Evening Star Newspaper, June 11, 1922, Page 66

)0 YOUR STUFF “EDGallagher won thirty-four . -.mes for the Gray Sox during , e regular season. Then he nitched three straight shut-outs world series. After that he ore popular than a neighbor plenty of prewar stuff, a as known as the president. So and L. people signed him up ty weeks in vaudeville. 2t kind of stuff do I get to do?” nquired after afixing his sig- : to the contra that called for money a week than many col- professors make in a year. theatrical manager looked at nd sighed Speed,” he sugsested. ~ up something for you.” theatrical mahager then called nny Filesher, a clever young it of Broadwav, who wrote in much the same way that a - makes suits. You showed Dan- 21 actor or some one who w anted + an actor, and said thls, Danny: we want .rsals tomorrow night.” uny would nod, measure his cus- with a wise eve. come on following night with oxImating a pa g up at “we'll art an Speed Callagher. al manager said proval. “Good ve sizne ! man- he won't Fix us About nothing else {or him. Danny. snty minutes; to close in one act” What can he do?" Danny asked ditch.” the manager said briefly. mea s he got any stuff? Is he aof n he sin r don't know." the hout intere & ble to d ymeth manager sald suppose mot ter have a talk with him. Tl get shall Kerndr to carry him." iy that the manager meant that he uld enzage Marshall Kendrick, a 1 known comedian, to amuse the hat they had been stung when paid money to eed Gal- ¢ do anything but play baseball actor would re the salary paid - this servic ve about one pitcher, * ¥ ¥ ¥ HE act opened at Atlantic City In it were Speed. his catcher, Red Kendrick Martin ad- s the and Marshall do vour stuff. kid. reassuringly shivering in the wings, just the curtain went up. “Never sofin’ and singing’ they've vou. You just stall any old how.°and then ed The unate Speed’s hoofing and singing ad that the audlence of ad- fans rocked in their chairs hed until the tears came at raw-boned fa- were so and lau ht of their ganglh te trring to make his feet and throat behave. When, r the close of the act, he took began burning over they str bare st fist base ball in his big curves and hoots to Red Martin, the roars e that answered his efforts of of appl had nothing ridicule While the audience clapped shouted approval of his illustratic of how to pitch three straight, shut- outs in tha world series, stumpy lit- tle, bow-legged Martin, crouching low, thumped his in and ed his customary chant of encour- agement: “Do your stuff, kid! Atta boy! Do your stuff!" When Speed reached his dressing | room, after taking enough bows to t a tenor. he was flushed with tri- ph. “I guess I didn't do so bad, he crowed to Red Martin “Well, your fast one wasn't break- in' so well,” Martin demurred ‘I don’'t mean my pitchin’" Speed “explained. “My other stuff.” “What other stuff?’ Red snorted. “Why, vou big, oversrown, gogsly eved sap, you ain't got no other stuff. You don’t think your hoofin’ and singin® was any good, do you™" “They seemed to like it Speed grambled. “They laughed when I done it | “Laughed! Why wouldn't they «laugh? Wouldn't you laugh if you secn Ban Johnson in pink tights try ing to de a toe dance? Wouldn't you laugh if you seen John McGraw pl fn' ‘“Hamlet?” Well, you was just as either of them thing: ** Speed retorted, bel- “1 gue: »u think I can't ligeren do nothin' but play base ball, huh Nothin' but,” Red agreed anything else you're worth a dime a dozen.” THE critics in New York were too subtle for the suddenly stage- struck Gallagher. They damned him with superlative burlesque praise, and he did not realize that they were kidding him. He knew only that his name was up in electric lights on Broadway and conspicuous on the billboards of the city; that at every * ok k% performance he was cheered and cheered again: that he was getting more money for appearing on the stage for a few minutes twice a day than he had ever made piching his heart out on the diamond. He felt like the man who went to a horse race for the first time, cashel lis inl- tial bet at 10 to 1. and inquired “How long has this been going on?" Speed became convinced that he was a stage star, a greater success in the theater than he had been on the diamond. The fans flattered him, the - gctors toadied to him, the managers coddled him. There was only his old pal and * roommate, Red Mawtin, to tell him “he truth, and Speed paid no atten- tion to him. Red, he had decided, was all right in his way; a good fel- low and all that, but he didn’t un- derstand. He was just a base ball player. He went around with Mar- tin less and less as time went on. Red didn't seem to fit harmoniously into the strange, new life of which Gallagher felt himself so fmportant