member of it and
while I was still playing with the second nine, which went by the name
of the "Stars," the team enjoyed a ball-playing reputation second to
none in the State and the doings of "our team" every week occupied a
conspicuous place in the columns of the local papers, the editors of
which might have been seen enjoying the sport and occupying a front seat
on the grass at every game, with note book in hand recording each and
every play in long-hand, for the score book which has since made matters
so easy for the game's chroniclers had not then been perfected and the
club's official scorer kept a record of the tallies made by means of
notches cut with his jack-knife in a stick provided for the occasion.

Prior to June, 1867, the Marshalltown team had acquired for itself a
reputation that extended throughout the length and breadth of the State,
and at Waterloo, where a tournament was given, they had beaten
everything that came against them. In a tournament given at Belle Plaine
in either that year or the next they put in an appearance to contest for
a silk flag given by the ladies of that town, but so great was the
respect that they inspired that the other visiting clubs refused to play
against them unless they were given the odds of six put-outs as against
the regular three. This was handicapping with a vengeance, but even at
these odds the Marshalltown aggregation was too much for its competitors
and the flag was brought home in triumph, where, as may be imagined, a
great reception awaited the players, the whole town turning out en masse
to do them honor.

There was nothing too good for the ball players of those days and they
were made much of wherever they chose to go. A card of invitation that
recently came into my possession and that illustrates this fact, reads
as follows:

Empire Base Ball Club.

Yourself and lady are cordially invited to attend a Social Party at
Lincoln Hall, on Thursday Evening, June 27, 1867, given under the
auspices of the Empire Base Ball Club of Waterloo, complimentary to
their guests, the Marshalltown B. B. C.

While this aggregation of home talent was busily engaged in acquiring
fame but not fortune let no one think for a moment that I was
overlooking my opportunities, even though I were only a member of the
second nine. On the contrary, I was practicing early and late, and if I
had any great ambition it was to play in the first nine, and with this
end in view I neglected eve