WATCHING THE PROCESSION » OF 
public streets, what a stir they would excite! For 
a day or two the newspapers would be full of 
the sensation, and possibly the baseball reporters 
would be compelled for once to shorten their ac- 
counts of Battum’s “‘ wonderful left-hand catch” 
and Ketchum’s “ phenomenal slide to the second 
base.” It is just as well, I dare say, that nothing 
of this kind should ever happen, for it is hard to 
see how the great reading public could bear even 
the temporary loss of such interesting and instruc: 
tive narratives. 
Meantime, though the greater part of the peo- 
ple pay no heed to these “birds of passage,” 
some of us are never tired of watching them. I 
myself used to be fond of gazing at military and 
political parades. In my time I have seen a good 
many real soldiers and a good many make-believes. 
But as age comes on, I find myself, rightly or 
wrongly, caring less and less for such spectacles. 
It will never be so, I think, with the procession 
of which I am now writing. I have never watched 
it with more enthusiasm than this very year. It 
is only just over, but I am already beginning 
to count upon its autumnal return, and by the 
middle of August shall be looking every day for 
its advance couriers. 
Till then I shall please myself with observing 
the ways of such of the host as have happened 
