Page 5

"CAP" ANSON'S

FORTY YEARS IN BASEBALL

Dedicated to all my old comrade* and lovers of the (port, who have made the game what it it today, and to all thoae who will continue to "play ball" after we o!dtimeri have struck out (or the last time.

160 Acre Audubon Co. Farm at a Bargain

You may wonder where the "bargain" comes in at. Will say that I got this farm in a trade and would like to keep it as an investment, but as I need the money in my business, I will take $10 an acre less than it is actually worth. Call and I will show you the land. No commission paid.

H. P. Hansen, at Garage

ADRIAN C. ANSON.

CHAPTER VIII.

I Play Ball for John Bull.

eague

1

la spite of all our extra effort and the fact that my salary had been raised to $1,600, the Athletics did not succeed In landing the championship In the season of 1874, or even in securing second place. The. Bostons Were again victorious and the Mutuals of New York followed them, this be-

the first time since the Professional was organized that the latter dub had climbed to such a height up •the baseball ladder. Our disappointment was somewhat lessened by the fact that although we were obliged to remain in third place, our Philadelphia rivals fell to fourth. The Chicago White Stockings, of whom such great things were expected, could get no higher than fifth.

Well, we were getting used to disappointment, but I want to say to you right here that something happened that season that stung me to the bib ter—I fell to eighth on the batting list, the lowest place I had held since I became a professional. You have it straight from A. C. Anson that it was .one. of the biggest troubles that I had ever had put up to me. 1 was so fussed over it that I didn't eat or .sleep naturally for a month, and finally I went to our manager and told him

I'd about made up my mind to quit the game. Gee, but it was a relief to have him call me a blasted fool and tell me that my salary for the next season would be $1,800.

Once again the Bostons' splendid team work had given them the viotory. They had played 60 games that were counted as championship contests, had won 43 of them and had lost but 17. I don't see how any fan can look at that record and keep his seat The Athletics played 52 record games that "season, 31 to our credit and 21 lost.

That season of 1874 brought the biggest boom in baseball that ever struck the earth. Professional, semi-profesatonal and amateur clubs sprung up everywhere, and the interest in ths game was at white heat. Baseball certainly had become the national pastime, and the time had come when missionaries were to be sent to set forth the glories of the game on foreign soil. The first to do business in that line was the dub of which I was a member, and our companion team was the champion Bostons. It was arranged that we should go over to 'England on a sort of campaign of «dncation—to show the cricket fans over there that the Americans had a better game than theirs.

Of course I was tickled to death to tumble into a snip of this kind. The only regret I had was that It would itake me out of sight of the young lady .whq had ttiken first place In my af-

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TIMblggast

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I PURINA SCRATCH FEED Makss H«n» Lay v' PURINA CHICK FEED |,, Savas Baby Chleka (Always In CNoekarboari Bass)

FOR SALE BY

B. D. Cotton

lections, but as she didn't seem to be prostrated over the separation I braced up and went in for the trip with a big hurrah. Our stay in Europe was to be for only 80 days anyhow, and I settled down to the conclusion that an absence of that length might s^ve to better my chances with the young lady—she might be brought to a realization, as the novels say, of how hard It would be to do without me.

Now 1 don't want to endanger my reputation for modesty, but I don't mind telling you that the teams selected for this pioneer service—the "baseball argonauts of 1874" a newspaper man christened them at the big sendoff on the night before sailing— contained some mighty solid baseball Umber. No history of the game would be worth a tinker's cuss word with their names left out. Note the Beancaters' makeup as I take them, one by one, from my dairy: A. O. Spalding, pitcher Jim O'Rourke, first base Ross Barnes, second base Harry Bchafer, third base George Wright, shortstop A. J. Leonard, left field: Cal McVey, right field Harry Wright, csnter field Thomas H. Beals and bam Wright, Jr., substitutes. Can you beat it?

We couldn't win often enough to take the championship, although we plugged away at it for several seasons, and in the 14 exhibition games scheduled for Great Britain we were winners only six times. Our own make-up contained but three men who were with the Athletjcs when I joined the club—McBrlde, who was still our pitcher Flsler, who had been changed from second to first base, and McGeary, who was once more our shortstop.

We sailed from Philadelphia July 16, and a big crowd was at the wharf to see us off. The voyage turned out to be nothing more than a ten-day play spell, with no one much under the weather and everybody keen for whatever sport was available. I don't mind telling you that poker lost none of its charm at sea, and my luck kept me.cheerful most of the tlmQ. For my part, I was sorry when we reached port with those 14 games of ball ahead of us and also seven games of oricket, which I forgot to mention until now.

