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Practical English Composition: Book II. / For the Second Year of the High School

Chapter 91: I. Assignment
By Edwin L. Miller
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About This Book

A practical secondary-school composition manual that pairs concise instruction with classroom-ready exercises and models to build writing skills. It explains a system for marking and correcting themes, supplies signs for common errors, and recommends schedules and activities for oral and written composition work. Chapters present stylistic guidance—such as using contrast—alongside reporter-style examples, editing suggestions, and prompts for classroom publications. Memorization extracts and procedural directions reinforce technique, while exercises emphasize revision, concise expression, and the habit of thoughtful correction.

V. Suggested Time Schedule

As usual, except that on Friday one number of the program may be a magazine composed of the best stories written during the week by pupils.

VI. Oral Composition

Be sure that your story has a good point; is free from slang; and possesses a beginning, a middle, and an end.

VII. Written Composition

Suggestion: Imagine that the classroom is the local room of a daily paper, the pupils reporters, and the teacher the editor. The stories may be written in class.

 VIII. Memorize

 CHAPTER VII
THE USE OF CONTRAST

“Give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”—Isaiah.

I. Introduction

Antithesis, or contrast, is one of the two most effective devices at the disposal of any artist, whether he works with words or colors. Its skillful use often enables a newspaper writer to make a good item out of trifling material. The object of this week’s work is to teach a little of the art of using antithesis effectively in reportorial work.

II. Models

I

London, Dec. 25.—Mrs. Rebecca Clarke, who is 109 years of age, presided this morning at the wedding breakfast of her baby son, Harry, who is 67. This is Mr. Clarke’s second venture on the matrimonial sea. His two brothers are sprightly bachelors of 70 and 73 years. Mrs. Clarke toasted the newly married couple and ate the first slice of the wedding cake. She attended the Christmas wedding celebration in the evening.

II

Commuters in Yonkers took advantage of the Christmas holiday to mow their lawns. The grass has been getting longer and longer, owing to the spring weather, until it just had to be cut.

Players on the Dunwoodie Country Club course, also at Yonkers, had to keep moving to keep warm yesterday, but they played on greens which had been mowed only a few  days ago, and those who were fond of flowers stopped now and then to pick a buttercup.

The greens keeper at Dunwoodie says that the greens have been mowed four times since the latter part of September, when in ordinary seasons the grass is mowed for the last time until spring. The condition of the course is about the same as in May, according to the greens keeper.

Up in Bronx Park the grass has not been mowed recently, but it is unusually long for the time of year, and so it is in the other city parks. The same condition prevails in the nearby cemeteries. Out in New Jersey a fine crop of grass is in evidence.

Farmers in the vicinity of New York are saving on their usual bills for winter fodder, for with the spring weather and the long grass the animals can pick up a living out of doors.

III

New York, Dec. 31.—An order for $2,000,000 worth of shrapnel, to be used in the war in Europe, has been rejected by the Commonwealth Steel Company of Granite City, Ill., it was learned to-day, because Clarence H. Howard, president of the organization, believes warfare should not be recognized.

Mr. Howard, who lives in St. Louis, is known all over the country as the “Golden rule steel man,” because he tries to run his plant in accordance with the Golden Rule by sharing profits with the employes.

He is stopping at the Biltmore Hotel. Although he talked freely of the trouble in Europe, he frowned at the report about the $2,000,000 shrapnel order, and then said with blazing eyes:

“Why, our company would not accept an order for $15,000,000 worth of shrapnel! The war itself is a bitter shame. It is something that does not belong in the general scheme of enlightened humanity. If men would only think in unison, and think purely and strongly for the abolition of war, it would stop. There should be a general movement in the United States in this direction.

“When I was a youngster I left my home in Centralia, Ill., to win my own way in the world, and my mother gave  me five maxims—one for each finger—which I since have followed with great profit. They are:

“‘Seek company among those whom you can trust and association with whom will make you better.

“‘Never gamble or go where gambling is done.

“‘Never drink or go where drinking is done.

“‘As to smoking, it isn’t so bad as drinking or gambling, but take my advice and let it alone.

“‘When in doubt about where to go, stop and ask if it would be a good place to take your mother.’

“Platitudes, eh! Some might call them that; but they have brought me happiness, and they have brought happiness to others. Not long ago I sat down and figured how much I had saved by not drinking, gambling, or the like. I figured it out at $1,000 a year, and it had been 30 years since my mother gave me the advice.”

III. Notes

  1. The contrast in Model I consists in the incongruity between the ages of the people and their occupations; in II the contrast is obviously the same as that alluded to in Byron’s famous line,

    “Seek roses in December, ice in June”;

    in III Mr. Howard’s ideas, ideals, and conduct are in contrast with those of some men.
  2. Antithesis between the actual and the normal is always interesting.

