The pirates laughed and vowed my scheme would give them lots of fun; And soon a big, red, round, Dutch cheese was rammed in every gun.
It was not long before the _Black Avenger_ came abreast And hailed the ship from Switzerland with true piratic zest; But not a Switzer said a word, nor made they any sign, But all the sailors on the ship were ranged along in line, And leaned upon the starboard rail, with sunken pallid cheeks As though they had not tasted food for six or seven weeks.
The swarthy Bo"s"n hailed again, and as no answer came The Gunner"s Mate averred it was high time to start the game.
I spoke the word, and seven guns all loaded up with cheese Were fired at the Switzer ship as nicely as you please; And then a second volley went, and soon again a third.
And when the smoke had cleared away we saw what had occurred.
Each cheese had hit the Switzer ship and flattened on her decks, The Switzer men were wading in the cheese up to their necks.
We waited then to see what sort of fighting they would make, And wondered how much cheese these Switzer sailor-men could take.
But as we waited silence came all o"er the Switzer craft, And not a seaman seemed to move, or forward or abaft.
I called the Bo"s"n to the bridge, and "Take the gig," said I; "Go board yon ship, where all is still, and learn the reason why."
The Bo"s"n quick got in the gig with sixteen of the crew, He took along a cannon and an Edam cheese or two, And half an hour he was gone, then slowly rowed he back; He said to me: "Good Captain," he sobbed, "alas, alack!
Upon that floating vessel there"s no one left to fight; There"s not a living creature, not a living thing in sight.
No man remains to give reply to any kind of question: The Switzers ate up all the cheese, and died of indigestion."
There was another great demonstration of approval as soon as the ex-Pirate had concluded, but Tommy paid little attention to the noise this time, because he had become somewhat accustomed to it.
"You see," said the ex-Pirate, apologetically, "I could not very well read anything like that--all about cheese--in the presence of the Welsh Rabbit; could I?"
"Of course not," agreed Tommy; "but is it true that--"
"I say," interrupted the Gopher, leaning in front of Tommy and addressing himself to the ex-Pirate; "I know another joke now. I know what the Bo"s"n said to the Gunner"s Mate when he told him to shoot at the ship."
"Well, what did he tell him?" asked the ex-Pirate, incautiously.
"Cheese it!" shouted the Gopher, who was immediately seized with such a violent fit of laughter that he fell under the table, and almost buried himself under the pile of broken soup plates.
[TO BE CONTINUED.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERSCHOLASTIC SPORT]
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CASCADILLA CREW AND BOAT-HOUSE.]
Although the Cascadilla School has not practised rowing so long as St.
Paul"s, of which this Department spoke last week, it has made rapid strides ever since the sport was introduced there two years ago, and now boasts of a well-equipped navy. Owing to the school"s location on Cayuga Lake, aquatics will become the distinctive form of athletics there in the future, although, as a member of the New York State Interscholastic League, football and baseball teams are also put into the field. But it is a good thing to have rowing developed in some of the preparatory inst.i.tutions, and I shall not regret to see some of the vast amount of energy that now appears to be running riot in track athletics turned into this new channel. Every large school situated near a watercourse or a lake ought to add rowing to its list of sports, if it is possible to do so.
The princ.i.p.al difficulty in the way of such progress at present lies in the fact that so few schools have crews, that interscholastic contests are hard to arrange. The Cascadilla oarsmen are fortunate in having the Cornell crews to row against, and each year they get races with the Freshmen and "Varsity eights. Thus far they have secured no victories over either of these rivals, but as the sport grows older with them they should make a better showing from year to year. The Cascadilla commodore is now negotiating with a school near Philadelphia that has taken steps toward the organization of a crew, and it is possible that next summer will witness the first of a series of interscholastic regattas between these progressive inst.i.tutions.
