The Elk Mountain pilot., 1918-10-03
NJ
for Men on at Front.

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 a Y. NJ. c. A.
secretary In charge OF a foyer du
sOldat. ''+s
THE parnphernalia at my command"
he writes in telling of how the great
American game became popular. con
sisted Of u backstop, an indoor baseball
and two bats. The bases were i'm
prOvised by saving n plank into four
squares. AS l walked out of the foyer
one evening with that equipment un-
Ger my arm. the lounging groups OF
French soldiers cast sidelong glances
IF 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
tained some degree of listless interest
In what was going on. began batting
the ball mt the backstop. knocking out
n few base hits into the wire netting.
Then suddenly wheeling about. threw
the ball ut one Of the spectators. He
lodged II, but another POillr went after
II and threw 1t back at me.
Becoming Interested.
II swung ut the ball. but 1t passed
me, and the Poilus laughed to see me
carried around by the momentum Of
the swing bat. Others had been ut
iracted by that time, and 1t was evident
fhat nj hnU IN
The man who had thrown the ball back
volunteered to pitch. and after n 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
yielded the bat to another.
"Some of the Poilus got onto the
knack Of batting very quickly und this,
of course, engendered an ambition to
surpass one another in sending the ball
to great distance.
II had taken II position in the field
and chnsed the ball with far greater
liveliness than would have sufficed un-
der ordinary circumstances and always
took care to pull OF some sensational
or amusing ncrObatic stunt to win ns
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.
walked into the home base and called
the other players about me.
Then l proceeded to give explana-
tions for a cOrner-lot championship con-
test. with drawings on the ground. and
every body lending an open ear and eye
hut 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.
1.-THE first batter to hit the ball for.
got to run. The fielder who should have
fielded the ball, yielded to his impulses
ut football and kicked the ball rs 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 had succeeded in pushing
the halter tn first base; in convincing
the first baseman that 1t wasn't his
turn to run, and In filling the fielder
with chagrin that he had lost a good
chance to hurl the ball against the
moving physiognomy of the batter.
AFTER this. some OF the players he
gan to grasp the principle of the play
Having one or two allies was great
help. They were nble to cuss out their
comrades much better than I, for theiI
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 a friend. renounced
all Interest at critical moment with
two on base and a line drive toward
second. to engage in n 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 grme 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.