IV. Queries and Exercises

  1. Explain the syntax of all nouns, adverbs, and infinitives in the models.
  2. Find a metaphor in I.
  3. Discuss the meaning and etymology of the following words: matrimonial, commuters, Christmas, December, animals.
  4. Is “nearby” a better word than “adjacent”?
  5. Where is Yonkers?
  6. Tell whether the sentences are simple, compound, or complex.
  7.  What is the subject of each paragraph in II and III?
  8. Write double headings for I and II. “Double” means in two parts. For example:

    SHAKESPEARE
    CELEBRATION
     PLANS ADVANCE

    President of Drama League Tells of Interest in Tercentenary Observances

    Remember that you can use only a fixed number of letters in each line.
  9. Define antithesis and metaphor. Find an example of each in to-day’s paper.

V. Composition

  1. Choosing a Subject. Select an incident that has come within the circle of your own observation; that has never, as far as you know, been described in print; and that is sufficiently unique to present a good contrast to the usual course of events.
  2. Collecting Material. Get as many concrete details as possible. Generalities never glitter. They are useful only to cure insomnia.
  3. Arranging Material. Look out for the “Four W’s.” Make a framework that is definite. It should be determined, in the last analysis, not by the model but by the material.
  4. Oral Composition. Rehearse your article to your mother or to any other person whom you can induce to listen.
  5. Written Composition. “Festinâ lente.” “Hasten slowly.” When a French student takes his college entrance examinations, he is plucked if he misspells one word, misplaces  one capital letter, or makes a single mistake in punctuation. Lord Bacon somewhere says: “Let us proceed slowly that we may sooner make an end.” Sheridan wrote:
    “You write with ease to show your breeding,
     But easy writing’s curst hard reading.”
    Care in No. 5 will eliminate No. 6.
  6. Revision and rewriting.

VI. Suggested Reading

Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

VII. Memorize

MUSIC

Let me go where’er I will,
 I hear a sky-born music still:
 It sounds from all things old,
 It sounds from all things young,
 From all that’s fair, from all that’s foul,
 Peals out a cheerful song.
It is not only in the rose,
 It is not only in the bird,
 Not only where the rainbow glows,
 Nor in the song of woman heard,
 But in the darkest, meanest things
 There alway, alway something sings.
’Tis not in the high stars alone,
 Nor in the cup of budding flowers,
 Nor in the redbreast’s mellow tone,
 Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,
 But in the mud and scum of things
 There alway, alway something sings.

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

To Teachers. At this point a review of Chapter XII, “Vade Mecum, or Catechism,” of Practical English Composition, Book I, will be found an invaluable exercise.
←Contents

 CHAPTER VIII
THRILLERS

“’Tis strange, but true; for truth is always strange,
 Stranger than fiction.”

Byron.

I. Assignments

  1. Relate the most exciting adventure that has occurred to you. Use the third person. Reporters usually are not allowed to use the pronoun “I.”
  2. Relate the most exciting adventure that has befallen any person whom you personally know well enough to interview on the subject.
  3. If you can obtain material in neither of the foregoing ways, get a story from the movies, after the manner suggested in the following dispatch:

    TEACH REPORTING BY “MOVIES”

    Journalism Instructors at Columbia Use Films to Develop Students’ Faculty of Observation.

    Reporters’ “copy” telling in graphic style of the Balkan War poured into the “city room” of the newspaper plant at the Columbia University School of Journalism yesterday. The reason was that moving pictures had been adopted as a means of giving to the students an opportunity to exercise their powers of observation and description in such a fashion as would be required of them in real newspaper work.

    The idea of using a moving picture machine to train future newspaper reporters in accuracy of observation was originated by Professor Walter B. Pitkin, and was approved immediately by Dr. Talcott Williams, director  of the school. Dr. C. E. Lower, instructor in English, is the official operator, but this work will probably be given later to a student.

  4. A last resort is literature. In Stevenson, Poe, or Conan Doyle, you can probably find a story that can be translated into a sufficiently thrilling newspaper dispatch.

II. Models

I

Colonel Folque, commander of a division of artillery at the front, recently needed a few men for a perilous mission, and called for volunteers. “Those who undertake this mission will perhaps never come back,” he said, “and he who commands will be one of the first sons of France to die for his country in this war.”

Volunteers were numerous. A young graduate of a polytechnic school asked for the honor of leading those who would undertake the mission. It was the son of Colonel Folque. The latter paled, but did not flinch.

His son did not come back.—Boston Herald.

II

Villagers in fear of death were scuttling out of little homes like rats driven from holes by flood.

One person in the village remained at her accustomed post and from time to time recorded into the mouth of a telephone receiver the progress of the conflict, while a French general at the other end of the wire listened. Presently her communications were interrupted. “A bomb has just fallen in this office,” the girl called to the general. Then conversation ceased.

It is always that way with the telephone girl when tragedy stalks abroad and there is necessity to maintain communication with the outside world. The telephone girl of Etain may be lionized in lyric literature. She deserves it. The telephone girl of Etain may find brief mention in history. She deserves that much at least. And yet the telephone girl at  Etain is but one of her kind the world over.—Sioux City Journal.

