on a bright afternoon of last summer i suffered all the thrills described in the sestet of keats's sonnet, "on first looking into chapman's homer." i discovered a new art-form. i felt like that watcher of the skies. i stood upon a peak in darien. but i was not silent, for what i had discovered was the game of baseball, and—incidentally—the soul of america.
that match between the american army and navy teams was my first glimpse of a pastime that has captivated a continent. i can well understand its appeal to the modern temperament; for it is more than a game: it is a sequence of studied, grotesque poses through which the players express all the zest of the new world. you should see williams at the top of his pitch. you should see the sweep of mimms' shoulders at the finish of a wild strike. you should see fuller preparing to catch. what profusion of vorticist rhythms! with what ease and finish they were executed! i know of no keener pleasure than[pg 177] that of watching a man do something that he fully knows how to do—whether it be caruso singing, maskelyne juggling, balfour making an impromptu speech, a doctor tending a patient, brangwyn etching, an engineer at his engines, pachmann at the piano, inman at the billiard-table, a captain bringing his ship alongside, roadmen driving in a staple, or swanneck rube pitching. oh, pretty to watch, sir, pretty to watch! no hesitation here; no feeling his way towards a method; no fortuitous hair's-breadth triumph over the nice difficulty; but cold facility and swift, clear answers to the multiple demands of the situation. oh, attaboy, rube!
i was received in the army's dressing-room by mimms, their captain, who said he was mighty glad to know me, and would put me wise to anything in the game that had me beat. the whole thing had me beat. i was down and out before the umpire had cried his first "play ball!" which he delivered as one syllable: "pl'barl!" the players in their hybrid costumes—a mixture of the jockey and the fencer—the catcher in his gas mask and stomach protector and gigantic mitt, and the wild grace of the artists as they "warmed up," threw me into ecstasy, and the[pg 178] new thrill that i had sought so long surged over my jaded spirit.
then the game began, and the rooting began. in past years i attended various test matches and a few football matches in northern mining districts, when the players came in for a certain amount of barracking; but these affairs were church services compared with the furious abuse and hazing handed to any unfortunate who made an error. such screams and eldritch noises i never thought to hear from the human voice. no englishman could achieve them: his vocal cords are not made that way. there was, for example, an explosive, reverberating "ah-h-h-h-h-h!" which i now practise in my backgarden in order to scare the sparrows from my early peas. but my attempts are no more like the real thing than australian burgundy is like wine. i can achieve the noise, but some subtle quality is ever lacking.
the whole scene was barbaric pandemonium: the grandstand bristling with megaphones and tossing arms and dancing hats and demoniac faces offered a superb subject for an artist of the nevinson or nash school. a chinese theatre is but a faint reflection of a ball game. i had never imagined that this hard, shell-covered, business[pg 179] people could break into such a debauch of frenzy. you should have heard the sedate admiral sims, when the navy made a homer, with his: "attaboy! oh, attaway to play ball! zaaaa. zaaa. zaaa!" and when his men made a wild throw he sure handed them theirs.
here are a few of the phrases hurled at offending players:—
"aw, well, well, well, well, well!"
"ah, you pikers, where was you raised?"
"hey, pitcher, is this the ball game or a corner-lot game?"
"say, bo, you can play ball—maybe."
"hey, catcher, quit the diamond, and lemme li'l brudder teach yeh."
"say, who's that at bat? what's the good of sending in a dead man?"
"aw, dear, dear, dear! gimme some barb' wire. i wanter knit a sweater for the barnacle on second."
"oh, watch this, watch this! he's a bad actor. kill the bad actor!"
"more ivory—more ivory! oh, boy, i love every bone in yer head."
"get a step-ladder to it. take orf that pitcher. he's pitching over a plate in heaven."
[pg 180]
"aw, you quitter. oh. oh. oh. bonehead, bonehead, bonehead. ahhhh."
"now show 'em where you live, boy. let's have something with a bit of class to it."
"give him the axe, the axe, the axe."
