Tip Top Weekly No. 80: Frank Merriwell as 'Anchor' — page 5: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

FRANK MERRIWELL AS ANCHOR. 3 ‘**But we nay lose a cup in some branch of sport if you don’t go in.”? **O, no, I think not. Besides that, there’s going to be one event in which J can take a kind of share, and where per- haps I can be as useful to Yale as if I were contesting.’? ‘What's that?’ “The tug of war.’ ‘*Is there going to bea tug of war??? ‘“Ves, siree!”? ‘'Who’s going to be on the team ?”’ ‘Will it be on cleats or on the level floor??? “Will .it be on the ground ?”’ These and many other questions of a similar kind were asked so rapidly that Frank had no chance for a reply. At length he explained that the team had not been chosen, and that anybody might be a candidate. ‘The managing comumittee,’’ he said, ‘Chas asked me to take charge of the training, and we’re going to have trials in a corner of the gymnasium every after- noon. we shall get down to daily practice.”’ It was perfectly natural that the tug of war should arouse more interest through- out the. college than any of the other events. Of course it was important that one or another student should be in training to meet the best wrestler or jumper from the other colleges, but the tug of war was an event in which the whole college was represented. There is never anything like a teaim event to arouse the enthusiasm of students. A tug of war team consists of but four men, to be sure, but at that they are _ Supposed ‘to be, and generally are, the strongest men in the college, and so - students of all classes looked to them for holding up the glory of the college. _ There was another thing that made the tug of war team especially interesting at As soon as the team is made up, this time. For two or three years Prince- ton had been very successful in the tug of war, Whether pulling against other cci- leges or against outside athletic organiza- tions. It had happened that three very strong men in a certain class had gone on to the team in their freshman year and had stayed there ever since. That was greatly to the advantage of the Princeton teain, for with three men on it who were perfectly used to each other, and who had had a great deal of experience, the teain was not only power- ful, but it made every other team afraid of it. There is a great deal more in this than those who are not athletes imagine. <A teain that has the reputation of always Winning is apt to strike terror to the hearts of its opponents and rattle them so that they can not do.their best. Princeton, naturally, was very proud of its tug of war team, and perfectly conf- dent of carrying off the. prize for -that event. This was understood not only at Yale, but at Harvard and Cornell, and at each of these three colleges there was a determination to down Princeton 1f pos- sible. So it happened that when the manag- | ing committee at Yale announced that they would examine candidates for the tug of war team, there was so much interest in it that a perfect mob of students gathered at the gymnasium eager fora place upon the rope. Rowland and Hill, the senior members of the committee, were inclined to dis- miss the whole crowd and then quietly pick out four men according to their own judgment, but Merriwell opposed this policy.. “There may be- perfect. gients eon- cealed in that crowd,’’ he said,-“‘and if there’s only one, we want to discover him. Give them all a trial.’’. “But it would take weeks,” exclaimed ECOMICELO® SS co