III. Oral Composition

  1. Point out in each story the situation, the climax, and the dénouement.
  2. Discuss the meaning of “polytechnic,” “lionized,” “lyric.”
  3. Discuss the etymology of “volunteers,” “mission,” “graduate,” “telephone,” “literature.”
  4. Describe Etain.
  5. Find in the models examples of antithesis, alliteration, and simile.

IV. Written Composition

  1. Do not exceed the length of the models.
  2. Be sure that your story is in three paragraphs, arranged thus: (1) Situation; (2) Climax; (3) Dénouement.
  3. Put your story in the form of a news article with a heading. Don’t forget the “Four W’s.”

V. Model

New York, November 21. The mystery of the disappearance of Mrs. Pauline Edwards on November 18 was cleared up to-day. A party of police visited her home at 96 East Twenty-third St. at 9 A.M. for the purpose of making a final examination of the premises. They found Mr. Allan Edwards, her husband, at home, and compelled him to accompany them on their tour of inspection. Careful scrutiny of all the rooms having failed to reveal any evidence of foul play, they were about to leave the cellar, which they had visited last, when Edwards, who was apparently under the influence of liquor or strong excitement, called their attention in abusive language to the construction of the walls, at the same time rapping heavily with a cane upon the bricks of the foundation of a chimney. His blows were answered by a sound from within the chimney. It seemed at first like the sobbing of a child and then swelled into an indescribable scream, howl, or shriek. The wall was broken down, revealing  the bloody corpse of Mrs. Edwards. It stood erect. On its head sat a black cat.

On being arraigned before Police Justice O’Toole, Edwards confessed his guilt and told the story of his life. He comes from an excellent family, is a graduate of the University of Utopia, and had a thriving business until, several years ago, he became addicted to drink. During the summer of 1913, in a drunken frenzy, he gouged out one eye of a cat named Pluto, who had formerly been one of his pets. More recently he had destroyed this animal by hanging it with a clothes line in his yard. Remorse for this cruel deed caused him about two months ago to domesticate another cat, which was exactly like the first except that, whereas the first was entirely black, the second had on its breast a white spot, shaped like a gallows.

This circumstance, the fact that the animal had only one eye, and his own nervous condition soon made Edwards loathe and fear the new cat. On the morning of November 17, he and Mrs. Edwards went to the cellar to inspect their supply of coal. The cat followed them down the steep stairs and nearly overthrew Edwards, who thereupon seized an axe and would have slain it, had not Mrs. Edwards interposed. In his fury at being thwarted, he buried the axe in her skull. As the cellar had been newly plastered, he had no difficulty in removing some bricks from the chimney, in concealing the remains in its interior, and in repairing the wall in such a way that it did not differ in appearance from the rest of the cellar.

Dr. Felix Leo, Professor of Zoölogy at Columbia, on having these facts told him this morning, said he thought it unlikely that Cat Number Two was the same individual as Cat Number One, though the story of Androcles and the lion, if true, would indicate that animals of the feline species sometimes remember and reciprocate a kindness. “Why, then,” said the doctor, solemnly closing one eye, “may we not suppose that a cat would have the will and the intelligence to revenge an injury?”

The theory of Edwards, who is now confined in a padded cell in the Tombs, is different. He maintains that the two cats are one and the same, and that the body of the beast is occupied by that ubiquitous spirit who is variously known as Satan, Hornie, Cloots, Mephistopheles, Pluto, and Old Nick.

 VI. Analysis of Model

This story is simply a translation into newspaper English of Edgar Allen Poe’s story entitled The Black Cat. Its three parts are as follows:

  1. Situation. A man is converted by drink into such a beast that he first tortures and kills a pet and afterwards in his frenzy murders his wife, concealing her body in a chimney.
  2. Climax. His crime is revealed by the wail of the cat, which he had supposed dead but had walled up with the corpse.
  3. Dénouement. He is to be executed.

    Poe puts the dénouement first, the situation second, and the climax last, which is a common and effective method in tales of horror and mystery. The newspaper method is to put the climax first, the dénouement second, and the situation last. This arrangement, which is as old as Homer’s Odyssey, is thus alluded to by Byron:

    “Most epic poets plunge in medias res,
     (Horace makes this the heroic turnpike road),
     And then your hero tells, whene’er you please,
     What went before—by way of episode.”

    For newspaper purposes this method is desirable because it makes a good lead. That is, the first paragraph, and if possible the first sentence, tells the biggest fact about the case. Readers’ attention being thus caught and economized, they get the habit of buying papers.

VII. Assignments

  1. Write headlines for the models in this chapter.
  2. Rewrite the Models in Section II on the plan of that in Section V.
  3. Rewrite on the same plan one of Poe’s other detective stories, one of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes tales, Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or The Wrecker, one of Cooper’s novels, or any other thrilling story.

 VIII. Cautions

  1. Be sure that you have your three situations in the right order.
  2. Be exceedingly particular about the Four W’s. Make them stand out vividly in each situation.
  3. Use the shortest words that will convey your meaning.
  4. Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly. How many does the model contain?

