Part 37 (2/2)

That ninth round saw three Detroit pitchers, Dame Fortune, Herr Billiken, Mr. Providence and all the G.o.ds of Olympus conspiring to give the White Sox the game which had been thrown away, but the whole blamed bunch of good luck deities was foiled by a couple of White Sox youngsters simply because Callahan forgot to take their clubs away from them.

It would have been a joke that would have caused a laugh all through the corridors of time if the White Sox had achieved a triumph with only one base hit, but the fact remains it was their own fault they did not do so. Their only safe hit was made by Ray Demmitt, the Tiger discard, who has not yet worn a Sox uniform long enough to forget the first use for a baseball bat.

Demmitt retains the impression that bats were made to get on with, while the rest of Callahan's bunch use them solely to get out with, and that was the whole trouble in the last round. The Sox entered that spasm four runs behind, having converted Demmitt's lone hit in the first inning into the only genuine tally of the day.

Hall, who had enjoyed a breeze all the way at the expense of the Sox, suddenly was seized with a generous fit and started pa.s.sing batsmen. After he had filled the bases with only one man out Manager Jennings yanked the philanthropic hurler and sent Dauss to the slab. Dauss was infected with the same Andrew Carnegie spirit and issued another pa.s.s, forcing the Sox to make a tally.

There was no pity in Jennings' breast, so he ordered Dauss to the b.o.o.by hatch for a spanking and sent Coveleski to ladle out the pitch stuff. The young southpaw was equally generous in intent and would surely have forced in enough runs to give the Sox the game, but two of the visitors absolutely refused to accept that kind of a gift and got out. They were Tom Daly and Ray Schalk.

For a while it looked as if Buck Weaver would have to shoulder the blame for another defeat because he blew two runs over the pan by missing a cinch double play in the fourth inning. But Weaver had plenty of partners in crime before the thing was over. Harry Lord and Jack Fournier joined him by helping to contribute three runs to the Tiger total in the eighth.

Lord's miscue was a boot of a Cobb bounder in a tight place.

Fournier's blunder did not appear in the error column. Jack simply sat down on the gra.s.s and watched a tall fly light near him in gleeful security. By keeping his feet Fournier should have caught said fly and saved the cost of Lord's error to boot.

Fournier was in the game in an effort to bolster up the offense, not because he has anything as an outfielder on Bodie, whose place he took in the batting order, but the switch did not work out just as planned. Fournier made no better use of his stick than the rest of the Sox, and gave way to Daly, who foiled the generous efforts of the Tiger pitchers in the ninth.

It was a typical Joe Benz hard-luck game. The Indiana butcher boy pitched well enough to have won with any club in the league behind him, but only once were his pals anything but dead weight around his neck. In the sixth, when the Tigers made a determined attack, Weaver and Schalk came to Benz's a.s.sistance with a remarkable play, which pinched Cobb off second base and wrecked what looked like sure runs. And it is no small honor to have caught the honorable Tyrus napping in a pinch like that....

_B._ Take as a special a.s.signment a local football, basketball, or baseball game, or some other athletic contest and report it for the following morning's paper.

_CHAPTER XVII_

_A._ Write the story of the following for the society column in to-morrow morning's paper:

The parents of Elizabeth Wallace, 24, announced her engagement to-day to Parker Maxwell. Miss Wallace's father is president of the local First National Bank and lives at 1814 Prospect Drive.

Mr. Maxwell, 31, is cas.h.i.+er of the First National. Mr. Maxwell and Miss Wallace have known each other from childhood.

_B._ Write the story of the following:

The details of Elizabeth Wallace's wedding (see _A_) two weeks from to-day have been made public. She will be married at St.

Bartholomew's Church at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Rev. C. K.

Tanner will perform the ceremony. The bride will enter with her father. Howard Prentice, St. Louis, a college chum of the bride-groom's, will be best man. Alice Wallace, a younger sister of the bride, will be maid of honor. The bride will wear on the bodice of her wedding gown an old Brussels lace worn by her mother at her wedding thirty years ago. The predominating color scheme will be yellow. There will be two flower girls, Jean Thompson and Helen Orben, cousins of the bride. Three hundred invitations have been issued. A luncheon to the bridal party, relations, and a few intimate friends will be served at 1:30.

_C._ Write for to-day's paper an account of the marriage yesterday of Elizabeth Wallace and Parker Maxwell (See _A_ and _B_).

Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell left immediately after the wedding ceremony for a trip through Yellowstone Park. On their return next month they will live at 1200 East Sixtieth Street.

_CHAPTER XVIII_

_A._ Rewrite for this afternoon's paper the two following stories appearing in rival publications this morning. No additional details have been obtained.

_LOSES MONEY BETTING_

Two rough and hearty farmers struck up an acquaintance at a hotel last Thursday. One was John I. Williams of Winthrop, Ia.

Mr. Williams is now sojourning in the city waiting to see if the police can recover $2,500, his savings, which he bet on a ”horse race.” The other introduced himself as William Shaw, a farmer from near Winnipeg. The police are looking for him.

Mr. Williams reported his loss and told of meeting Shaw.

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