a part. They played on the bill with Louise Clare for the first time in Chicago. Louige was as completely a part of the theater as a back drop or a bunch light. Her father and mother had been old-fashioned clrcus and song- * and-dance people. She had been on the stage in a baby carriage when . she was six months old and had made " her entrance-onhesowWn-feet within “Let us warry about | mething | and keep them from realiz- | 3 come to burnin’ ‘em acros just do your stuff! That's all. ur stuff, and we'll get act went with a whoop. For-| et and Speed on the | them. | mitt and shout- | him, and the critics kidded| & vear of the time she was able"to |stand on them unaided. | At twenty-two she could take an audience in the hollow of her pink lit- tle palm and mold its mood to her will, as a sculptor fashions clay. She | tould and did do most of the things | that are done on a vaudeville stage. | The main feature of her act was her | work on the tight rope, but she was |also a comedienne of sorts, and could |even have stayed at the top of the theatrical heap the strength of | either her singing or her dancing Intimate acquaintance with life had made her thrifty to the point of mis crliness with her money, her health and her friendship. She w. | wholesome. heart-hungry little sol- | dier, who knew all the ways of tha | warfare that a girl on her own in the | profession:must fight, and who nursed on s n wise, {a pathetically intense louging for “tl\c peace of ppy marriage, with {love to stand guard. [ She fell for Speed Gallagher—fell | quick and hard. She was tired of | |smooth, flat, little dancing men; | pempous, strutting acto 1 posing | acrobats. Speed attracted her because | he was rough and awkward, bashful, ‘l!r{fmvn( To her he was a man a far country—a champion in a and thrilling game. a4 watched him on the dia- | mond. tall and slouchily confident, his [ cap pulled cockily over one eye. wind- | {ing himself slowly mto an intricate | | knot the mound and uncoiling | | suddenly like a released steel spring [ to smoke the the dered batter and stand erect. grin- | ning, his thumbs hooked into his belt She had seen him in tight spots, cool. | unhurried, down there on the fleld | | while hostile thousands shrieked and howled in a futile attempt to disturb | | his triumphant poise; seen him pitch | {his way slowly, methodically, brill- | tantly out of the hole and win: seen |him pitch also brilliantly, methodi- |cally and lose without disturbance of the calm, dominant, masterful at- | titude that was his on the ball field. PR | | QHE was a creature of the sham| =~ world—the world of canvas| houses, paper flowers, fake fights, | blank cartridges, briiliant sunshine | and soft moonlight that came out of | |a machine. To her he w citizen of the world of realit whose power was dai and proved: a conquercr who fought |and won the i Reilly, the house manager in {Chicago. introduced them after the show n the second night. | “I saw you in all of the games you | pitched during the »s last fall, | | Mr. Gallagher.” she said. “You cer- | tainly did have them eating out of | your hand.” | “Aw, that was nothin’ much,” Gal- | lagher mumbled. “Have you watched | me act yet i She nodded. “I always come down | in the winks when th e the set |ana you start to pitch a “Oh, that!” Speed exc ‘that's noth Have you s rest of fi | she admitted s | “I'd like to hav imed, the had not you watch it some night,” Speed said. like to have you tell me what : think eems to be going pretty well” | 11l watch it th matinea | morrow.” “Wish you would. the stage lots of tim |can sing and dance.” | She made a little grimace. | well, we've all got to do something | for a living.” she said lightly. | “Oh, sure" said Speed. vaguely grinning. He shuffled his big feet | and blushed. “I—I suppose there's a lot of guys askin’ you out | after the show and such like as that,| | ain't there?” “Oh—Johns!" she exclaimed scorn- | fully. “Sure! They're always around | Lots of good it does them. Home and | to bed for mine.” | Gallagher modded and gulped. | don't suppose you'd go out with me, | he said. 2 | | “Go out with you? Man, you didn’t | | ask me to go out with you | “Didn't 17 he muttered. 