Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1877 — Our Base-Ball Experience. [ARTICLE]

Our Base-Ball Experience.

Thkke is no use denying the fact that we could go through almost anything for the sake of entertaining our young folks, and if the following experience does not prove it we shall be tremendously disappointed. You see we thought some of our readers would very much like to have an account of a base ball match snch as the insurance and dry goods clerks generally indulge in (or for what they call “ unprofessional”), and although we did not know the first thing about the game, we did not think of allowing anyone else to write it but just ourselves. We borrowed a big gingham umbrella for shade, and started out in search of the ball grounds. We found a game just about to commence, and selected a seat in the softest grassy knoll anywhere about. We took out our spectacles, opened the umbrella, our ears and eyes jnst as wide as possible, and felt pretty sure we should hear and see everything of the slightest importance. The very first thing we heard was a loud “hail'd!" from the field. We looked over our spectacles and saw sixteen arms beckoning to us, and presently two gentlemen stepped up and explaining that there was a vacancy in one of the nines, requested us to fill the position. Old as we are we have not forgotten our habit of opening our mouth very wide when astonished, and this time our nose did not get out of the wav in time, and so our spectacles tumbled off. “ a'ou have splendid hands for base hall, sir," continued the gentleman, “ for if I were a ball I should not mind being caught by you, for there’s such a nice chance to run round in ’em.” “ Really, sir, you’re too kind,” we said. We didn’t know what he was talk, ing about, but knew he must be complimentary; so we wiped and put up onr spectacles and joined the crowd on the field. We saw them glance at our hands, and then they immediately announced that we should be the “catch.” Why they should have put us in that difficult, not to say dangerous, position, we caunot say. We did not ask at the time, and as we are not cm speaking terms with any of

the party cow, we give ourselves the benefit of any doubt. Borne one asked ns for a cent. It was thrown up, and tife umpire said: “You lake the head.” Somebody else took the cent. The umpire then said: “ How high will you have it?" and before we could answer something struck ua in the stomach, and the man unrated “one strike!" It seemed to us that it ought to count for more than that, for it was hard enough for six strikes st least. Before we had time to fairly straighten, the ball came again, and we needn’t have Jumped out of the way as we did, for the man at the bat struck it, and turning around with the wildest look of astonishment, and everything else that we ever witnessed, deliberately shied his club at our shins, and started for the base. Seven men went for that ball. While the other ones jumped up and down, clapping their hands and shouting, “Slingerin." As they rushed after the ball it was our prayerful wish that tbe man who pitched it into us might be killed, but he wasn’t —only slightly injured, and took his place with a sort of “do-or-die,” aspect that set our teeth on edge. We tried to think of our home and our mother, but it didn't seem to comfort us very much. The striker reached his base after a stormy passage, losing his hat and one boot, and throwing himself in the arms of the first baseman with such vehemence as to make him his enemy for life. AtthM point some one complicated matters by shouting, “ Look out for the second," when we had more than we could do to look out for number one. The ball came. The batsman missed it and so did we, and to make matters worse, that man began to ran for his next base. Then we commenced to pick up that ball; but it wouldn’t come. We undertook to throw our left toe, at least four times, and dug our fingers into the dirt, and we waltzed around with our head between our legs, getting a sight of it now and then to inspire confidence, aad finally stepped upon it; when, after several revolutions in a promiscuous sort of way, accompanied by a few remarks we did not learn at our mother’s knee, we struck out for the umpire, dived straight into the small of his back, when he, with the most unearthly yell we ever heard, grasped the batsman by the hair, and we all plunged into a pile of camp stools and reserve players, and encouraging cries of “ pick it Up, home run, and one to carry, give ’em more room. I say, there, why don’t you put on your specs?” while the more thoughtful hastened up and asked us “if there were any other game we were a little surer of in some minor points.” The doctor thinks he can mend our leg, but it now seems as if we shall hake to go through life with only one eye, and without nearly so much left ear as we ought to have.— Exchange.