IX. Suggested Reading

Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island; Robert Browning’s Hervé Riel; Tennyson’s Revenge; Whittier’s Barbara Frietchie; Samuel Rogers’s Ginevra.

X. Memorize

 CHAPTER IX
BOOK REVIEWS

“A good book is the precious life blood of a master spirit.”

John Milton.

I. Assignments

  1. Write a review of a book of travels.
  2. Write a review of a biography.
  3. Write a review of a novel.

II. Models

I

Fraser, John Foster. The Amazing Argentine. Pp. 291, illustrated. New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company. $1.50 net.

This volume should go far to dissipate any idea that there is not much of any consequence south of the Rio Grande besides the Panama Canal. In the story of his journeyings over the length and breadth of this enormous country—twice the size of Mexico—Mr. Fraser paints us a picture of a progressive people, and a country that is rapidly assuming a position as the foremost producer of the world’s meat-supply. Stretching from the Atlantic to the Andes Mountains and from north of the Tropic of Capricorn to the Straits of Magellan, it supports 30,000,000 cattle, over 80,000,000 sheep, and 8,000,000 horses. The railroads, in which the British have invested £300,000,000, are among the best equipped in the world, and carry annually 40,000,000 tons of freight, with approximate receipts of £25,000,000. The export trade is advancing by leaps and bounds, and in 1912 the value of wool exports was £50,000,000, live-stock products £35,000,000, and agricultural produce £53,000,000; while the extent of the frozen-meat business may be gaged from the fact that £11,000,000 is invested in freezing-houses.  The book is a distinct help to Americans in showing them a little more of the great country that is opening up to their enterprise.—The Literary Digest, October 17, 1914.2

II

Le Sueur Gordon. Cecil Rhodes. 8vo, pp. 345. New York: McBride, Nast & Co. $3.50.

Cecil Rhodes must be looked upon as the Clive of South Africa. He found that country a land of wilderness and savagery. He transformed it into a fair and industrious province. He possessed the unscrupulous and relentless spirit of such conquerors as Julius Cæsar, and he was at the same time a financier of the widest resource. But some nefarious or alleged nefarious transactions which stained his name as a business man and a politician deprived him of royal recognition. He was not only denied a title, but even failed to obtain a decoration, and it was not until his death that a magnificent monument was unveiled to his memory in the heart of Rhodesia, a province which he had created and which was named after him.

Cecil John Rhodes (1853–1902) was born, like so many eminent Englishmen, in the house of a clergyman. Into the forty-nine years of his life he compressed a very stirring chapter of British victory. There was something of the buccaneer in his character when he prompted the notorious Jameson Raid and eventually brought the British Government into conflict with the cunning and ambition of Kruger—Oom Paul, as he was styled. For the bitter and bloody Boer War the blame has always been laid upon the shoulders of Rhodes.

Rhodes was an Oxford man and an omnivorous reader. He began by working in the diamond-mines at Kimberley as a common laborer; he ended by becoming manager of the Chartered Company, and amassing a vast fortune.—The Literary Digest, April, 1914.3

 III

Sense and Sensibility. A Novel. By Jane Austen. London: Egerton. 1811.

Though inferior to Pride and Prejudice, this work is about as well worth reading as any novel which, previous to its publication, had been written in the English language. Its interest depends, not on its descriptive and narrative power, but on character portrayal and humor.

Though both lovable girls, the two heroines, Elinor and Marianne, are as imperfect and as different as sisters are apt to be in real life. Vulgar match-making Mrs. Jennings, as Austin Dobson calls her, like many a flesh-and-blood dowager, at first repels us by her foolish prattle and finally wins our respect by her kindness. Sir John Middleton, with his horror of being alone; Lady Middleton, with her horror of impropriety; Miss Steele, who can always be made happy by being teased about the Doctor; Lucy Steele, pretty, clever, not over-fastidious in her principles, and abominably weak in her grammar; Robert Ferrars, whose airs are justly punished by his marriage to Lucy; Mrs. Ferrars, who contrives to be uniformly unamiable; Mrs. John Dashwood, fit daughter to such a mother; and Mr. John Dashwood, fit husband to such a wife—together form a gallery of portraits of which any author might be proud.

The book, too, is rich in humor. Among other delightful things we read of a will which, like almost every other will, gave as much disappointment as pleasure; of a child of three who possesses the usual charms of that age, an imperfect articulation, an earnest desire of having his own way, many cunning tricks, and a great deal of noise; of apricot marmalade applied successfully as a remedy for a bruised temple; of a company who met to eat, drink, and laugh together, to play at cards or consequences, or any other game that was sufficiently noisy; of a husband who is always making remarks which his wife considers so droll but cannot remember; of Constantia wine, which is equally good for colicky gout and broken hearts; of a face of strong natural sterling insignificance; of a girl who was pleased that a man had called and still more pleased that she had missed him; of a woman of few words, for, unlike people in general, she proportioned  them to the number of her ideas; of a newspaper item that interested nobody except those who knew its contents before; and of a man who was perfectly the gentleman in his behavior to guests and only occasionally rude to his wife and mother-in-law.

