and experience has proved that so repeatedly that the man who trifles with the present system of adjusting grievances and operating on a basis of mutuality will be a Benedict Arnold to his fellow associates.
Thirty years ago the greatest drawback to Base Ball, then coming into its own, was the lack of communication between the smaller cities. Many a time I have known a team of young ball players to take a tramp of four or five miles to play with the team in a neighboring town and walk all the way home after the game was over. The interest in the sport was there. That same honest, high-spirited interest which exists at the present time, but the facilities were lacking in those days.
While we are speaking about the development of Base Ball, it might not be out of place to say that what the boys lacked thirty years ago the boys of to-day have at their doors.
Reference is made to the electric railroads which traverse the country from one ocean to the other. Nowadays it is almost invariably the case that the county seat is connected with all of the important towns of the county by electric railroad, and very frequently a chain of these railroads connects the smaller cities, so that it is only a matter of an hour's ride before a visiting team can be transported from its own town to that in which it is to play.
These "short hauls," as I believe the railroad men call them, have done a tremendous good for pure amateur Base Ball, and for Base Ball between the smaller city leagues which are not quite large enough to enter regularly into professional Base Ball.
