Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

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146 THE ORACLE tempts were of no avail. At this the Scotchman flew into a rage’and stamped about until all the small fry, which were hovering near, fled in dire con- fusion. This reckless loss of self-control was not a characteristic of the Scotchman, for when on board the boat he had a most equable temper, but it was the effect of being under water. Strange to say all pearl divers are affected in much the same way. Most peaceful men when on board, they very often fly into a temper when: under water because of a wrong air sup- ply or some other trivial matter, and signal to be pulled up. As they near the surface, just like a child, they forget their anger and when hauled on deck do not know what they have come up for. With a powerful pry of his knife the Scotchman loosed the oyster and signaled to be drawn to the surface. A little more air was pumped into his suit. Being thus made lighter he easily rose to the surface and clambered aboard. After a week’s more fishing the little ship made sail for home. After the cargo of several tons of oysters was unloaded they were dumped into sand pits. Here they remained under a broiling East Indian sun until they were thoroughly decayed. The oysters were now easily opened and were washed in a sieve. The pearls, which are mostly quite small, were separated into different sizes, but out of one large oyster a pure oriental pearl was washed. This pearl had the distinction of being put in a strong tin box all by itself. As the completion of one of its series of many adventures, “the 80 pearl,” as it was known, finally found its way into the hands of afamous New York jeweler. There, on account of its regality, it remains to this day. Nat- ure, when allowed, always does her work perfectly ; and as a grain of sand in an oyster is transformed into a pearl of great price, so a little grit in the Nature of a man, if carefully nurtured and allowed to grow, will in time prove a pearl of great value in his character. Howarp G. LAPSLEY, 05. Baseball When the time came around for the organization of the baseball team, matters looked rather doubtful for a successful season. Of course some of the old team were left, but an entirely new battery was required. There were very few candidates for either pitcher or catcher; but, of the material at hand, the most promising were “Phil.” Smith, for pitcher, and “Neal” Davis, for catcher. How well these two players fulfilled that promise is a matter of history. In the beginning of the season we often heard the

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THE ORACLE 145 oyster. During these years the oyster and the pearl had both grown until they were of regal size. The pearling fleet, of some thirty fishing luggers, was busily engaged in its operations during the summer of 1880. The beautiful dawn of a promising fishing day sent the fleet scattering over the oyster patch in St. Bernardino Strait. This patch was some two miles in extent, so that each boat got its fair allotment of fishing ground. One little boat dropped close inshore and made ready to send its diver, a sandy- haired Scotchman, overboard. Necessity has made the use of modern diving gear absolutely impera- tive in pearl fishing. In past years native divers dove overboard and tore what shells they could away from the bottom and in the course of two minutes rose to the surface and made ready for another dive. This method of fishing was successful in water not much deeper than thirty feet, but when pearls began to give out in shallow water, modern, element-defying armor was called into play, so now all pearl fishing is done by helmeted divers. As native divers proved deficient in the use of these diving suits, white men have superseded the brown Filipinos. When the small boat, before mentioned, dropped anchor in about sixty feet of water, the Scotchman stepped into his heavy rubber suit; his large one eyed helmet was screwed on; the pump was started by two brawny Filipinos; and with a splash and a rush of bubbles to the surface, the diver dropped overboard. After a minute of the crushing sensation felt by divers after dropping overboard, the diver got his sea legs on and commenced work. But my goodness, what a place to work in! It was a sea garden such as could not be equaled by all the work that time and money could command. Sea anemones, coral clusters of every shade of pink and white, enormous barnacles, sea plants that would put the most delicate lace to shame, sway- ing in the gentle ocean movement and surrounded by many sun-colored fish, were everywhere. It is in such places as this that pearl divers in tropical seas work. Our diver, having reached the bottom and adjusted the air valves in his helmet, strode about in search of large and ancient oysters in which perhaps lay his fortune. Whenever he laid aside his knife and oyster bag and stopped to rest, many inquisitive fish gathered round him, but his slight- est motion sent all of them scattering pell mell for shelter. Going from clus- ter to cluster of oysters, he soon filled his bag with the largest of them, but noticing an oyster of great size near by, he started to tear it from its abode of many years. It was so wedged in by smaller oysters that his first at-

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THE ORACLE 147 remark, both in school and outside, “The High School has a good team, but no battery.”’ Now, the opinion of baseball critics has changed somewhat, for we now hear, “The High School has the best scholastic battery in the State. We see the cause for this change in the manner in which cur games have been won. The fielding has been fairly good in some, and very poor in others; but in every one the battery work has been excellent. Not only has Smith secured the record for the greatest number of strikeouts, but he has the lowest number of hits registered against him of any pitcher in the school at any time. Davis has also developed wonderfully for a first year catcher, his success has been remarkable, and pitcher and catcher have work- ed together like a well regulated machine. The rest of the team has on the whole, a somewhat lower standard than the battery. The infield did some very good work, but. it also did some very poor work. The outfield did a little better. At the beginning of the season, Scott, Bock and Guinn made a powerful trio, but changes reduced this until Scott alone of the old three, remained. In batting, the team was not all that one could wish, but noe was a list of heavy hitters in the beginning of the batting order which always showed up to good advantage. Long, Craig, Scott, Smith and Thompson could usually be depended upon for hits in times of need. This was es- pecially true of Adam Scott. The Pingry game was in fact the only one in which he did not give a good account of himself with the stick. The games for City Championship were tamer than any one expected. Leal’s were easily vanquished, and Cedarcroft almost as easily. The real struggle came rather unexpectedly with South Orange. The Orangemen came here, flushed with an overwhelming victory in basketball, and expected to do the same in baseball. We trounced them to the tune of 4 to 3, and they retired vowing vengeance in the return game. That they over-exerted themselves is clearly shown by the game struggle they put up on their heme field. The superior pitching of Smith finally conquered and we returned with a ten-inning game, 2 to I to our credit. The last game of the season at Pingry, also showed the stuff that we were made of. Up against a pro- fessional pitcher, we won out on our own merits and a pitchers blunder, Craig making the only run scored in the whole game. When we look back over the whole season, there are two things which impress us most strongly. The first is the ability which the team, as a whole, showed in getting out of tight places and in keeping their heads. This is due in great part to the magnificent spirit with which they