"what's the matter with the man on third? 'tisn't bed-time yet."
an everlasting chorus, with reference to the scoring-board, chanted like an anthem:—
"go-ing up! go-ing up! go-ing up!"
at the end of the game—the navy's game all the way—the fury and abandon increased, though, during the game, it had not seemed possible that it could. but it did. and when, limp and worn, i shuffled out to walham green, and mimms asked me whether the game had got me, i could only reply, with a diminuendo:—
"well, well, well, well, well!"
i shall never again be able to watch with interest a cricket or football match; it would be like a tortoise-race after the ball game. such speed and fury, such physical and mental zest, i had never before seen brought to the playing of a simple game. it might have been a life-or-death struggle, and the balls might have been[pg 181] mills bombs, and the bats rifles. if the americans at play give any idea of their qualities at battle, then heaven help the fresh guys who are up against them.
when the boys had dressed i joined up with a party of them, and we adjourned to the clarendon; where one of us, a chicago journalist, not trusting the delicacy of the bartender's hand, obtained permission to sling his own; and a bronx was passed to each of us for necessary action. this made a fitting kick to the ball game, for a bronx is concentrated essence of baseball; full of quips and tricks and sharp twists of flavour; inducing that gr-r-rand and ger-l-lorious feelin'. it took only two of these to make the journalist break into song, and he gave us some excellent numbers of american marching-songs. he started with the american "tipperary," sung to an air of sullivan's:—
hail, hail, the gang's all here!
what th'ell do we care?
what th'ell do we care?
hail, hail, the gang's all here,
so what th'ell do we care now?
then "happy-land":—
i wish i was in happy-land,
where rivers of beer abound;
[pg 182]with sloe-gin rickies hanging on the trees
and high-balls rolling on the ground.
what?
high-balls rolling on the ground?
sure!
high-balls rolling on the ground.
then the anthem of the "dry" states:—
nobody knows how dry i am,
how dry i am,
how dry i am,
you don't know how dry i am,
how dry i am,
how dry i am.
nobody knows how dry i am,
and nobody cares a damn.
after this service of song, brief, bright and brotherly, we moved slowly eastward, and in kensington gardens i learned something about college yells. for suddenly, without warning, one of the party bent forward, with arms outstretched, and yelled the following at a pensive sheep:—
"alle ge reu, ge reu, ge reu. war-who-bar-za. hi ix, hi ip; hi capica, doma nica. hong pong. lita pica. halleka, balakah, ba."
at first i conjectured that the bronx was running its course, but when he had spoken his piece the rest of the gang let themselves go, and i then[pg 183] understood that we were having a round of college yells. respectable strangers might have mistaken the performance for the war march of the priests, or the entry of the gladiators, or the battle-song of the hairy ainus; for such monstrous perversions of sense and sound surely have never before disturbed the serenity of the gardens.
i understand that the essential of a good college yell is that it be utterly meaningless, barbaric and larynx-racking. it should seem to be the work of some philologist who had suddenly gone mad under the strain of his studies and had attempted to converse with an aborigine. i think augustana's yell pretty well fills that condition:—
"rocky-eye, rocky-eye. zip, zum, zie. shingerata, shingerata, bim, bum, bie. zip-zum, zip-zum, rah, rah, rah. karaborra, karaborra, augus-tana."
at the conclusion of this choral service we caught a bus to piccadilly circus and i left them at the tube entrance singing "bob up serenely," and went home to dream of the ball game and of millions of fans screaming abstruse advice into my deaf ear.
oh, attaboy!
* * * * *
[pg 184]
since that merry meeting i have had many opportunities of getting next to the american army and navy, and hearing their views of us and british views of them, and the experience has done me a lot of good. until then, the only americans i had met were the leisured, over-moneyed tourists, mostly disagreeable, and, as i have found since, by no means representative of their country. you know them. they came to england in the autumn, and stayed at opulent hotels, and made a lot of noise around ancient shrines, and sent local prices sky-rocketing wherever they stayed, and threw their weight and fifty-dollar tips about, and "say'd" and "my'd" and "gee'd" up and down the strand; that kind of american. these people did their country a lot of harm, because i and thousands of other people received them as americans and disliked them; just as wealthy trippers to and from other countries leave bad impressions of their people. i made up my mind on america from my meetings with these parvenus. i had forgotten that the best and typical people of a country are the hard-working, stay-at-home people, whose labours just enable them to feed and clothe their children and provide nothing for gadding about to other[pg 185] countries. to-day, the solid middle-class people of england and america are meeting and mixing, and all political history is washed out by the waters of social intercourse between them. high officials and diplomats are for ever telling one another over official luncheon tables that the friendship of this and that nation is sealed, but such remarks are valueless until the common people of either country have met and made their own decision; and the cost of living does not permit such meetings. thus we have wars and unholy alliances. if only the common people of all countries could meet and exchange views in a common language, without the prejudice inspired by press and politician, international amity would be for ever established, as anglo-american amity is now established by the free-and-easy meeting of hard-working, middle-class americans and the same social type of englishman.