You may take it from yours truly that there was some curiosity over on the other side to see the great American game. Big turnouts greeted us wherever ws appeared, and I have nothing but praise for the manner In which we were treated. Our British friends didn't understand the game and didnt seem to be anxious to learn It, but they fell all over themselves In their effort to make us feel at home

W

Af nfC

"ft\EYW£Nr ALMOST QAFPY OVffL 001?.

Battimg AND F1 ELIDING

and enjoy our visit. They went almost daffy over our batting and fielding, but they couldn't catch on to the little peculiarities of the game.

They went almost daffy over our hatting and fielding. When it came to cricket we oertalnly gave them a surprise party. In those seven games we were permitted to play 18 men against 11, which proved to be far too much of an advantage, for we defeated with ease such crack organizations as the Marylebone, Prince's and Surrey clubs In London, both the Manchester and Sheffield clubs and the All-Ireland club in Dublin. In that Irish game I did a stunt that surprised me as much as it did anybody—I made the highest score of all in our game, although I was new at cricket, and some of the others—the Wrights, for example— were expert players.

Now we certainly did make a good Impression in Great Britain. When I landed I was prepared to have lots of chances to find fault with things, bu I never was more mistaken in my life. Those English crowds that came to see us play were the best mannered •el of folks I ever struok. I don't say

that I should like to play ball every day in the'week before such a crowd —after all, there something mighty stimulating in a bunch of good, double-lung-powered American rooters— but it was a relief to strike such a well-behaved crowd for a change. First, I though it was all becau&e they didn't get on to the American game and were afraid they might let themselves loose in the wrong places. I expected that when we reached the cricket end of the program they would warm up a little. They didn't that was the English way of doing it, and they didn't know any other.

For one, I was sorry when the 80 days allotted to our visit had passed. Of course I had a good deal of curiosity to see how the lady of my dreams was bearing up without my sustaining presence, but I could have [remained another month in John Bull's country without a pang of homesickness. Even now I often recall it as one of the most satisfactory junkets I ever made.

Of the return voyage I never think or speak unless by accident. It is enough to say that when we landed in Philadelphia on September 9 there was scarcely a man in tl?e party who crossed over the gangplank with steady knees. Father Neptune had been having a lot of fun with us all :the way over.

1

CHAPTER IX.

I Win a Capital Prise.

When the season of 1875 opened 1 did not even dream that It was to be my last In Philadelphia. My salary of $1,800 was satisfactory to me, and I had every reason to believe that my work was satisfactory to the management of the Athletics. More than that—a whole lot more It seemed to ms—my love affair was going on swimmingly, and Just then Philadelphia seemed nearer paradise than any other spot on earth.

That year baseball took a remarkable spurt. Thirteen clubs entered the ohamplonshlp arena. Of these the Quaker city came to the front with three, and St Louis, Just opening her eyes to the beauties of the game, put two Into the field. The series that year consisted of ten games, six to be played as the legal requirement. At the end of the season only seven of of the original 18 would-be champions had fulfilled the conditions. Three of them had fallen by the wayside before the season was half over. For the fourth successive season the Bostons carried off the honors, with a record that beat anything that had ever been done in baseball—out of 79 games they won 71 and lost but eight.

The Athletics cllmed back to second place that year, playing 73 games in all, winning 63 and losing 20. That was satisfactory to the Athletic management, but it was not altogether so to A. 0. Anson. I had a strong hankering to belong to a championship team, and had it not been for my little romance under way In Philadelphia I should have been looking about to see how I could work it. As it was, I didn't worry a great deal over anything else until I had brought the courtship to the engagement point. Then I drew a long breath and began to look around a little.

But first let me tell you about that romance. If it's true that "All the world loves a lover," you'll be glad to hear about it anyhow, I like to talk about it once In a while, just to refresh my memory. And I'm going to start right out by saying that if marriage is a lottery, as has been said, I won the capital prize when I got the woman who has been my constant companion for the past 85 years.

Her name was Virginia M. Flegal, and the first time I ever saw her was at a ball given by the National Guards soon after my arrival in Philadelphia. At that time she was a fair-haired, blue-eyed maiden of not more than thirteen years, and as demure and shy as a little Quakeress on First day. 1 have never been able to get the slightest evidence that she was conscious of my existence on that particular evening, but before it was over I discovered that she had made a decided impression on me. It seemed absurd, and I couldn't explain it, but it was done. Just the same.

