combination of work and play judiciously, yielding results in better work
and more satisfactory service than was possible under the old rule. Thus,
the game has acted like a lever in lifting into public favor all athletic
sports.

A great deal is said about the special attraction of this and that
leading sport of the day. The turfman thinks there is nothing approaching
the excitement of a horse race, which from the start to the finish
occupies but a few minutes of time. The rower regards a three mile "shell"
race as the very acme of sporting pleasures; while the yachtsman looks
upon all other contests as of trifling importance compared with that
ending in the winning of his club regatta cup; and so on through the whole
category of sports of the field, the forest and the river. But if any one
can present to us a sport or pastime, a race or a contest, which can in
all its essentials of stirring excitement, displays of manly courage,
nerve and endurance, and its unwearying scenes of skillful play and
alternations of success equal our national game of ball, we should like to
see it.

What can present a more attractive picture to the lover of out door
sports than the scene presented at a base ball match between two trained
professional teams competing for championship honors, in which every point
of play is so well looked after in the field, that it is only by some
extra display of skill at the bat, that a single run is obtained in a full
nine innings game? If it is considered, too, that base ball is a healthy,
recreative exercise, suitable for all classes of our people, there can be
no surprise that such a game should reach the unprecedented popularity it
has.