after meeting hundreds of americans of a class and position similar to my own, i have changed all my views of america. we have everything in common and nothing to differ about. i don't care a damn on whose side was right or wrong in 1773. i have taken the boys round london. i have played their games. i have[pg 186] eaten their food. i have talked their slang and taught them mine. they have eaten my food, and we have sported joyfully together, and discussed music and books and theatres, and amiably amused ourselves at the expense of each other's social institutions and ceremonies. as they are guests in england, i have played host, and, among other entertainment that i have offered, i have been able to give them what they most needed; namely, evenings and odd hours in real middle-class english homes, where they could see an englishwoman pour out tea and see an english baby put to bed. i found that they were sick of the solemn "functions" arranged for their entertainment. they didn't want high-brow receptions or musical entertainments in mayfair. they preferred the spontaneous entertainment arising from a casual encounter in the street, as by asking the way to this or that place, leading to an invitation to a suburban home and a suburban meal. from such a visit they get an insight into our ways, our ideals, our outlook on life, better than they ever could from a pall mall club or a government official's drawing-room. they get the real thing, which is something to write home about. in the "arranged" affairs they are[pg 187] "guests"; in the others, they are treated with the rude, haphazard fellowship which we extend to friends.
in these troubled days there is little room for the exercise of the graces of life. our ears are deaf to the gentle voice of urbanity. the delicacies of intercourse have been trodden underfoot, and lie withered and broken. even the quality of mercy has been standardized and put into uniform. throughout the world to-day, everything is organized, and to organize a beautiful movement or emotion is to brutalize it: while lubricating its mechanism you ossify its soul. thank god, there is still left a little spontaneity. human impulse may be bruised and broken, but it is a fiery thing, and hard to train to harness or to destroy; and i can assure you that the americans are grateful for it wherever it finds expression.
one evening, just before curfew—it was night according to the government, but the sky said quite clearly that it was evening—i was standing at my favourite coffee-stall near king's cross, eating hard-boiled eggs and drinking introspective coffee, and chatting with the boss on the joy of life.
[pg 188]
"met any of the americans?" i asked, anxious to get his opinion of them.
"met any? crowds of 'em."
"what do you think of 'em?"
"oh, i dunno. bit of a change after all these other foreigners. 'strewth—d'yeh know, when a cockney like yesself comes along to the stall i feel like dropping down dead—'strewth, i do. never get none o' the usual 'appy crowd along now," he went on, mopping the sloppy counter.
"but how do the americans strike you?"
"the americans? well...." he folded his arms, which with him is the flourish preliminary to an oration. here is his opinion, which i think sums up the american character pretty aptly:—
"the americans. well, nice, likeable fellers i've alwis found 'em. don't 'alf make for my stall when they come out o' the station. like it better, they say, than lady dardy dinkum's canteen inside. and eat.... fair clear me out every time they come. i get on with 'em top-'ole. there's something about 'em—i dunno what, some kind o' kiddishness—but not that exac'ly—a sort of——"
[pg 189]
"fresh delight in simple things," i suggested, drawing on my pelmanized bartlett.
"that's jest it. mad about london, y'know. why, i bin in london yers an' yers, and it don't worry me. wants to know which is the oldest building in london, and where that bloke put 'is cloak in the mud for some queen, an' where cromwell was executed, and 'ow many generals is buried in westminster abbey. 'ow should i know anything about westminster abbey? i live in camden town. i got me business t'attend to.
"there's a friend of mine, mr. 'ankin, the gentleman what takes the tickets at baker street—'e met two of 'em t'other day. navy boys—from the country, i should think. d'you know, they spent the 'ole mornin' ridin' up and down the movin' staircase—yerce, and would 'ave spent the afternoon, too, on'y one of 'em tried to run up the staircase what was comin' down an'.... well, i dessay it was good practice for 'em, but, as mr. 'ankin told 'em, it's safer to monkey with a u-boat than with a movin' staircase. and anyway, 'e'll be out of hospital before 'is ship's moved.
[pg 190]
"yerce, i like the americans—what i've seen of 'em. no swank about 'em, y'know—officers an' men, just alike, all pals together. confidence. that's what they got. talks to yeh matey-like—know what i mean—man to man kind o' thing. funny the way they looks at england, though. i s'pose they seen it on the map and it looked smallish. one feller come round the stall t'other night, an' 'e'd got two days' leave an' thought 'e could do stratford-on-avon, salisbury cathedral, chester, brighton, edinburgh castle, an' the spot o' blood where that american gel, marry queener scots, murdered 'er boy—all in two days. 'ustle, i believe they calls it over there. so i told 'im to start 'ustlin' right away, else, when 'e got back, 'e'd find 'imself waiting on the carpet, waiting for the good old c.b. likeable boys, though. 'ere's to 'em. no, i'll 'ave a ginger-ale. i don't drink me own coffee—not when i'm drinkin' anyone's 'ealth, like. well, attaboy, as they say over there."