You Know Me, Al | Page 2

talked of, three thousand dollars. You know what I was getting in
Terre Haute, a hundred and fifty a month, and I know it's going to cost
me a lot more to live here. I made inquiries round here and find I can
get board and room for eight dollars a week but I will be out of town
half the time and will have to pay for my room when I am away or look
up a new one when I come back. Then I will have to buy cloths to wear
on the road in places like New York. When Comiskey comes back I
will name him three thousand dollars as my lowest figure and I guess
he will come through when he sees I am in ernest. I heard that Walsh
was getting twice as much as that.
The papers says Comiskey will be back here sometime to-morrow. He
has been hunting with the president of the league so he ought to feel
pretty good. But I don't care how he feels. I am going to get a contract
for three thousand and if he don't want to give it to me he can do the
other thing. You know me Al.
Yours truly, JACK.
Chicago, Illinois, December 16.
DEAR FRIEND AL: Well I will be home in a couple of days now but I
wanted to write you and let you know how I come out with Comiskey.
I signed my contract yesterday afternoon. He is a great old fellow Al

and no wonder everybody likes him. He says Young man will you have
a drink? But I was to smart and wouldn't take nothing. He says You
was with Terre Haute? I says Yes I was. He says Doyle tells me you
were pretty wild. I says Oh no I got good control. He says well do you
want to sign? I says Yes if I get my figure. He asks What is my figure
and I says three thousand dollars per annum. He says Don't you want
the office furniture too? Then he says I thought you was a young
ballplayer and I didn't know you wanted to buy my park.
We kidded each other back and forth like that a while and then he says
You better go out and get the air and come back when you feel better. I
says I feel O.K. now and I want to sign a contract because I have got to
get back to Bedford. Then he calls the secretary and tells him to make
out my contract. He give it to me and it calls for two hundred and fifty
a month. He says You know we always have a city serious here in the
fall where a fellow picks up a good bunch of money. I hadn't thought of
that so I signed up. My yearly salary will be fifteen hundred dollars
besides what the city serious brings me. And that is only for the first
year. I will demand three thousand or four thousand dollars next year.
I would of started home on the evening train but I ordered a suit of
cloths from a tailor over on Cottage Grove and it won't be done till
to-morrow. It's going to cost me twenty bucks but it ought to last a long
time. Regards to Frank and the bunch.
Your Pal, JACK.
Paso Robles, California, March 2.
OLD PAL AL: Well Al we been in this little berg now a couple of days
and its bright and warm all the time just like June. Seems funny to have
it so warm this early in March but I guess this California climate is all
they said about it and then some.
It would take me a week to tell you about our trip out here. We came on
a Special Train De Lukes and it was some train. Every place we
stopped there was crowds down to the station to see us go through and
all the people looked me over like I was a actor or something. I guess

my hight and shoulders attracted their attention. Well Al we finally got
to Oakland which is across part of the ocean from Frisco. We will be
back there later on for practice games.
We stayed in Oakland a few hours and then took a train for here. It was
another night in a sleeper and believe me I was tired of sleepers before
we got here. I have road one night at a time but this was four straight
nights. You know Al I am not built right for a sleeping car birth.
The hotel here is a great big place and got good eats. We got in at
breakfast time and I made a B line