Page:Base-ball ballads (IA baseballballads00rice).pdf/98

 

THE SLIDE OF PAUL REVERE.

Listen, fanatics, and you shall hear
Of the midnight slide of Paul Revere;
 How he scored from first on an outfield drive
 By a dashing sprint and a headlong dive—
'Twas the greatest play pulled off that year.

Now the home of poets and potted beans,
Of Emersonian ways and means
In baseball epic has oft been sung
Since the days of Criger and old Cy Young;
But not even fleet, deer footed Bay
Could have pulled off any such fancy play
As the slide of P. Revere, which won
The famous battle of Lexington.

The Yanks and the British were booked that trip
In a scrap for the New World championship;
But the British landed a bit too late,
So the game didn't open till half past eight,
And Paul Revere was dreaming away
When the umpire issued his call for play.

On, on they fought, 'neath the Boston moon,
As the British figured, "Not yet, but soon;"
For the odds were against the Yanks that night,
With Paul Revere blocked away from the fight
And the grandstand gathering groaned in woe,
While a said wail bubbled from Rooters' Row.

But wait! Hist! Hearken! and likewise hark!
What means that galloping near the park?

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