The same lack of a scholastic rival hampers rowing at St. John"s Academy, Delafield, Wisconsin, where the school eight have to seek as their opponents the crews of Madison University. Last spring they defeated the "97 crew by three lengths in an exciting race over the Nagawicka course in the excellent time of 8 min. 3 sec. This victory was all the more creditable from the fact that several of the Madison "Varsity men had seats in the "97 boat. I have spoken of the rowing which is done in the several schools mentioned to show that it is possible for young men not yet in college to approximate the work performed by older athletes. The Department has devoted s.p.a.ce to the description of the crews and their methods in the hope of encouraging other inst.i.tutions to take up the sport during the coming winter and next spring. It is an excellent exercise, and a seat in the "Varsity boat is looked upon as the greatest athletic honor a college man may attain, excepting, of course, a captaincy. It must be the same in every school where rowing is practised, and the school that has a crew in the spring is bound to have a better football team in the fall, for the training done in the winter and the rowing done later develop new material, and strengthen the older men.
The proposition to organize a National Interscholastic Athletic a.s.sociation, modelled upon the Inter-collegiate a.s.sociation, made in these columns in the early part of last spring, is looked upon favorably not only by the schools and a.s.sociations in this part of the country, but also by the schools on the Pacific coast. In fact, the Westerners have shown a much greater spirit of enterprise and sportsmanship in the matter than have the managers of scholastic athletic interests in the East. It is probable, however, that the apparent stagnation in this quarter has been due to the summer vacation, and the consequent cessation of school sports, and the absence from town of those who could take hold of the scheme and put it through. Now that the fall term is about to open, this matter promises to be taken up with the energy required for such an undertaking, and all we need is the hearty co-operation of the many interscholastic a.s.sociations from every State in the Union. On October 8th there will be a meeting of the New York I.S.A.A., and I am a.s.sured that at that meeting the first steps towards the formation of the National Interscholastic League will be taken.
Steps have already been taken in California toward joining the League as soon as it shall be started, and the San Francisco newspapers are already talking of it as though it were an accomplished fact. This is all due to those lively young sportsmen of the Oakland High-School, who are not only eager to enter a general a.s.sociation, but are anxious to send a team of athletes to the Berkeley Oval to threaten the supremacy of the Eastern schools in track and field sports. Here is what the San Francisco _Call_ of September 4th says on the subject:
The Oakland High-School decided to-day that it would join the National League of High-Schools, and send a team to New York next year to join in the national High-School contests. The team will consist of ten of the best athletes in the school, and the boys antic.i.p.ate being capable of holding their own and capturing some of the trophies. They have received much encouragement from the recent tour of the Berkeley team. The Oakland High-School has for some time been a member of the league of which HARPER"S ROUND TABLE is the organ, and now that they have decided to branch out and seek national honors, athletics will receive a boom, as there is much rivalry as to who will ultimately be the ones chosen to uphold the honor of Oakland"s High-School in the Empire State. A general meeting will be held in a few days, and a manager will be elected who will at once put into practice all the available material. After that the boys will commence to obtain pledges for financial aid, as it will require about $1600 to defray the expenses of the trip. The next national High-School contests will be held in the summer; but entries are now being made, and Oakland will not be dilatory in outlining the events for which she will seek to carry off the honors. "The sending East of our team will be one of the best things that ever the High-School undertook,"
said one of the O.H.-S. athletes to-day. "It will call attention to our school and to Oakland, and will let thousands of people know that we exist who are in doubt just now as to where Oakland is. We have been debating the proposition of sending a team East all this year, but after we saw what a lot of attention was shown to the Berkeley team we could see no reason why we should not try a similar tour among the crack Eastern High-Schools. We do not antic.i.p.ate any trouble in raising the necessary funds, as we think the noise we shall make will prove a very valuable advertis.e.m.e.nt for this city."
A good many of the statements made by the _Call_ are inaccurate, but the main announcement, that the O.H.-S. will come East, is authentic. It behooves the Eastern sportsmen, therefore, to get ready to receive them.
