e thing certain, and that is that a rival to the National
League will spring up sooner or later, and that without any help from
Mr. Richter.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. L'ENVOI.

With my retirement from the Chicago Club in 1897, my active connection
with the game may be said to have ceased and it is more that probable
that I shall never again don a uniform. My affection for the game still
exists, however, and I am confident that, purged of the many evils that
now exist, the game itself will continue to be in the future what it has
been in the past, the National Game of the American people.

Looking back over my twenty-seven years of active service on the
diamond, I feel that I have but little to regret and much to be proud
of, and if I failed at times to come us to the expectations of my
friends, it was simply because I was heavily handicapped and unable to
carry the load. For the gentlemen who have criticized my actions fairly
and honestly I have naught but the kindest feelings, and for those who
did not and who criticized simply to be in the fashion, or because they
were advised to do so by those in authority over them, I have--but
perhaps it is as well to "let the dead past bury its dead." The League
Guide of 1898 contains an article on my retirement, from the pen of the
veteran, Henry Chadwick, that I am particularly proud of, and a portion
of which I quote, as follows:

"Professional base-ball history records the development of many an
original character in the ranks alike of its press-writers, its club
magnates, and its most noteworthy players; but it can be safely said
that its most unique figure can be found in the person of the League's
greatest representative on the field, Adrian Constantine Anson, who
today stands forth as one of the most sturdy, fearless and honest
exemplars of professional base-ball known to the game. The bright
particular attribute of Anson is his sterling integrity, combined with
which is his thorough independence. The former was strikingly
illustrated at the very outset of his career as a member of the Chicago
Club in 1876, when he kept true to his agreement with the club, though
under the base-ball law as it then existed the club could not, enforce
its contract; and his independence was plainly exhibited in the act of
his refusing this year to accept a money testimonial at the hands of his
base-ball friends, he preferring to depend upon his existing physical
powers for his maintenance rat