Life — June 4, 1925 — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

LIFE - The Rover and Over By Corey Ford Volume IV: How Putnam Hall Won the Commencement “There are schools that have teachers, There are schools both bad and good; There are schools with good baseball fields and bleachers, And there are others not so good. There are schools that have a lot of style, There are big ones and ones small; But of all the schools in these U. A, We love dear old P-U-U-UT—NAM HALL the best!” fine “QTUDENTS of Putnam Hall,” began Captain Putnam solemnly, as the strains of the “Putnam Hall Marching, Canoeing — and Surf-Bathing Song” filtered across the baseball diamond in the twilight, “this is the occasion of the annual Graduating Exercises —be- tween Putnam Hall and Merriwell Academy, and as usual the score stands 162—3 in favor of our ancient rivals. Only the Rover Boys can save us.” “Hurray for the Rover Boys!” shouted the students, waving their mortar-boards in the air and cheering lusti- ly. “As our old readers well know, they will gradu- ate over Merriwell beyond the peradventure of a doubt, and probably win the series !" “What series?” piped up Sam. “The Rover Boys’ Series!” Tom came back like a bad check, and you should have heard the laugh that went up. Tom was as merry a lad as one could shake a stick at, and often did. “Paste that horsehide!" cried the stands. “Soak the pill in the river!" “Dissolve it!” “Hurray for the Rover Boys!” “So's your old man!” As these and other deafening cries rent the air, Dan Baxter turned to Mumps the toady with a leer. “These Rover Boys think they're the whole show,” he snarled, “but Ill fix them yet. I've bet all my money on the opposing team again,” he added sig- nificantly. “Mum's the word,” promised Mumps. “T cotton to you, Dan. “Don't leak about it,” bully, “or it’s the jug!” warned the “DON'T LEAK ABOUT IT,” WARNED THE BULLY, IT’S THE JUG. © ERE comes a regular corkscrew curl and no mistake,” warned the Merriwell twirler, a little pitcher with big ears; and so warning he sent the fun-loving Rover a low, swift ball. Tom made a swing, when to his sur- prise the sphere was seen to halt not an inch from his bat, then turn abruptly and bound back toward the pitcher, who caught it in his glove. “Strike one!" called the umpire. “Stop!” cried Dick Rover, whose eyes had been peeled as related in “The Rover Boys with Measles”; and striding across the field he seized the baseball and detached a long picce of rubber clastic. “Dan Baxter!” Dick muttered in a voice that boded ill for the bully. “Here comes a double-ender!" shouted the Merriwell pitcher. Again the ball bounded across the field, and again Tom raised the ashen stick, when Sam grabbed his arm in the nick of time. “ ! went the baseball, as Tom's bat failed to connect with it and the disconnected sailed on toward Hall. “Strike tw—" began the umpire; but at that moment the erring ball brought up against Putnam Hall with a terrific explosion, and pieces of the erstwhile Academy flew in all directions. “Dan Baxter filled the ball with dynamite!” gasped Sam. “Foiled!” laughed =Tom merrily. “He's used that gag before !"* “Come on; quit horsing around now, Dan,” warned Dick in a voice that boded ill. Whack! went Tom's bat against the third ball; and as the horsehide sailed high over the right-fielder’s head, the stands rose to their feet as one, and waved his hat in the air. “Slide, Tom, slide!” cried Sam; and Tom slid in a cloud of dust toward third base. Instantly the base started moving away from him across the field. *For Dan Baxter's previous efforts with Dynamite see “The Rover Boys in the Air. Chapter 11, page 127. sphere Putnam comicbooks.com