book. A bunch of paper,
or the back of an envelope will do to jot down a few facts. The rest is
written later from memory. Only stage reporters carry note books, and,
of late they are getting "wise" and abstaining from it.)

"A romance?" repeated Joe. "Far be it from me to conceal such a thing
about my person."

"But you _have_ had rather a rapid rise in baseball; haven't you, Joe?"
insinuated Rad. "You didn't have to wait long for promotion. Why not
make up a yarn about that?" went on Rad, nodding at the reporter.

"Sure I'll do it. Give me a few facts. Not too many," the newspaper man
said with a whimsical smile. "I don't want to be tied down too hard. I
like to let my fancy have free play."

"He's all right," whispered Rad in an aside to Joe. "One of the best
reporters going, and he always gives you a fair show. If you make an
error he'll debit you with it, but when you play well he'll feature you.
He's been South with the team a lot of times, I hear."

"But I don't like to talk about myself," objected Joe.

"Don't let that worry you!" laughed Rad. "Notoriety is what keeps
baseball where it is to-day, and if it wasn't for the free advertising
we get in the newspapers there would not be the attendance that brings
in the dollars, and lets us travel in a private car. Don't be afraid of
boosting yourself. The reporters will help you, and be glad to. They
have to get the stuff, and often enough it's hard to do, especially at
the training camp."

In some way or other, Joe never knew exactly how, Dalrymple managed to
get a story out of him, about how Joe had been drafted, how he had begun
playing ball as a boy on the "sand lots," how he had pitched Yale to
victory against Princeton, and a few other details, with which my
readers are already familiar.

"Say, this'll do first rate!" exulted the reporter, as he went to a
secluded corner to write his story, which would be telegraphed back to
his daily newspaper. "I'm glad I met you!" he laughed.

Dalrymple was impartial, which is the great secret of a newspaper
reporter's success. Though he gave Joe a good "show," he also "played
up" some of the other members of the team. So that when copies of the
paper were received later, they contained an account of Joe's progress,
sandwiched in between a "yarn" of how the catcher had once worked in a
boiler factory, where he learned to catch red-hot rivets, and how one of
the outfielders had inherited a fortune, which he had dis