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AMERICA'S NATIONAL GAME

be equal to the emergency; men of strong physical and mental fibre, and of temperament just suited to the work. August Herrmann, Chairman of the National Commission—the Supreme Court of Base Ball—is such a man. With a jovial, Teutonic temperament, nothing seems to disturb his equanimity. B. B. Johnson, President of the American League is another of quality suited to the place he holds. He is not likely to wear out. Thomas J. Lynch, the new President of the National League, is a man of strong parts who will probably endure. John T. Brush, President of the New York National Club, is one of those thin, wiry men of steel whom nothing seems to wear out, and Mr. A. H. Soden, of the Boston Nationals, is strong; but such men are exceptional. Very few magnates continue as these men have, year after year, under the relentless strain of Base Ball management.

And so, concluding this plea for the Base Ball magnate, I ask, simply in the interests of fair play, that when one feels inclined to bear down too hard on the man behind the club some consideration be given to facts herein set forth; for, like that of Mr. Gilbert's policeman, the lot of a Base Ball magnate is not always "a happy one."