with the special intention of
developing the body and mind, so that the best possible results may be
obtained looking to perfection of base-ball playing. Daily instruction
will be had in the theory and practice of the game.

Engagements.--As soon as students are sufficiently developed and display
skill to justify, efforts will be made by the college management to
secure lucrative engagements for those who desire to enter the
professional field. Arrangements will be made with the various
professional and semi-professional clubs throughout the country by which
students of the college will come into contact with managers and be
enabled to make known their merits.

Application for Admittance.--Persons who desire to become students of the
college will be required to fill out and sign the regular application
blank provided by the college, which must give information regarding the
applicant, such as name, place of residence, height, weight, various
measurements, past vocation, habits, state of health, etc., etc.

Charges.--Accepted students will be required to pay a tuition of $2 per
week, at least five weeks tuition to be paid in advance, and must supply
their practice uniform. The college will provide all team uniforms for
use in games and all materials and utensils necessary for practice.

Then followed a showing of financial possibilities that would have done
credit to the brains of a Colonel Sellers.

It is unnecessary for me to say that this scheme never emanated from me,
or that it never received any serious consideration at my hands, the
real plan being to create a real-estate boom and enable Mr. Spalding to
dispose of some of his holdings, using me as a catspaw with which to
pull the chestnuts out of the fire.

All this time I was busily engaged in perfecting plans by which I might
get possession of the Chicago League Ball Club, in which I already had
130 shares of stock, and finally I succeeded in obtaining an option on
the same from A. G. Spalding, a facsimile of which appears on another
page. Armed with this document I worked like a Trojan in order to raise
the necessary funds, which I certainly should have succeeded in doing
had not my plans been thwarted time and again by A. G. Spalding and his
agents, and this in spite of the fact that our probable war with Spain
made the raising of money a difficult matter. More than once when
engaged in the task I was informed by friends that I was simply wasting
my time