It is true that the two heroes are not very heroic, Edward Ferrars being only a curate and Col. Brandon a poor old man of 36 with a flannel waistcoat; but the latter is pretty thoroughly the gentleman and the former gives up a fortune of 30,000 pounds in order to marry a girl whom he does not love, thereby furnishing, if not an example of good sense, at least an agreeable contrast to Marianne’s lover, Willoughby, who marries a girl whom he does not love in order to get the money which he is too genteel to earn.

On the whole, it is a wonderful book to have been written by a girl of twenty-one.4

III. Notes, Queries, and Exercises

  1. Among the important functions of a newspaper is the task of announcing the appearance of new books, describing their contents, and commenting on their merits. The style of such notices should, above everything else, be clear. Most of them are unfortunately disfigured by a jargon which repels readers instead of inducing them to peruse the books reviewed.
  2. What information should the heading of a book notice furnish?
  3. Model I is an excellent example of what a review in a single paragraph should be. The first sentence bridges the intellectual and geographical space between the United States and Argentina, between the reader and the subject, which is just what an introduction should do. The second sentence describes the country in general terms, ending in a clause that leads directly to the most striking single fact about Argentina, its importance as an agricultural country. The three sentences that follow give concrete facts in support of this clause. The final sentence drives home the point stated in the first.
  4.  Discuss the meaning and etymology of “dissipate,” “Rio Grande,” “annually,” “approximate,” “exports,” “enterprise.”
  5. Point out one restrictive and one non-restrictive clause.
  6. Describe orally the location and character of the Rio Grande, Mexico, the Panama Canal, the Atlantic, the Andes, the Tropic of Capricorn, the British, and the Straits of Magellan.
  7. What figure of speech have we in the phrase, “the Amazing Argentine?”
  8. In Model II we have an illustration of a biographical review in three paragraphs. It presents a vivid picture of Cecil Rhodes in spite of the fact that it is not well organized. Try the experiment of rewriting it according to this plan: Par. I—Introduction, or Bridge; Par. II—Rhodes’s Services to Mankind; Par. III—Rhodes’s Faults; Par. IV—Rhodes’s Private Life.
  9. Find in the model an example of alliteration and an example of antithesis.
  10. Explain the allusions in “Clive,” “Julius Cæsar,” “buccaneer,” “Jameson Raid,” “Kruger,” “Boer War,” and “Oxford.”
  11. Define “financier,” “nefarious,” “politician,” “notorious,” “ambition,” and “omnivorous.” From what language do these words come?
  12. Analyze Model III as I and II have already been analyzed for you.
  13. Find in III an antithesis and an alliteration.
  14. Which of the books do you wish most to read? Why?
  15. Do these models observe the law of presenting concrete rather than abstract statements?
  16. Make a list of the books you have read, putting in one column the books of travel, into another the biographies, and into a third the novels.
  17. Choose one of these as the subject of a review which you are to write.

IV. Oral Composition

In preparing for this observe the following points:

  1. Remember that your main purpose is to persuade others to read the book.
  2.  In your first paragraph make a bridge from the minds of your audience to the book.
  3. In the body of your review describe concretely the one most interesting feature of the work.
  4. In your last paragraph restate the idea of the first but do it in some other form.

V. Written Composition

Concentrate your attention on perfection of sentence structure.

VI. Suggested Time Schedule

Week I Week II
Monday —Dictation Oral Composition.
Tuesday —Dictation. Oral Composition.
Wednesday —Notes, Queries, Exercises. Written Composition.
Thursday —Notes, Queries, Exercises. Revision.
Friday —Speaking. Program.

VII. Suggested Reading

  1. Macaulay’s Frederic the Great, Clive, and Hastings.
  2. Mark Twain’s Roughing It.
  3. Scott’s Ivanhoe.

VIII. Memorize

 CHAPTER X
REPORTING GAMES

“It is not strength but art obtains the prize,
 And to be swift is less than to be wise.”

Iliad.

I. Assignment

If it is fall, report a football game; if winter, a basket-ball game; if spring or summer, a baseball game.

II. Material

In order to be able to report a football game, one must understand the rules of the game, be familiar with the personnel and history of the opposing teams, and know the names of the officials. The task therefore resolves itself into three parts:

  1. Learning the rules of the game.
  2. Studying the teams and officials.
  3. Attending the game and taking notes.

Those members of the class who are familiar with the rules may be assigned the task of explaining them to the others; this is an excellent exercise in oral composition. It should include: (1) A short history of football; (2) A description of the field; (3) a description of the equipment of a team; (4) an account of the organization of a team; (5) a description of the way a game is played; (6) an explanation of the rules. Spalding’s Football Guide contains all of the information necessary, though it may be supplemented by encyclopædias. It is suggested that this exercise be organized for presentation as a program.

 The study of the opposing teams may be managed in the same way. It should include: (1) Their past history; (2) their personnel; (3) some account of the officials and their qualifications.