By this time, I guess, you must have a pretty fair idea of what I was In those days. If you haven't, I don't mind telling you that I wasn't a whole lot to look at—just a husky, longlegged chap, somewhat after the big kid order, with a hide that no amount of sun and weather could make blushproof and hair that just escaped being brindle. Tough proposition to put up against a little woman of the only daughter order, wasn't it?

Well, there wasn't anything

BWift

about our acquaintance. It was months after that night before I saw her again, and she had grown almost out of my recollection. In the interim she had passed into the long-dress stage, and I couldn't help thinking she had Improved mightily. I also felt certain that I had parted with some of my uncouthness, although I had by no means graduated from the awkward squad. I remember that as I was printed to her for the second time 1 congratulated myself interiorly that I was wearing my best necktie, a gorgeous affair of saffron-colored satin liberally besprinkled with deep blue polka dots.

She saw me all right on that occasion she couldn't help it. That necktie did the business. She told me long afterward that it was a revelation to her that she had never seen anything so rank In the way of haberdashery, and that 6he was seized with a burning desire to exchange a few words with the wearer of such a danger signal. I gave her every opportunity to do so, and I plucked up my courage and tried to make myself

agreeable. Strange as it j®ay se^m, she

'did" notTmake any perceptfBle effort to shake me, and actually appeared to be interested in what I said—which was strictly baseball talk and nothing else.

I didn't

Bee

her again until the fol­

lowing summer. Then I met her face to face in Fairmont park in company with a young lady with whom I had a slight acquaintance, afterward the wife of Johnnie McMullen,

the

©TR.ICTJLY BASK RAU.

base­

ball pitcher. Virginia was very gracious to me, and after we had talked a while—it seemed to be easier for me to talk to her than to any woman I had ever met—she remarked that Miss Cobb was going home with her to lunch, and added that she would like to have me accompany them.

Did I hesitate? Take it straight from me, young man in a similar condition, that I didn't wait long enough, hardly, to be civil. Long before we .reached the door of Virginia's home I had surrendered completely. Either out of mischief or from a desire to promote matters, Miss Cobb recalled suddenly that she had an engagement elsewhere and Miss Fiegel and I were left to enter the latter's home without a chaperon, a calarpity of which 1 had no appreciation at that 6tage of my career.

I remember I asked her, once inside the door, if her father- and mother were at home and she looked at me with a half frightened air as though I might have the intention of looting the premises. She gave a sigh of relief when I assured her that I only wanted to ask permission to light a cigar, as I felt somewhat exhausted after the walk. Both her parents were In and I was presented to them before going out to lunSh. The mother was a sweet-faced woman, all graclousneBs and hospitality, but I fancied that the

TALK AND

NOTHING ti-S£.

old gentleman did not take kindly to my presence. He seemed to be somewhat reserved in his manner, and once or twice I discovered him In the act of scanning me sharply over the topnof his spectacles. Virginia and h$r mother were at their ease if I was not, and they did their best to help me along.

Up to that day I had never concerned myself as to what manner of man I was, baseball and billiards giving me more to worry over than the cut of my trousers or the fit of my coat. Right then and there I had a sudden change of heart. As soon as I reaohed my room after leaving the Fiegal home I went straight to the looking glass, determined to see myself, as I really was, If I collapsed at the sight. Luckily It didn't have that effect on me. Something, I don't know what it was, seemed to assure me that I would do.

Then I began to frequent the Flegal house, and I actually neglected my business to Invent excuses for doing so. Lying did not come natural to me, but I certainly tried hard enough to become expert in finding pretexts for visiting the little girl who had caught me on the fly. Some of these tales must have seemed rather fishy to the Flegals, but any old yarn was good enough for me.

No, It wasn't exactly smooth sailing. I had a rival and a mighty good-looking one at that, Charlie Snyder, a great hit with the sex wherever he went. Charlie was also a lively candidate for first place in Miss Virginia's affections and for a while it looked as though I was going to be distanced. Finally I got so fussed over the business that I out and told the little woman that she must choose between us. "That's exactly what I've been doing," she said demurely. "Well, I suppose it's Charlie," I said, with an awful sinking in the region of my blood pump. "Then you are wrong—as usual," she retorted.

I was kind of dazed for a moment, but I knew I had won. (To be Continued.)

"What makes you think that man •ho was caught red handed In crooked finance Is crazy?" asked an alienist. *TBecause," replied the other, "he insists that he Isn't."

Going Out.

'It will not be long," remarked the Observer of Events and Things, "before the rummage sales will be showing a fine line of hobble skirts." Yonkers Statesman.

An Insinuation.

