Tip Top Weekly No. 80: Frank Merriwell as 'Anchor' — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

20002~— FRANK MERRIWELL AS ANCHOR. looked solemn. The other students sup- posed that this was due to his anxiety about the wrestling match, and no ques- tions were asked, although there were a few good-natured jokes about his nervous- mess. He took all the jokes quietly, and made no retort. Nothing happened during the day to give the Yale managers any new anxiety. They kept their eyes open all the time for a sight of the bogus Princeton men, but failed to see them. When at last evening came, and they went up to the Seventh Regiment Armory for the great contest, they felt that with the possible exception of Mellor, every- thing was in as good condition as could be hoped, for Yale victories. | CHAPTER VI. THE WRESTLER. There was an immense crowd in the Seventh Regiment Armory that evening. Nearly everybody present was a friend of — one or another of the colleges represented in the contests, and excitement ran high. The seating had been arranged so that Yale students and their friends occupied a solid tier of seats upon side of the hall near the contre. Directly across the hall in a similar tier were the students and friends of Harvard. On the same side with Yale was the Cornell crowd, and directly opposite them the Princeton crowd. The rest of the spectators sat as near their favorite college as they could, with the result that long before any of the games began, the building fairly roared with college cries mingled together, each crowd trying to outdo the others. It seemed.as if there would be no lungs or voices left to cheer the athletes, but if | any-one had such a fear, it must have been because he was not acquainted with students’ voices. An excited Yale or Harvard man can give the college cry somehow when he would be unable to conduct a conversation above a whisper. The very middle of the hall was left vacant. All the contests were to take place there, and, therefore, in full view of all the spectators. | The athletes had their dressing-rooms at the ends and sides of the building, and there were so many of them that each col- lege had a number of rooms for itself. The Yale managers took their men up to the armory about a half hour before the call for the first event. Dressing rooms had been picked out in advance and those belonging to the tug of war team were put. into one room by themselves. The Yale crowd in the audience cheered frantically when they recognized their companions marching across the floor to their dressing rooms. Shortly after that the Princeton men came in, and then there was a wild howl- ing from the other side of the room. _ So it went on, and so it continued all through the evening, for there was hard- ly a moment when there was not some- thing going on to arouse the enthusiasm of one college or another, and if by any accident there was a hitch in the proceed- ings, there was plenty of excited students in each faction to stand in front of the tiers of seats and lead their comrades in cheering on general principles. As there were many events, and miany entries in each one, the programme was put through rapidly, and as often as pos- sible, two or more events were being con- tested at the same time. The object sought for by each college was to gain as many victories, or in other words, first places, as possible, but in. some events like wrestling and fencing, where only two men could contest at a ECOMMICL OC SS EO