1a 5 to- at T've seen you on You certainly to dinner | 1 thought . she said, “vou didn't.” | Speed shuffed and wriggled. “Well, | | you wouldn't 1f T did, would “Sure I would if you did; but you haven't. | | Speed grinned. “Well, will you?" he | blurted. | “You bet I w ily. t's go." L | \WITH three weeks after starting west from Chicago Gallagher | proposed and was accepted. The en- gagement was brief and stormy. It had scarcely had time to begin, in fact, before Gallagher said: “I'll cut out this base ball stuff for | good now and we'll do & gether, £h? You and me? “Oh, but, Speed, you mustn't give up | base ball,” she protested. “Why not? Any roughneck play base ball.” “But, Speed! That's your game!" “Well, actin's my game, too, ai it?" he said resentfully. “I'm gettin' 1" she agreed heart- act to- | can more money for actin’ than I ever got | for playin' base ball. With You and, me together—" “But, Speed, you get paid so much for acting simply because you're such a wonderful base ball player.” “Well, of course, I did at first,” he admitted reluctantly. - “Since I've learned the business like I have, it's different. I'm going pretty good, ain't 17 “Why, ves,” she agreed hesitating- “You're going all right, Speed, 1y, but— “But what lently. “Well, Speed, you're a base ball player; you're not an actor. Base ball is your stuff, just the same as acting is mine. You-ve got to do your stuft.” “Maybe you think I ain't good enough to do an act with you," he suggested sullenly. “Well, Speed, you wouldn’ think I was good enough to play base ball on your team, would\you?” The quarrel that followed was bit- ter and final. Speed sought'relief from his mood in hard liquor, and Red Martin had his work cut out for him the nmext day to get the big pitcher sobered into shape for the matinee performance. After the show Red berated him in the dressing room. “What the devil ails you?" he de- manded: “This actin’ thing gone to your head? In all the time I've been’ roomin’ with you I never saw you drunk before.” ’ “Well, you seen me drunk last Alght, didn’t youg" he demanded trucu- | you were | wrong la up. | pion muc JUNE 11, 1922—PART 4 Speed Gallagher Could Pitch; Thought He Could_ Act; the Old Wing Saved the Girl’s Life WOUND UP AND REW. | DO YOUR STUFF!” AND SPEED GALLAGHER, GROWING CALM AND DELIBERATE “I sure did! And I'll tell the world one sloppy sight to sce.” I can get drunk if I want to, “Well can't 1 ved that all right! You » this and you're goin' to s when you show up sgrinp trainin’? said 1 was goin' to show up trainin’ You ain't had a row have you? had row with the ff of base ball. I'm fo! Red stared with the clut I'm showed real concern. “What's “Aw, what's the use of tellin’ you? Sperd flamed. “You're like all the ! all.l can do is I'm goin' to #uys, the whole bunch of to keep on actin’, ‘'mgoin at I to do, an’ make any of you »w all of you too, that—" I'm goi s Clare, M she kot “Well, had a fig d grudgingiy. nodded. to we " Speed ad- “l thought there ing. Come on, old kid; What's it all about?" told him what had happened previous night, Well, holy, high. jumping Jehosha- phat!" Martin exclaimed. “You been holdin’ something out on me all these vears, kid. T always knew you were littls bit fat ffrom the wishbone Lut you never let me know be- yre that you were the world's cham- One of the nicest lit- in the world falls for you— farmer—and before you'd tle girls you big | Kkissed her twice you started figurin’ on living casy off her big reputation. You were goin’ to quit work and go kitin' around the country doin’ noth- ing dragging down half of the | big dough that she makes.” stufr?” repu- *Where do you get that Speed muttered. “I guess my tation’s as big as here, ain't it?" * % kX REP confronted him, his feet spread apart, his hands on his hips. ¥, you big blob of home-grown he vou listen to me. 1 want to tell you something. If it hadn't been or base ball you wouldn't have had no more reputation than a second- hand. car. Your dad was a black- smith in a little hick burg that never had enough boobs in it at one time to even get ils name on the map. You ggere a bum, that's all. Just a bum! If you hadn’t been such a nut about base ball you might of worked hard and some day got to be worth 1340 a month as a farm hand, but you were a nut about base ball and so yot weren't worth even §40 a month to nobody in that little neck o' the woods. Oh, your dad told me all about vou when he was visitin' you in Cincinnati last summer. “You wouldn’t go to school, and you wouldn't work. All you'd do was play base ball when you had anybody to play with, and when you didn’t yowd go off and practice throwing at & knot hole in the fence. They were just fixin' to send you to reform school when Barney Mercer happened | to see you and give you a job pitch- Ing for that little intercity league of his in Mechanicstown. Now you're a star. You get a fancy car of your >wn and more money than you know how to count. And you got a reputa- tion. Yeh! There ain't a man, Wo- man or child in the United States who don’t know who Speed Gallagher is. They follow you around in the streets and come and stare at you in the ho- tels. So many people know you that ou can get big dough just for com- ing out on the stage and making a big fool of