A Ball Players Career | Page 3

in a very vivid fashion, and even now I am disposed to regard
it as no laughing matter, although my father entertains a contrary
opinion, but then my father was not in my position, and that, ofttimes,
makes all the difference in the world.
The Pottawattamies were to have a war dance at the little town of
Marietta, some six or seven miles up the river, and of course we boys
were determined to be on hand and take part in the festivities. There
were some twelve or fifteen of us in the party and we enjoyed the show
immensely, as was but natural. Had we all been content to look on and
then go home peacefully there would have been no trouble, but what
boys would act in such unboyish fashion? Not the boys of
Marshalltown, at any rate. It was just our luck to run up against two
drunken Indians riding on a single pony, and someone in the party, I

don't know who, hit the pony and started him, to bucking.
Angrier Indians were never seen. With a whoop and a yell that went
ringing across the prairies they started after us, and how we did leg it!
How far some of the others ran I have no means of knowing but I know
that I ran every foot of the way back to Marshalltown, nor did I stop
until I was safe, as I thought, in my father's house.
My troubles did not end there, however, for along in the darkest hours
of the night I started from sleep and saw those two Indians, one
standing at the head and one at the foot of the bed, and each of them
armed with a tomahawk. That they had come to kill me I was certain,
and that they would succeed in doing so seemed to me equally sure. I
tried to scream but I could not. I was as powerless as a baby. I finally
managed to move and as I did so I saw them vanish through the open
doorway and disappear in the darkness.
There was no sleep for me that night, as you may imagine. I fancied
that the entire Pottawattomie tribe had gathered about the house and
that they would never be content until they had both killed and scalped
me. I just lay there and shivered until the dawn came, and I do not think
there was a happier boy in the country than I when the morning finally
broke and I convinced myself by the evidence of my own eye-sight that
there was not so much as even a single Indian about.
As soon as it was possible I told my father about my two unwelcome
visitors, but the old man only laughed and declared that I had been
dreaming. It was just possible that I had, but I do not believe it. I saw
those two Indians as they stood at the head and foot of my bed just as
plainly as I ever saw a base-ball, and I have had my eye on the ball a
good many times since I first began to play the game. I saw both their
painted faces and the tomahawks that they held in their sinewy hands.
More than that, I heard them as well as saw them when they went out.
That is the reason why I insist that I was not dreaming. I deny the
allegation and defy the alligator!
There were two Indians in my room that night. What they were there

for I don't know, and at this late day I don't care, but they were there,
and I know it. I shall insist that they were there to my dying day, and
they were there!
CHAPTER II.
BOYHOOD DAYS AND MEMORIES.
What's in a name? Not much, to be sure, in many of them, but in mine a
good deal, for I represent two Michigan towns and two Roman
Emperors, Adrian and Constantine. My father had evidently not
outgrown his liking for Michigan when I came into the world, and as he
was familiar with both Adrian and Constantine and had many friends in
both places he concluded to keep them fresh in his memory by naming
me after them.
I don't think he gave much consideration to the noble old Romans at
that time. In fact, I am inclined to believe that he did not think of them
at all, but nevertheless Adrian Constantine I was christened, and it was
as Adrian Constantine Anson that my name was first entered upon the
roll of the little school at Marshalltown.
I was then in my "smart" years, and what I didn't know about books
would have filled a very large library, and I hadn't the slightest desire to
know