Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1919 — GERMAN SHELL CAUSE OF AN INTERMISSION [ARTICLE]

GERMAN SHELL CAUSE OF AN INTERMISSION

Slight Interruption to Baseball Game Behind Firing Line. Tore Big Hole tn Ground and Otherwise Messed Up Field, but Nobody Was Hurt, and Sport Was Resumed in Few Minutes. The diamond was no diamond at all. It was only a Lorraine pasture with the bumps cut off and the holes filled In to give a smooth surface. Two nines in khaki were battling for the championship of the Vosges-, or something like that. . , From the woods behind the first base big guns were speaking at intervals. The shells went whistling «over the field to carry their messages of death to the enemy. From the other side of the distant hills came the booming of artillery in reply. Sounds like a poor day-for a game, doesn’t it? But on that morning the Y. M. C. A. athletic director of the district had ridden eight kilometers on his bicycle to bring bats, balls, a catcher’s glove, a mask and a few fielders’ mits, and the young men in khaki were «going to break them in whether or not the whole German army was just around the corner. Came the sixth inning. The Woodleydoos had gone out in one. two, three order and the Hickory-Hacks were walking in from the field. The umpire, standing behind the plate as all fearless umpires should (besides. It’s nearest tothe dugout if the crdw3 gets boisterous) was calling for a little pepper. “Shake a leg, you birds,” he was saying, “or the war’ll be finished before this game is.” The next instant he was flat on his stomach. So was everybody else roundabout, for right behind second baise there plunged a shell which bore the label of “Made in Germany.” The explosion tore a hole in the ground and otherwise messed up the field. “Anybody hurt?” yelled the umpire Us he got up cautiously after a minute or two. “Nope? All right,‘then, shake a leg.” Quickly, afterthey had salvaged every piece of shell in sight as souvenirs, the players filled the hole, the umpire dusted off the plate, put on his mask and cried: “Play ball.”