yourself. “And why do they know you? Be- cause you were such an ornery little worthless nut when you were 2 kid that you wouldn't do nothin’ but play base ball; because you grew up to be such a fat-heated sap that you've never been able to think of nothin' but base ball; because all the good sense that's spread here and there in most men 1is all boiled down to base ball sense in you. You know more about base ball than any man living and less about anything else. The game picked you up out of nowhere, a lazy, dirty-faced, little country kid and put you clean up on top of the heap. Now you'Te up there you're go- ing to tell base ball—and this nice little dame, that's foolish enough to fall for you, and your pals and the fans and everybody else—to go jump in the ocean, eh? {death about this match as he dreads | But I'm telling you this: You'll land right back where vou started from, only when you get there you won't be a kid apy more and there won't be any game to pick vou out of the ash heap and make a king of you again. Instead of being a dirty-faced littl kid you'll be a good-for-nothin' no- account, hulkin’ old tramp, moochin’ quarters around poolrooms and try- ing to get nice clerks to listen to you while you tell ‘em how good you was once. You an actor! Why, say, if you had one bad vear “Ho for the Second Battle Of the Century,” SAYS LARDNER. O the Editor: About a yr. from whence, all us fght cxperts will be in London or across the old pond as I often call it, reporting the 2d. Battle of the Cen- tury between Dempsey and the greck od and T will guarantee my readers to not be late at the ring side as ex- perts that ain't prompt on that occa- sion will not be abie to tell their readers what happened only by hear say. i The English public is use to seelng | Curpentfer get throgh with his| matches In 1 rd. and they are going to see the same again, only this time Georges himself won't be amonst those that witnesses the finish as he | will be studylng canvasses at close range. The terms of this match ls that| Dempsey Is to receive 100,000 pounds and Carpentier is to receive 50,000 pounds. This gives Dempsey a ad- vantage of 500,000 pounds or about the same like he had at Jersey City. It 1s said that Jack Is scared to ocean travel. | The way this match come to be| made was on acct. of the impressive | showing which Carpentier made in his fight with Lewis. Everybody thought Lewis would last well into the 2d. rd. but with the referee holding Lewis in his loving arms, Georges cut loose with a terrific wallup that landed on Lewis' jaw and it was good night Lewls. * ok ok % ’I‘HYS certalnly come like a big sur- prise to the experts to see a man the size of the Frenchman lay out a man the size of Lewis with one punch as this Lewis is even bigger than Jackie Coogan. It is a well known fact that if Lewis had of won the match he was going to be matched with Benny Leonard and the winner of that fight was going to be matcheg with Tom ‘Thumb and the winner of that brutal affalr would of been gigned up for a brawl with a gnat. ‘Whereas Carpentler's victory enti- tles him to a match with Dempsey loose 30 or 40 pounds mostly off his shoulders. Or maybe they figure that by thal time, Jack will of contracted pyor- rhea and his jaw won't be so tough that when you him full force you don't break nothing but thumb. Jokeing to the other side, if T was stageing the afiair 1 would insist on It being a hand it 1t Is true that ain't got no sense of hy £ they ain't and if th soaked 20 or 30| pounds for a why they are libel to 100k up the promoters after | the 1st 10 seconds and shoot them full of gaps. * ok ok k WOULD have rules in force eome- thing like ag follows: 1. During the 1st rd. Dempsey must remain seated in his corner With his hands In his kimono pockets. Georges s at liberty to knock him out of his | chair no weapons barred. If Dempsey lasts 1 rd. vs. this at- | k. why when he gets up for the 2d rd. he must keep sucking one thumb and use the other hand to wave to friends in the audlence. Georges ! free to wear spiked shoes and use all his limbs. 3. If the fight extends into the 3d rd. Georges. who was a aviator dur- ing the war, has the privilege of fiy-| ing over the ring and dropping bombs. If he mi kills anybody in the audience they can get thair money refunded at the box office. 4. 