Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1912 — CLEVELAND’S FAMOUS SECOND BASEMAN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CLEVELAND’S FAMOUS SECOND BASEMAN

By HOMER CROY.

Whatever Rhode Island is or hopes to be she owes to Senator Aldrich and Napoleon Lajoie. She wouldn’t be on the map today, bht would be fpund with a star fa a. footnote at the bottom of the page if it were not for Napoleon Lajoie, assisted by Mr. Aldrich. If Napoleon Lajoie had not hustled onto the scene in September, -tfiffir Nelson A. would have- bad too much on his hands and sho would have slipped off into the Atlantic ocean of obscurity. With discriminating eye Napoleon selected Woonsocket, where his father had brought -the-name -down- firom. French Can-, ada, for a birthplace. Lajoie is pronounced in more different ways than any other name in the majors. In talking about the Clevelands the ffms usually start In with Laj—and then suddenly have their attention attracted by a double and continue after it’s all over with “He and onr Napoleon—ln the west it is pronounced Laz —and finished by coughing and kicking a hole in the ground, while fa the spectacled east it is put over with a concentric twist of the Ups and with an underhand fadeaway of the tongue. According to Napoleon it can be done by running the scales a few times and with some finger practice by. going at It thus —Lazh-u-way. , ; In early life Napoleon’s dreams were of being a cabby and wearing a real top hat and brass button! with scroll work on them; he cared not for the busy marts of men or for being the tiger tamer in the gilded cage,' but onward, upward did he struggle and strive, climbing for the heights while bis careless and uncaring companions slept, until one fair day his

dreams were realized, and his castles had in the steel structural work—and he was a sure enough cabby with the scroll work and a top hat that the rain couldn't affect—anjr more. Other boys who had grown up with him in Woonsocket could hardly believe that fame had snatched him from their midst and placed on his brow its jeweled diadem —the top hat. Although now erf another world Napoleon condescended to come back to their locals now and then for a game of ball, while Dobbin munched his oats under the grandstand, until the Fall River club of the New England league persuaded him to ride on its second sack. From there the Nifty Nap drove on to the Phillies,'thence on to his present address. He spends his winters 01/ his farm ten miles north of Cleveland where his hobby is raising dogs. He has so many dogs that be cuts their meat by footpower, and when the moon is full fanners fa the next county have to sleep with their windows down. Napoleon is the most graceful man in any park in the United States. He has a mimeographed letter he sends back in answer to notes from sighing girls. Although tall and heavily built each motion is so polished that you can almost bear him sketching in charcoal and pronouncing vase—vaws. Every time the Apollo of the parks raises his hand it’s a picture; every time he clouts a single the soft purr of girls’ lead peiiclls can be heard all over the bleachers, and every time be stumbles and skids on his ear he does it so gracefully that the ladies in the grandstands bruise their .gloves. .G 2.1 (Copyright, 1911. by W. G. Chapman.)

Napoleon Lajoie as Pictured by Cesare.