When we consider how strong a hold the pastime of baseball playing has upon our people, it is a little surprising that more frequent use of the game, as a framework, has not been made by writers of fi...

Alice Howell was flattening her pretty nose against the window pane as she looked ruefully out into the misty atmosphere that surrounded her father’s house in North Catalpa. It was eight o’clock in th...

Notwithstanding the gloom of the morning, the day came off bright and fine, and by the time the train was due from the West, bringing the Jonesville boys, the weather was perfect. A serene October sky...

To say that the town of Catalpa was very deeply mortified by this latest and most signal defeat of the favorite Nine would be a mild way of putting the case. For weeks afterwards, nothing was talked o...

“Where now, Larry?” asked ’Squire Mead, meeting Larry Boyne, on Stone River bridge, one wintry day in November. Cold weather had set in early, and huge cakes of ice had already formed on the edge of t...

On the ridge above the town of Catalpa stands a huge building known as “The Fair Building.” When the Northern District Agricultural Fair was held in Catalpa, this structure was used for displays of ma...

Although the stock of the Catalpa Baseball Club was divided among many shareholders in the town of Catalpa, it was evident that the mere holding, or non-holding, of shares made no difference with thos...

It was an impressive occasion when the Catalpa club started on their first pilgrimage. They had arranged a practice game with the Black Hawk Nine, of Sandy Key, in the central part of the State, to be...

Defeat, utter and overwhelming, followed the Catalpas to Bluford, where they played the “Zoo-Zoo Nine” of that city. The “Zoo-Zoos” were picked players, the lineal descendants of a company of Illinois...

It was the custom in Catalpa for the storekeepers to hang out at their doors a little blue flag when they wanted the services of an errand boy. Seeing this signal at the door of Jason Elderkin’s dry-g...

Catalpa was wide awake, next day, although the weather was hotter than ever and the little breeze that drew in from the prairie was laden with heat. The unexpected result of yesterday’s game had set e...

“I wish so many of the Catalpa folks had not come in to see the game, today,” said Larry Boyne, discontentedly, on the morning of the first of the championship series of games in Chicago, late in the ...

“The boss says he would be obliged to you if you would make less noise.” It was a tall and red-faced young man who brought this message to the Catalpa Nine, as they were gathered in the room of Captai...

Fog and dampness covered the city of Chicago, next day, when the Catalpa nine, shivering in the chilly air, loitered the time away before the hour came for their little preliminary practice in the bas...

“Well,” cried Neddie Ellis, cheerily, as the nine filed into Captain Hiram Porter’s room, which had been used as a rallying-place, as it was the largest assigned to any member of the club, “well, we h...

Meantime, strange things had happened in Catalpa. The town was in a ferment on the morning of the great day when the Catalpa nine were to play their second game with the Calumets. The glory of the fir...

The Selbys kept their own counsel, although Tom burned to tell everybody whom he met not to bet with Hank Jackson on the baseball match; but, after pondering the matter in his mind, he came to the con...

It was a great day for baseball when the far-famed Calumet club came to Catalpa to play the home nine. The visitors arrived by the evening train and were met at the station by the greater part of the ...