Scribbles—I say, old man, the first edition of my book is exhausted. Dribbles—Well, I trust your friends appreciate your generosity.

A Male Who Doesn't.

Little Elsie—What is the dead lottMT Office, mamma? Mother—Your father's pocket.

BONANO,

BONANO

BONANO

BONANO

Screen doors while you wait at j29 John Peterman's

The biggest stock of Lawn Mowers in town at John Nelsen'e. a4

Buy your batteries, automobile, gas engine and machine oil of tf John Nelsen.

Christian Church Notes

Sunday School at 10 a. m. Preaching at 11 a. m. and 8:00 p. Junior Endeavor at 2 p. m. Senior Endeavor at 0:80 p. m.

We have oils for all purposes. Exira Auto & Machine Wbs.

10 percent discount on Henney Buggies for the month of June at John Nelsen's. jn29

Wanted—Farmers to try our Machine Oil. jl Exlra Auto & Machine Wks.

If you've tried the Rest, now try the'Best. We have the best and most complete line of Machine, Au tomobile and Gas Engiue Oils in town and our prices are right.

THE DISTINCTIVE DRINK

Exlra Auto & Machine Wks.

A small farm close to town wants to be

Bold

at once. See Tom Lohner.

the hot fruit drink, is distinctive.

Though similar in many respects to coffee, tea, chocolate and cocoa, it is in other respects quite unlike them. It has none of their harmful qualities.

served hot with cream and sugar is

fragrant, appetizing, bracing, satisfying and nourishing. It is the table beverage which furnishes thru food value, harmless stimulation.

It has a delightful aroma and delicious flavor not like any other. Don't be prejudiced.

is not a substitute. It is the world's

latest and best drink, healthful, strengthening and never harmful. Give the children all they want.

is prepared so quicldy and easily that

it is just the drink to serve at luncheon or to unexpected guests. One teaspoon to a cup of water, boil only one minute, and serve with sugar and cream.

Seventy-five cups of the most delicious drink for only 25 cents. Never sold in bulk or unsanitary paper cartons.

Order of your grocer today.

See the Woven Wire Hog Fence that John Nelsen sells. s4

See the Woven Wire Hog Fence that John Nelsen sells. s4

Estray

Estray

Taken up over a week ago by the undersigned residing in Greeley, one white BOW weight about 125 lbe. Owner call and pay for keep and this notice. j8 James Channon

Taken up over a week ago by the undersigned residing in Greeley, one white BOW weight about 125 lbe. Owner call and pay for keep and this notice. j8 James Channon

John Nelsen sells the Jenny Lind and New Departure line of Cultivators. a4

John Nelsen sells the Jenny Lind and New Departure line of Cultivators. a4

Monday June 12th after 1 30 p. m., is the day to see Dr. Weber, the Eye and Ear Doctor who cures at Park Hotel. Examination free.

INTERNATIONAL BANANA FOOD CO. Chicago, 111.

Big Poland Chinas

10 Fall Boars

J, C. MARD3IAN & SOX, Bray ton, Iowa.

Exira Markets

Cattle Botcher's Stuff. 4 to 4Vs Cattle top... Hogs ...5 40 Wheat 79 Corn 44

Oats 29 Barley 78 Butter 18

Potatoes 90

Hay 10 00 POULTRY CASH Hens,. 8 Spring Chickens 15 Ducks

Geese 4

Roosters 4

Bonano

A lady from Brooklyn, F.Y., writes us: Mar. 24, 1911 "Please send me one dozen cans Bonano for which I enclose you checks for $3 to cover cost of same. I have used 12 cans since Jan. 1st and it is very satisjactory. Please send at your earliest convenience."

Original of above in.our tiles. All testimonials published are voluntary and unsolicited.

Trial package makes 10 cups. Sent postpaid for 2c stamp.

International Banana Food Co. Chicago, 111. 5'

Foley'Kidney pills

TOR

RHEUMATISM

ONCE MORE

We desire to call your attention to some of the good things for the farm.

Haying Time Will Soon Be Here

To handle the crop with ease we have the best Haying Tools on the market. The Dain, McCormick Common and Osborn Side Rakes have no equal. The McCormick, Deering and Dain Mowers are simply perect.

In Hay Loaders, we have the New Deere, Gearless and Hawkeye. These machines are the best on the market and when you purchase either one, you will have the satisfaction of knowing there is nothing better.

A fine line of Manure Spreaders always on hand. Binding Twine and Machine Oils and everything in season.

H. A. Nelson & Co.

EXIRA, IOWA

KIDNEYS AND IUODES