As I have said before, the ROUND TABLE will do everything in its power to further the organization of a National a.s.sociation of the schools, and these columns are open to correspondents who care to make suggestions for the advancement of the scheme. Perhaps a better idea of what the Californians have actually done, and will do, can be obtained from this letter, which came to the ROUND TABLE from the Captain of the O.H.-S. athletic team:
"The newspaper reports are not at all accurate, but they will serve to show what we have been doing lately. While they do not convey the exact truth, they have aroused great enthusiasm among the Oakland people, and we have great hopes of taking an Eastern tour. We are only awaiting the formation of the Big League to go right to work, and we have a big job on hand. I suppose that the Field Day will be held about the latter part of June, and that the list of events will be made to coincide exactly with the Inter-collegiate programme. If we came East we could doubtless make arrangements for a series of dual games with three or four of the crack schools in the vicinity of New York in addition to the Big Field Day. Of course this could all be arranged later on; what we are worried about now is getting started. I wish you would prod the schools up and get them to take immediate action. We want to get to work right away, for to raise $3000 is quite a job. The U.C. boys are in favor of the trip, and will help us in every way.
I wish you would inform us of any steps taken in this regard, and also put us in touch with the officers, so we could correspond with them. Would it be necessary to be the winning or champion team of our league to join in the Field Day, or could the O.H.-S.
alone join the League and uphold the honor of California in the scholastic world in the East?"
It strikes me that the New York I.S.A.A. will lose an opportunity that may never offer again if it fails now to take the initiative in the formation and foundation of the National Interscholastic Athletic a.s.sociation of America.
Lawrenceville opened last Thursday, and the football men went to work at once. Some of the old players got back a week earlier, and saw to it that the eight fields were put into shape and laid out, and now every afternoon one may see sixteen elevens hard at work rushing and kicking and otherwise developing new material. This system of requiring everybody to join in the game is an excellent one. The boys at Lawrenceville are arranged according to size, and are taught how to play, and thus it is plain that in the course of a year or two the Captain of the school team has plenty of good material to pick from. The first and second teams have the additional advantage of being coached by some of the instructors who were star football players in their college days, and the benefit of whose experience goes largely toward making the Lawrenceville eleven the successful one that it usually is.
Last year, for instance, Lawrenceville defeated the Hill School, 22-0, the Yale Freshmen, 16-0, and Andover, 20-6, besides disposing of every other school team they met. They tried to arrange a game with the Princeton "Varsity, but were not successful, for the reason, they believe, that in 1893 they scored 4-8 on the orange and black champions.
Of course this is probably not the reason, for Princeton should be only too glad to get such excellent practice even from a school team, and this year no doubt there will be a match, and another probably with the University of Pennsylvania.
A feature of the football record of this school, which it is pleasing to be able to call attention to, is that in the twelve years the game has been played there no dispute has ever arisen and no serious accident has occurred. Moreover, as far as I am able to ascertain, no boy ever went to the school because he could play football. All this tends to create a genuine and healthy interest in the sport, and not only the scholars themselves, but the graduates of the school take pride in such a record.
This is shown by the fact that the Alumni have presented a $300 cup for cla.s.s championship contests, each winning cla.s.s getting its numeral engraved upon the trophy; and an alumnus has also offered a cup to be played for by the House teams, and to become the property of the House winning the greatest number of times within ten years. The boys live in Houses at Lawrenceville, as they do at Rugby and Harrow, and each House has its eleven.
Of last year"s first school team five men return: Emerson, full-back; Dibble and Davis, half-backs; Cadwalader and Edwards, guards. This is a first-rate nucleus, and Dibble, the new Captain, is expected to bring forward a team equal, if not superior, to that of last year. There are few better half-backs in the schools than Dibble. He is a great sprinter, having covered the 100 in 10 seconds at the school games last June. Davis, the other half-back, and Emerson, the full-back, will surely improve this fall over their last year"s style, while no better guards are necessary than Cadwalader and Edwards. They weigh 210 and 218 pounds respectively.
The candidates for end rush are n.o.ble and Righter, and unless some new phenomenons develop, they will hold the positions. The tackles will have to be taken from the incoming cla.s.ses, and the hardest position to fill will be quarter-back. Captain Dibble may well watch the play of the man in this position, if he expects the team to be engineered as well as De Saulles did it last year. De Saulles is a wonderful quarter-back, and will no doubt make the Yale "Varsity in a year or so. A large number of new Fourth Form boys, or Seniors, have been entered this fall, and it will be strange if in a school of 350 enough available material cannot be trained to bring the eleven up to its usual standard of excellence.
