301 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



shares into ball clubs, and the loafers that can play ball 

 best carry off the honors. It seems to me, Timothy, that 

 we are getting considerable ahead of the days of proph 

 ecy. The ploughshares and pruning hooks is the Bible 

 idea of a perfect state of society. When grown up men 

 exchange plowed fields and orchards for the ball ground, 

 and make a bat stick their coat of arms, I think they are 

 progressing the wrong way.&quot; 



This set me to thinking about this base ball business. 

 For it has ceased to be a mere amusement, and, with some 

 people, has got to be as much of a business as catching 

 fish or making brooms. I believe in the division of labor 

 and in new kinds of business, but it is a question whether 

 this is going to add anything to the common wealth or 

 happiness. I believe in athletic sports and games of skill, 

 and have no doubt that there is a place for them in every 

 well-regulated society. Base ball, as we used to play it 

 when I was a boy at school, was a very healthful recrea 

 tion. It was a change from sedentary habits that the 

 boys needed. I should think it might be a good thing 

 for college boys and clerks in the city. But what do peo 

 ple want of it whose lives are already full of labor? It 

 can only add to their weariness, and detract from the in 

 terest and pleasure that every man should take in his daily 

 toil. After a man has spent three or four hours in a game, 

 he is pretty well used up for the day, and is in rather poor 

 trim for work next morning. Base ball, as it is played 

 now, is getting to be a great nuisance. 



It seriously interferes with the business of life. Seth 

 Twiggs case is just what has happened to me a dozen 

 times this summer, and is happening all over the country. 

 When I get a gang of men into the hay field, and have the 

 hay all ready to go into the barn, I do not want to have 

 half of them quit at three o clock in the afternoon for a 

 ball match. It breaks up all my plans for the day, and 

 necessarily leaves a part of my hay to stand out over 