1f the fight goes into the 4th rd. the man that strikes the 1st blow will be declared the winner. time Dempsey will probably be bored enough to of fell asleep. These kind of rules might even up the match and then of course they's always the possibility of it being foggy in London so that Georgzes might be invisible wile you couldn't miss a big hulk like Dempsey. But anyway it is bound to be & great fight and pretty near 1 the spectators will be of the sex that has got intuition. It was thelr intuition 1 and the winner of this match will that told them Georges would win ‘“THE WINNER WAS GOING TO BE MATCHED WITH TOM THUMB.” hook up with a supper dreadnaught and whoever gets the best of that argument will take on the A. E. F. in one ring. So any way the Carpentier- Lewis fight had come out it was go- ing to lead to one championship match after another. Jokeing to 1 side some of my read- ers may wonder why this next big contest ain't booked for a date in the fall instead of them waiting a yr. to stage it. Well friends I aiw't been took into nobody’s confidents.but it looks to.me like they figured that maybe in a yr. Georges will of grew up and got his full strength or else that Dempsey would catch some wasteing -disease like shingles. snd the last time and they will be there pulling for him again. You can't fool a woman’s intuition all the time. Only 90 per cent. However, if the greek god don't cop this time, why it is the present plan to match him up in a fight with a nit and if he gets the best of the nit, why that will qualify him for an- other whack at Dempsey. This bout will be held in Berlin 3 yrs. from now and after that the schedule will take the 2 boys around the world moveing from west to east with bouts at 2 yr. intervals which they figure will give Georges time to get well. RING W. LARDNER. _‘Great Neck, Long Island, June 9, the big league— | vour | s Dempsey and| By this| u for one season—you couldn't contract lat a dime an hour in a nickelodeon! | | That's the truth and 3 tak, or leave it!" | “Youre a darned 1 | “IfTam 4 Mart | denly wh | tell me so It took five stage house manager to | “I'm dragged week out, but afl | somebod. Poeyou w work no | gher roared. “You show 1 ® and 11 they ain’ r. Tl 4 art’s out B me! Me and Kendrick to d straight inow o I You just w | iy AT lock tha agher left h his way to h down st e when he t ade Zer of the and give him thr | three hero-w | He returned took three dropped them his overcoat and went s he stepped out the he could hear Louise C sprightly song. H tin standing in ol friends did n Speed was heartsore but {“T'll show ‘em.” he | self as he trudsed hink ca | ball. en? |1t ws up to Speed ¢ theater on fir said excitedly % phoned | llagher's room. “The Mr. Gallagher.” he | T thought you'd wa | to know. TRQey say she's just blazing away. Speed threw on 1 rushed out. He was thinking of his trunk and clothes hanging in the dressing room. The street was loud w ible of fire apy choked y and curious crowd. Speed he fire lines and was nab | cop. ‘m Speed G You know; pl Let m {ana ciang | with a no | reached | by | | ed his week. you?' ° The name was magic. “Syge? That's all right, Speed,” the cop satd. “Go | ahead. 1 don't reckon yeu can do much, though. They think they got everybody out. She's burning like the | very devil” Speed rushed around to the back of the theater and stopped. Flames were curling out of the door, coiling high about the brick wall. Speed backed | across the street and stood before the | lighted show window of a hardware store, cowering away from the heat There Red Martin found him. Red was screaming with excitement and point- | ing upward. Speed looked up. An icy agony of horror flooded through him. High up on the otherwise blank brick wall, just under the peak of the stage roof, there was a window, about a foot and a half square. Framed in ed through, the window was Louise Clare. Her face and head were clearly seen in the glare fram the flames below. “Do something!” Red Martin shouted frantically, heating his fists together. “Good God. Speed. what can we do? Nobody can set in there! That whole lower part's just a roaring hell. Man. we got to do somethin Speed acted with a legitimatized his name. With a side sweep of his arm he smashed the plateglass window of the hardware store, jumping auickly back to escape the falling fragments of glass. He kicked the jagged Wieces left in the frame out of his way and stepped into the show window. From the hooks on which they were displayed he yanked down a ball of stout brown twine and a coil of quarter-inch manila rope. With these he jumped back to the sidewalk. He raised his head and cupped his palms about his mouth. “Louise! Don't jump!" he bellowed. “Don’t jump!” - ) * ¥ % * A GLASS transome over a wooden 41 door next to the hardware store bore the Rent.” celerity that inscription, “Rooms for fup |ana w | haif | two sl | uncoiled land t | Beside him Red Martin stood, squat- Speed spied the door. It was locked. He backed off several paces, hunched his right shoulder high against his head and plunged into it. The door splintered and crashed inward. Fol- lowed by Red