 threw
the ball at one Of the spectators. He
lodged it, but another POilu went after
1t and threw it back at me.
Becoming Interested.
81 swung at the ball, but it passed
me, and the Poilus laughed to see me
carried around by the momentum of
the swing bat. Others had been at
tracted by that time, and it was evident
that interest was beginning to grow.
The man who had thrown the ball back
volunteered to pitch, and after a while
he was able to land the ball near
enough to the bat to enable me to give
it wallOp that sent 1t way out into
the field.
"There were some who by this time
had become sufficiently interested to
accept an invitation to do Outfielder
work, and after Is minutes of batting
I yielded the bat to another.
"Some of the Poilus got onto the
knack of batting very quickly and this,
Of course, engendered an ambition to
surpass one another in sending the ball
to great distance.
II had taken a position in the field
and chased the ball with far greater
liveliness than would have sufficed un-
der ordinary circumstances and always
took care to pull off some sensational
or amusing acrObatic stunt to win as
many laughs as possible. Recruits came
fiOcking to us by this time and in a
short while there were enough POilus
in the game to constitute two teams.
So, taking the ball on the next fly, I
walked into the home base and called
the other players about me.
"Then I proceeded to give explana-
tiOns for cOrner-lot championship con-
test, with drawings on the ground, and
everybody lending an open ear and eye,
but nearly all Of them scouting the pos
sibility Of making 'gO' Of It, Then we
began to choose sides and place the
players.
Forgot to Run.
"The first batter to hit the ball for
got to run. The fielder who should have
fielded the ball, yielded to his impulses
at football and kicked the ball as far
as he could, and the first baseman
started to run around all the bases to
home plate. A country circus clown
could not have wanted better cOmbi-
nation to amuse an American audi
ence. But after five minutes Of ex-
plantations I had succeeded in pushing
the batter to first base; in convincing
the first baseman that it wasn't his
turn to run, and in filling the fielder
with chagrin that he had lost q good
chance to hurl the ball against the
moving physiognomy Of the batter.
"After this, some of the players be-
gan to grasp the principle of the play.
Having one or two allies was a great
help. They were able to cuss out their
comrades much better than I, for their
mistakes and 1t enabled me to save my
voice for the important crises in the
play, when third baseman might
start to run home, or the second base
man, having found friend, renOunced
all interest at a critical moment with
two on base and line drive toward
second, to engage in conversation
that lasted for at least three minutes.
Interest Kept Up.
"By this time, an audience of at least
a hundred had gathered around and
the blatant indifference Of this second
baseman compelled him to retire from
the game before the boots and jeers Of
the crowd and particularly of his team
mates. At the end Of an hour and a
half the game was well en- route and
the crowd kept up the interest for an