The teams of the New England League are also in the field, and in a few days practice games between schools will begin. Boston Latin is scheduled to meet Charlestown High to-morrow, and English High meets Dorchester on the same day. There is unusual promise of good new material everywhere, and the championship matches ought to furnish good football. Only three members of the Cambridge Manual Training School"s champion eleven are back this fall, and the candidates for positions are mostly small, light men. Captain Murphy, however, has signified his intention of trying to make up for the probable lightness of his team by perfecting it in team work.
The Boston Latin School was the first to get its men into training, and has a start of nearly a week over its rivals. Many of last year"s players have returned to school, and most of them are heavy fellows.
Lowe, one of the guards, is the biggest man of the aggregation, and weighs 210 pounds. Eaton at centre weighs 198 pounds, and his other guard, Nagle, tips the scales at 185. These three have played together for B.L.S. for the past three years, and are undoubtedly the strongest centre in the League. The tackle positions are open, and one of them will probably be filled by Rankin, who was a subst.i.tute last year. D.
Lockin, who showed some of the best end work of any of the school players, is back in his old position.
Captain Maguire will keep his old place at full-back, and ought to manage to develop a strong eleven. He is familiar with the fine points of the game, and has been a member of the team for two years past. Last year he proved himself one of the cleverest ground-gainers in the League, and in the game with English High his punting aided materially toward the securing of victory. His tackling and interfering have improved, and will doubtless grow better as the season advances.
The showing made in the early work of the English High-School players has not been very encouraging thus far. Like the C.M.T.S. men, the candidates are small, but all of them are apparently hard workers. It is fortunate for Captain Callahan that there are not so very many positions to fill, but on the other hand the vacancies occur in places where strong and reliable players are required. If things are allowed to run along in the slipshod way that characterized E.H.-S."s endeavors last year, however, the team will be a poorer one than has represented the school for some time. Only continuous and careful work can bring the team into championship form.
The two scholastic representatives in the A.A.U. championships at Manhattan Field on the 14th managed to hold their ends up pretty well.
Baltazzi took second to Sweeney in the high jump, with 5 feet 10-1/2 inches, defeating Cosgrove, and Syme got first in the low hurdles. He ran his trial heat in 26-3/5 seconds, but got the medal with 28-1/5 seconds. His victory was in some respects a repet.i.tion of his success at Syracuse in the Metropolitan championships. There he met Sheldon and Chase, the latter falling over the eighth hurdle. At Manhattan Field, Cosgrove led up to the ninth hurdle in the trials, and then took a cropper, leaving Syme to win the heat. In the finals, Syme and Cady had it neck and neck to this same ninth, when the scholastic runner struck the timber so heavily as to break it, but recovered in time to see Cady go somersaulting over the tenth. Before the Yale man could recover, Syme had breasted the tape.
THE GRADUATE.
A NEW USE FOR A DOLL.
A new use for a doll has been discovered by an ingenious London thief. A woman who was arrested for stealing from one of the large dry-goods shops was found to have been carrying what everybody supposed to be a baby; but what in reality turned out to be a huge doll with a wax face and hollow leathern body. It was the thief"s custom to conceal the stolen articles as quickly as she got her fingers on them, gloves, laces, and so forth, in the cavernous and s.p.a.cious interior of the "baby."
SOME STRANGE VISITING-CARDS
Calling in Corea must be a very difficult performance, if, as a London journal has recently stated, the ordinary visiting-cards there are a foot square. The same journal goes on to say that the savages of Dahomey announce their visits to each other by a wooden board or the branch of a tree artistically carved. This is sent on in advance, and the visitor, on taking leave, pockets his card, which probably serves him for many years. The natives of Sumatra also have a visiting-card, consisting of a piece of wood about a foot long and decorated with a bunch of straw and a knife.