Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-12-29

white uniform caps and sailed forth to chal-
lenge all corners.
The first to come were some members Of an
American man o. wars crew on q Summer
cruise. Among them were Past Midshipmen
Robson and Hughes, who had made regulations
for themselves during academy days by their
prowess on the diamond. They quickly or
ganized team from among their shipma8ftM
and accepted the challenge Of the Oriental nine.
DR.. Stephen w. Douglas, recently retired from
active service in the Navy, and now living in
Washington, was among those who earned poSi~
tions on the Navy nine, which came OF highly
victorious in the ensuing contests. The Chs
nese moundsmen proved speedy runners and
did splendid work in the field. But their ops
portunities for showing their speed in rounds
ing the bases were few and far between because
of their extreme difficulty in connecting with
the balls sent twisting over the plate by Pitcher
Hughes. The latter is described by one of his
ex-teammates as the demon pitcher of the
Navy" a six-foot blond-haired young giant
with mighty heave that kept his dirninutive
opponents tanning the air desperately most OF
the time.
Admiral Robson held down first base and
DR.. Douglas played second.
When Pitcher Hughes had gotten one bats
mans goat" particularly one day with an esq
pecially tantalizing deliberateness in his moves
ments Gas is the way with pitchers). his Chs
neSe friend called out, twisting his mouth
around to one side in the best base ball style.
cav, t'row d ball, will vi? Wot's d. matter
wild yu?"
Asked afterward where he'd acquired hia
perfect base ball English" he grinned cheerd
fully and replied, "I know that's not good EngA
hsh, a. right. but it's base ball American-Wd
learn to play the game. and talk him, too"
a.
One cannot recall the days of the "Old Nays
without calling to mind the story that was then
on every Navy tongue because 1t concerned the
hero of the hour-Admiral Robbey D. Evans.
Fighting Bob Evans" he was called commans
dant OF the Atlantic feet and veteran of stormy
battles in the COS. 1t had nothing whatever
to do with his brilliant career except inasmuch
as 1t revealed his quick flashes of humor and
fighting spirit.
Upon Sunday morning, so the story goes,
Admiral Evans donned his civilian clothes and
went ashore. His ship was in the New York
harbor at the time He was bent upon attend@
ing church services Going to a prominen4
church. he slipped unobtrusively into an empty
pew Presently he discovered he had a pew
mate. A young gentleman, dressed in the most
formal morning attire (foppish to the rugged
admiralS eye) was glancing at him aSkance.
Fighting Bob was unperturbed He sat Sc
renely ON. The gentleman of sartorial elegance
became FESTIVE. He glared again at this per
son" In his pew. Finally taking out a gold
card case, he extracted slender bit of card.
board and wrote thereon:
II pay $500 year for the exclusive use Of
this pew" UnderScoring the word exclusive he
passed the hint across.
Americas most distinguished admiral took
the card and gazed at it intently Then, exc
tracing one of his own cards, he scrubbed n
line beneath his name and with the utmost:
gravity exchanged the courtesy" The pefas~
ciled line read: you pay too damned much"