The ticker stabs off a line of dots and begins:
"BOWIE.FIRST.RACE..MEASLES. FIRST..13.60..AND..
6.00.WHORTLEBERRY.SCND.PLACE.3.80..EMMA GOLDMAN,
THIRD..TIME.1.09.4.5.NON.START.PROCRASTINATION.
UNCLE TOM'S CABIN"
A few choice remarks are passed in the privacy of the little circle,
to just the effect that you would suspect.
A newcomer elbows his way in and says: "What's the good word? Any
score yet?" and some one replies: "Yes. The score now stands 206 to 0
in favor of Notre Dame." This grim pleasantry is expressive of the
sentiment of the group toward newcomers. It is each man for himself
now.
Br-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!
"Here she comes, now!" whispers the man who is hanging over the glass
news terminal, reading aloud: "Yale-Princeton-Game-Second Quarter
(Good-night, what became of that forward pass in the first quarter?)
Yale's-ball-in-mid-field-Hornung-takes-ball-around-left-end-making-it¯
first-down-Tinfoil-drops-back-for-a-try-at-a-field-goal.
(Oh, boy! Come on, now!)"
"Why the deuce do they try a field goal on the first down?" asks a
querulous graduate-strategist. "Now, what he ought to do is to keep
a-plugging there at tackle, where he has been going--"
Br-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!
"Bet he missed it!" offers some one with vague gambling instincts.
"..INS.NEEDLES..1-1/4..ZINC..CON..4-1/2..WASHN..
THE CENSUS.OFFICE.ESTIMATES.THE CONSUMPTION.OF
COTTON.WASTE.IN.THE.MFGR.OF.AUTOMBLE.HOODS.AS.
66.991.059 LBS..INCLUDING.LINTERS.AND.HULL FIBER.."
And just then some one comes in from the outside, all fresh and
disagreeably cheery, and wants to know what the score is and if there
have been many forward passes tried and who is playing quarter for
Yale, and if any one has got a cigarette.
It is really just the same sort of program as obtains in the big
college club, only on a small scale. They are all watching the same
game and they are all wishing the same thing and before their
respective minds' eyes is the picture of the same stadium, with the
swarm of queen bees and drones clinging to its sides. And every time
that you, who are one of the cold and lucky ones with a real ticket,
see a back break loose for a long run and hear the explosion of hoarse
shouts that follows, you may count sixty and then listen to hear the
echo from every big city in the country where the old boys have just
got the news.