Quick and accurate observation of what happens during a game is essential. A good scheme for recording everything as it occurs is to make a chart of the field in a notebook, and, as the game progresses, to mark on it the progress of the ball, using a blue pencil when it is in the possession of one side and a red pencil when the other has it. On this chart brief notes of the methods by which the ball is advanced may also be made.

III. Composition

Football reports vary in length from a bare statement of the result of a game to many columns, the determining factor in this particular being the amount of public interest. The style is sometimes rendered picturesque by a skillful use of metaphor, antithesis, and slang, but more often is severely plain. The latter method is the only safe one for beginners. Except in the hands of a genius, the former is sure to result in silly vulgarity. The models which follow are of convenient length and in style are admirable, being clear, correct, and free from vulgarity.

IV. Models

I
MICHIGAN, 15; M.A.C., 3

Michigan defeated the Michigan Agricultural College at Lansing on Saturday, Oct. 14, in a game which marked the first defeat of the Aggies on their home field. The Wolverines went into the late minutes of the third quarter without  a score and with 3 points against them, and, by the kind of football that has made Yost teams famous, played the “farmers” to a standstill. Michigan was returned a winner by a score of 15 to 3. The game brought out Jimmie Craig in the new rôle of halfback and assured him a permanent berth behind the line. Six hundred Michigan rooters attended the game.

The summary:

Michigan, 15 Position M.A.C., 3
Garrels L.E. { Stone (Capt.)
Davis
Conklin (Capt.) L.T. { Bekeman
Day
Bogle L.G. McLaughty
Paterson C. McWilliams
Allmendinger } R.G. { Culver
Quinn Martin
Pontius R.T. Gifford
Wells R.E. Gorenflo
Craig } Q. Riblet
McMillan
Torbet } L.H. Hill
Herrington
Craig
Carpell R.H. Markem
Thomson F.B. { Bullard
Julian

Officials—Referee, Hackett, West Point; Umpire, Eckersall, Chicago; Field Judge, Allen, Northwestern; Head Linesman, Yeckley, Penn. State. Time of Periods—10 minutes.

II
MICHIGAN, 19; OHIO STATE, 0

Michigan’s defeat of O.S.U. on Ferry Field Saturday, October 21, was due largely to the superior endurance of the Wolverine team. State outplayed Michigan in the first quarter of the game, but Michigan soon settled to the task and rolled up 19 points against no score for the visitors. Foss, the Ohio quarterback, was the individual star of the game.

 The summary:

Michigan, 19 Position O.S.U., 0
Conklin (Capt.) L.E. { Trautman
McCoy
Bogle } L.T. Barriklow
Roblee
Bogle } L.G. Raymond
Quinn
Paterson C. Geib
Allmendinger } R.G. Geisman
Garrels
Pontius R.T. Markley (Capt.)
Wells R.E. { Pavey
Stover
McMillan } Q. Foss
Pickard
Craig L.H. Smith, L.J.
Carpell } R.H. Cox
Huebel
Thomson F.B. { Wright
Willaman

Officials—Referee, Thompson, Georgetown; Umpire, Hoagland, Princeton; Field Judge, Lieut. Nelly, West Point; Head Linesman, Macklin, Penn. Time of periods—15 minutes.

III
MICHIGAN, 9; VANDERBILT, 8

Michigan was played to a standstill in the game with McGugin’s Vanderbilt eleven on Ferry Field Saturday, Oct. 28, and it was by the closest of margins that the Wolverines won out by a 9 to 8 score. A field goal was scored by each team and each team made a touchdown, but Michigan was more fortunate than her southern rivals in that McMillan made a perfect punt-out and Conklin kicked goal, while Captain Roy Morrison of Vanderbilt fell down on the same play and lost his team the chance to try for a goal from touchdown when he overkicked on the punt-out. Yost was far from satisfied by the showing of the Michigan team.

  The summary:

Michigan, 9 Position Vanderbilt, 8
Conklin (Capt.) L.E. K. Morrison
Bogle L.T. { Freeland
Covington
Quinn L.G. Metzger
Paterson C. Morgan
Garrels R.G. C. Brown
Pontius R.T. T. Brown
Wells R.E. E. Brown
McMillan Q. R. Morrison (Capt.)
Craig L.H. Hardage
Carpel R.H. { Collins
Curlin
Thomson F.B. Sikes

Officials—Referee, Bradley Walker, Virginia; Umpire, Eckersall, Chicago; Field Judge, Lieut. Nelly, West Point; Head Linesman, Heston, Michigan.