Martin, Speed dashed into the hallway and up the stairs. On the third floor he ran into a be- wildered man throwing clothes into a trunk “The roof!” Speed shouted. “Which way to the roof? “It ain't on fire yet, is it? man chattered affrightedly. house ain’t on fire yet? I got most of my things packed now, and if it ain't on fire yet I can Speed grabbed him by the throat and slapped his face with his open palm. “The roof!” he shouted again. “Which way to the roof? You gab- bling Idiot, tell me the way to the roof, or I'll tear your head off you!" The man gurgled and pojnted to a narrow doorway in the hall. Speed tore through the opening, leaped up a narrow, ladderlike flight of stairs, threw open the trap, and scrambled out on the flat roof. He rushed to the cdge of the roof and looked across. The little square win- dow in the back wall of the theater was almost on a level with him Louise Claire was still standing there. “Don’t jump!” Speed bellowed at {the top of his lungs. “Louise! Do | you hear me? Here! Across the street on the roof! Don't jump!” The zirl in the tiny above the growing flames heard ved her answer to him. Speed ew off his overcoat took one of the base balls from his pocket. He flipped out his jackknifs opened it and made two slashes in th tough horsehide cover of the ball about an inch and 2 half long and a half inch apart. With a point of the knife blade he threaded an end of the stout twine logsed from the hard- ware store windew below, under the nch strip of cover betweep the und knotted it. Rapidly he taw it would run free. With the roared, motioning to | Ber. “Get back! One side! Look! ball! Seg. Through the window. Get | back ¥ x % % -‘Tm-: gitl understood and withdrew. Th small square aperture was Speed stocd erect on theyroof, i1ed up his breeches in a manner niliar to kim when he in a h spot on the diamond, twitched was his cap and wound up. He uncoiled with the snap of a eased steel spring and the ball with the brown it flashed across and ck wall an inch to the —struck and fell Speed Gallagher t below! He had missed, and for ime in his career panic He fell to trembling God! What's the m e ayed. “Good Go make it.” He w on the e be ething's g in ged M atter with myeye! I can't do it; It was no job for Red Martin knew it could peg t but to hit the street i Gallagher. who d pitching base in a fence. And roof the habit of the Red Martin in stead; the veteran her ttled pitcher through a end wi a on. He hed down, iis right fist into his left though the latter were a old- he barked, 2 easy, kid know! the old eve. Steady, boy! You gut all the stuff in the world to- duy. Atta be me on now, kid; do your stuff! Do vour stuff” And, under the cffect of the familiar ow of encouraging chatter from his Speed Gallagher s he had steadied many a time before in a bad spot; ened; erate and menacing as he drew ball up over the edge of the roof. Once more he stood erect, hitched his trous nd twitched his cap diamond stead emw calm and delib- the u ting in the catcher's position, spank- ng left palm with right fist ch his ngy line of encou: azement ta boy, old kid! You could shave guy with thai fast one today and leave a bruise. _Right in the Speed: Come on! Do your ERE as sure as a bit of perfect machiner: ain, nerve-rackingly deliberate, wound up and threw. The ball spe straight, true as a bullet from a marksman’s gun, through the tiny window. The girl's head appeared in the aperture once more. “Pull’” Speed bellowed across to her., “Pull on that string! There's a rope tied to it. Tie the rope to one of them girders in there. Pulll" The girl Began to draw on the string. Speed knelt and quickly knotted it to an end of the ganila rope. The girl rapidly pulled the rope across the intervening space, drew it through the window and secured it about a girder. Red Martin and Speed Gallagher braced themselves and drew it taut. Louise crawled out through the window and sur- rendered herself to the line, making swift work of crossing hand over hand. As she neared the roof on the opposite side and safety the flames leaped suddenly high along the brick wall of the theater. Speed groaned in an agony of apprehension, for leaping tongues of fire along the wall were licking dangerously near the rope. “You hold it, Red,” he said, and, re- leasing the line, lay flat on the ruof, leaning over as far as he dared, reaching his arms toward the girl and shouting to her to hurry. He had one of her wrists in both of his hands when the rope burned throush and parted. As the girl's weight sagged full on him he felt himself being drawn over the roof, slipping helplessly toward the pavement below; felt himself b ing dragged to destruction, but he clung tightly to the girl's wrist.Then, as he