G. E. Elderidge.
Michigan Alumnus, November, 1911.

V. Queries and Topics for Oral Composition

  1. What knowledge is necessary in order to report a football game?
  2. How old is the game of football?
  3. Wherein do Rugby, soccer, Canadian, and American football differ?
  4. Describe the field on which American football is played.
  5. Describe the shoes, costumes, headgear, and ball used in the game.
  6. What is a stadium?
  7. Describe the functions of each player on a team.
  8. Explain the following terms: “kickoff,” “tackling,” “end run,” “line buck,” “interference,” “blocking,” “holding,” “off side,” “punt,” “drop kick,” “forward pass,” “fair catch,” “downs,” “scrimmage,” “touchdown,” “touchback,” “safety,” “goal from touchdown,” and “goal from field.”
  9. How many yards must a team carry the ball in four downs in order to keep it?
  10. How much does a touchdown count? A safety? A field goal? A goal from touchdown?
  11.  How would you go to work to find out the past history of a team and the character of its personnel?
  12. What method of taking notes is recommended?
  13. How long should the report of a game be?
  14. In what style should it be written?
  15. How many words does each model contain?
  16. Observe how the writer seizes on the one or two salient points of each game, omitting what is unessential. This requires judgment and the effort to do it is a good training in judgment.
  17. Tell whether each sentence is simple, complex, or compound.
  18. Explain why each mark of punctuation is used.
  19. Find a metaphor in the models.

VI. Exercise

Write a report of Saturday’s game.

VII. Suggested Time Schedule

Week I Week II
Monday— (a) Review past errors.
(b) Assign work on Sections II
and III of this chapter.		 Queries.
Tuesday— Program on Section II. Queries.
Wednesday— Program on Section III. Oral Composition
Thursday— Dictation of Models. Written Composition and Reviews.
Friday— Dictation of Models. Public Speaking.

VIII. Suggested Reading

Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown at Rugby; Homer’s Iliad, Book XXIII; Virgil’s Æneid, Book V.

IX. Model II.

New York, October 9, 1913.—Cornelius McGillicuddy’s Murder Association, incorporated, convened at the Polo grounds this afternoon, transacted routine business, and adjourned.

On motion of Brother Edward Collins, supported by  Brother J. Franklin Baker, and carried by acclamation, it was voted to resume the task of tearing the hide off the Giants. Messrs. Collins and Baker were appointed a special committee of two to carry out the work and seven others were assigned to assist them.

After the meeting refreshments consisting of singles, doubles, triples, and home runs were served; and a good time was had by all, excepting John J. McGraw and his employes and friends numbering upward of 25,000. The latter class was unanimous in declaring the Mackmen a bunch of vulgar, common persons who play professional baseball for a living and thus are not entitled to associate with amateurs, such as some of the New York players.

To get to the point of things, Philadelphia had what some of the fans called “one of them afternoons.” There is no use trying to describe all the details of this so-called contest, for it is demoralizing to the young to see such things in print. Many criminals have confessed on the scaffold that they got their start watching the Athletics assault some honest young pitcher who was trying to support his aged mother. They say that, if the Macks can get away with their rough work, anything ought to go.

Eight to two was the score to-day, if anybody cares. We can’t just figure out where New York got the two, but it was there on the score board and must have happened. Also there is a well-grounded belief that McGraw has subsidized the scoreboard boy so that he cheats the visitors somewhat. But, anyhow, it is reasonably certain that the Mackmen had plenty, while New York was several shy of the total that would have cheered the heart of Gotham, if indeed Gotham has a heart.

Connie Mack and John J. McGraw each had to do some guessing to-day in the matter of picking a pitcher. Lean Connie picked up the right answer and Fat John did not. There’s the whole story. The Philadelphia boss shook up the names of his young pitchers in a hat, shut his eyes, and drew out the name of Joe Bush. McGraw, by and with the consent and advice of his entire club, picked Jeff Tesreau. At least it was popularly believed, during and before the game started, that John had given his mound corps a careful slant and chosen Jeff as the best bet. Afterward some of the  experts believed that the New York manager, by way of showing a delicate bit of courtesy to a guest, had accorded Connie the privilege of naming New York’s gunner. Certainly Tesreau was the best player Philadelphia had and the Athletics were seriously crippled when he retired in the seventh, just after Baker had knocked Doyle’s right leg out into the field.

About all that Tesreau had was a fine physique and a mouthful of slippery elm. Almost before the umpires and managers had ceased to chat over the rules, the Macks had lumped three hits, and with a wild heave by Artie Fletcher had scored three runs, which was one more than the Giants got all day. In the next inning some more hammering gave another pair of markers. Then Tesreau settled down and went along fairly well until the seventh. The Athletics had another rush of hits to the outfield in this inning and Otis Crandall came in to finish up the contest, or scandal, whichever you choose to term it. By this time Connie’s men were getting hungry for supper, so they made only one tally off Crandall, this coming when Wallie Schang bakered one into the right field stand.

Of course, under such conditions, Joe Bush didn’t have a real test. Connie Mack himself, or his crippled batboy, could have pitched the game and won it from the second inning on. Joe just kept slamming them over and, though he had a couple of wild spells that gave the Giants a chance to figure in the game, he always was able to pull himself together before there was any real danger.

Nobody here had heard much about this Joe Bush previous to to-day. Even the experts, who see all things that are and a lot that aren’t, didn’t have the dope on him. They had heard of Donie Bush and Anheuser Busch and Bush leaguers, but Joseph was a new one. For the information and guidance of those who may be interested, we furnish the data that he came From the Missoula Club of the Union—or is it Onion—Association last fall, and is a right hander.