was pitching over the edge his ankles were encircled by hands that Dbit and held like iron bands. As he hung face downward, clinging des-|go northvard. |in window high | and | | thought {root the o | me. considerable length of the | Martin backed tiptoe into the in his hand he rose and shouted | { Do your s tufr” | ¥ many of the viltag ! platfo |is left lated dol wooden s | copias, trains of cars, { three-legged cows, tops I ha teadied | {to be put on, | decorat These harden and cling to t zh | clay, to the leaves and bra [ the toys and animals, to |stable and to ecach other | whole shrine looks as if it we i buried in sparkling ice ¢ 1 EED GALLAGHER, himself once | | natives have established rude o | the out fn French territory. It Is nece { sary to leave the ostriches in n par tially nomadic state. They migratd By William Slavens McNutt perately to the dangling girl, ! heard above him the grunted shou “I got you, kid! Atta boy! Stead:- with {t! Hang on. Help's comin’. 1. your stuff, eld kid!" A moment later Speed felt other firm hands on his legs; heard other voices on the roof. Slowly, care. fully, he was drawn back to safet: The blood was pumping hard in his head. As they drew him up ove: the edge of the roof consclousnes deserted him, but the will to save the endangered girl remalned operative It took the efforts of two men to pr his locked fingers lovse from b wrist. * k * ¥ VWHEN Speed came to he was lying on a bed in one of the rooms be low. Louise Clare was sponging ha forehead. He gat up grinn! weakly., “I must of passed out” tered apologetically. thing to do!" Loulse Clare was on her knees he fore him holding his big right ha hers. She was weeping happiis “Oh, Speed!” she cried. “I'm so so I was mean to you. I didn't mean Speed. You just go righ he mu: “What a craz Honest! ahead and quit baseball and we'll d an act together, yqu and 1" Speed pattered her shoulder and shook his head. "Not for mi said firmly. “Base ball's my stuff, | that's what T got to do. You come h me in the summer e Id stuff an’ winter while “Oh, Spee “Base ball's m stuff,” Speed r peated solemnly. He felt carefu of his right arm, flexing and straig! ening 1t experimentally h! r 4 minute up '& had gone back But I guess it's all right. Feel better tod Base i stuf I'll go wit you do your stuff, ba | Pretty good stuff at that” He t vk Louise Clare’s upturne? big hands and lear forward to kiss her. reverently R hall “Do your stuff 1f, grix Red whispe: (Cops rigits reserved B — Nacimiento of Mexicans. /7 nd towsns of Mexico the people. who live | rude, haif-built houses called jacals re thriftless, shiftless creatures for the most part, existing d the half-fed de in and donke nd se shrine erected W memory of Caris manger. one end of the x or eight fe cet wide s At about four s d thi; the b art ar nee of hills a ls ari and th to dry. Next, a rude stable, s, is constructed in th In plain. cattered about here and cows thing Y of the stable o But o every seess adorn e decorate ble incongruous num, done duty at many & . About the shrine a ng m small branches, w h t bright bits of paper and tinsel a suspended When there are no more “t mixed wi is dipped into the solution bles of it are blown upon he Christmas eve numerous are lighted within th nd a lantern, swinging from 4 3 e the house, is a light to the villagers, who h & looking forward to thi time. Young Mexican On dles is women are sea's about the room in a solemn and r erent silence. As the villaggs e in they kneel and pray, drop a (v “bits” into the plate set out for tna’ purpose, admire the beautiful deco tions, and hurry away in gay gr to the next jacal containing miento, for not every house shrine at Christmas These shrines are not distur til after January 6. Meantime, n prayers are offered up before and nightly partics carrying lant. guide their footsteps over the mis able roads, go from house to ho criticizing and comparing the difY a shrines. Among the higher classes the na miento is prepared on an elal scale, with much cost in time money. But perhaps the poorer icans take most delight in the be of their shrines. One can readi derstand that the nacimiento them, who have so little of the be.u tiful in their daily, struggling 1iv¢ The Ostrich in Africa. SOME time ago the French aur! ties in western Africa underto to organize the breeding of ostri in the territory under their con Ostriches are found wi'd in m parts of western Africa. Aloy River Niger they avoid the neigl hood of man, but on some of tné lands in_ that and other rivers thy the farms. One official, who was app ed to study the subject, suy methods of the ostrich farmerd of the cape cannot be fully carric more or less with the seasons. When it becomes tou dry in the south they