Bush has the reputation of being almost as speedy as Walter Johnson on his good days and this was one of them. In the early stages of the game he depended almost entirely on his fast ball but later began to unbelt a few curves which had the right sort of a fold to them. Although in a hole with  many batters, he passed only four and hit one. Great fielding helped him at times, the Macks pulling off a double play in each of three innings in which New York appeared to have something started.

Any child wonder who can come all the way from Missoula to Broadway in one year and win a world’s series game is of course entitled to much credit, but this boy certainly fell into a particularly soft spot. With the Macks’ billion dollar infield killing base hits for him and the attack getting him eight runs, he would have had a hard time slipping the game to McGraw if he had sold out before hostilities started. Bush permitted the Giants, who were commonly reported to be moaning for the gore of Mack’s youngsters, just five hits. Two of these were bunched in one inning and resulted in one of the runs. The others straggled through.5

The Score
PHILADELPHIA AB   R   H TB BB SH SB PO   A   E
E. Murphy, r.f. 5 1 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 0
Oldring, l.f. 5 3 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 0
Collins, 2b. 5 2 3 5 0 0 1 5 4 0
Baker, 3b. 4 1 2 2 0 0 1 3 1 0
McInnis, 1b. 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 0
Strunk, c.f. 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Barry, s.s. 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 3 0
Schang, c. 4 1 1 4 0 0 0 5 2 1
Bush, p. 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
Total 39 8 12 17 0 0 3 27 11 1
NEW YORK AB   R   H TB BB SH SB PO   A   E
Herzog, 3b. 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Doyle, 2b. 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 5 1 0
Fletcher, s.s. 2 0 1 1 1 0 1 2 2 1
Burns, l.f. 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0
Shafer, c.f. 3 1 1 2 1 0 0 2 0 0
Murray, r.f. 3 1 1 1 1 0 1 4 0 0
McLean, c. 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 3 1 0
Wilson, c. 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
Merkle, 1b. 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 0 0
Wiltse, 1b. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
Tesreau, p. 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Crandall, p. 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
*Cooper 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
Total 29 2 5 6 4 0 3 27 6 1
Philadelphia 3 2 0 0 0 0 2 1 0—8
New York 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0—2

* Ran for McLean in fifth.

Two-base hit—Shafer. Three-base hit—Collins. Home run—Schang. Struck out—by Tesreau, 3; by Crandall, 1; by Bush, 3. Double plays—Collins-Barry; Bush-Barry-McInnis; Doyle (unassisted); Schang-Collins. Time—2:11. Umpires—Rigler at plate, Connolly on bases, Klem and Egan in field.

 X. Exercises

  1. In this report we have a good example of baseball reporting as a literary art. The writer, Mr. E. A. Batchelor, of the Detroit Free Press, uses metaphor and antithesis with effect. The framework, as is usual in good comic writing, is excellent. Observe it:
    1. Four W’s—Par. 1.
    2. Business Meeting—Par. 2.
    3. Refreshments—Pars. 3–12, inclusive.
      • What New York suffered—Par. 3.
      • What Philadelphia did—Par. 4.
      • The Score—Par. 5.
      • The Pitchers—Pars. 6–10.
        • Their Choice—Par. 6.
        • What New York’s didn’t do—Pars. 7–8.
        • Joe Bush—Pars. 9–12.
  2. Use of Metaphor. (a) Analyze the metaphor in “Murder Association.” (b) Point out the words in the first three paragraphs that serve to sustain and amplify the comparison. (c) Explain the metaphors that lurk in “rush of hits to the outfield,” “bakered,” “unbelt,” “in a hole,” “straggled through.”
  3. Antithesis. In Par. 3 the first sentence contains a fine contrast, “A good time was had by all, excepting,” etc., “all” including fewer persons than there are in the group excepted. It is an old but good trick. In the same paragraph note also the contrast between professionals and amateurs. The rest of the story contains at least a half-dozen antitheses in addition to those already mentioned. Find them.
  4. Topics for short expository speeches: Cornelius McGillicuddy; J. Franklin Baker; the Giants; John J. McGraw; The Spelling of the Word “Athletics”; How Baseball is Played; Gotham; Joe Bush; Jeff Tesreau; Doyle; A Mouthful of Slippery Elm; Otis Crandall; Wallie Schang; Donie Bush; Missoula; Curves; Broadway; The Macks’ Billion Dollar Infield.
  5. Translate: “The fans”; “one of them afternoons”; “if the Macks can get away with their rough work, anything ought to go”; “shy”; “a careful slant”; “his best bet”; “slamming them over”; “pulling off a double play”;  “something started”; “slipping the game to McGraw.”
  6. Subject for Debate: Resolved—that the use of slang should be avoided.
  7. Make a study of the art of reporting baseball games, following the hints for football already given, and report a school game. The boys in the class can be relied upon to furnish all of the technical information that will be needed.