Well after about a hr. Gleason come out and seen me setting there and of course he had to start kidding right off of the real so he said “Well here is the big Busher and I hoped you was killed over in France but I suppose even them long distance guns fell short of where you was at.” So I said “They reached me all right and they got me in the left arm and wasn’t it lucky it wasn’t my right arm?” So he said “Its to bad they didn’t shoot your head off and made a pitcher out of you.” So then he asked me all about the war and if I got in to Germany and I told him no that I got my wounds in June and was invalid home. So he said “You fight just like you pitch and they half to take you out in the 5th inning.” So I asked him if he got my letter and he said he got a letter that looked like it might of came from me so he didn’t open it. So I said “Well I don’t know if you opened it or not but I just as soon tell you right here what I said in the letter. I told you I was going in to some business but I would stay in baseball another yr. to help you out if you met my figure.” So he asked what was my figure, so I told him $3,000.00 per annum. So he said how much was I getting in the army and I told him I was getting about $30.00 per mo. most of the time. So he said “Yes you was getting $30.00 per mo. to get up at 5 a.m. and work like a dog all day and eat beans and stew and sleep in a barn nights with a cow and a pig for your roomies and now you want $3,000.00 a yr. to live in the best hotels and eat off the fat of the land and about once in every 10 days when we feel like we can afford to loose a ball game why you half to go out there and stand on your feet pretty near ½ the p.m. and if it happens to be July or Aug. you come pretty close to prespireing.”
So I said “You are the same old Gleason always trying to kid somebody but jokeing a side I will sign up for $3,000.00 or else I will go in to business.” So he asked me what business I was going in to and I told him I had an offer from the Stock Yards. So he said “How much do they offer for you on the hoof?”
Well we kidded along back and 4th like that for a wile and finely he said he was going out somewheres with Comiskey so I asked him if he wasn’t going to talk business to me 1st. So he said “I will tell you how it is boy. They have cut down the limit so as each club can’t only carry 21 men and that means we won’t have no room for bench lizards. But the boss says that on acct. of you haveing went to France and wasn’t killed why we will take you south if you want to go and you will get a chance to show if you are a pitcher yet or not and if you are like you use to be why maybe the Stock Yards will keep open long enough to take you when we are through with you and you can tell Armour and Swift and them that I will leave them know whether I want you or not about 3 days after we get to Texas.” So I asked him how about salery and he said “The boss will send you a contract in a few days and if I was you I would be satisfied with it.”
So it looks now like I was all set for the season Al and Gleason said I would be satisfied with the salery which is just as good as saying it will be $3,000.00 as I wouldn’t be satisfied with no less, so all I half to do now is wait for the contract and put my name on it and I will be back in the game I love and when a man’s heart is in their work how are you going to stop him a specially with the stuff I’ve got.
Chi, March 8.
Friend Al: Well Al I am through with baseball for good and am going in to business and I don’t know just yet which proposition I will take that’s been offered to me but they’s no hurry and I will take the one that looks best when the proper time comes.
I suppose you will be surprised to hear that I have gave up the old game but maybe you won’t be so surprised when I tell you what come off today.
Well in the 1st place when the mail man come this a.m. he brought me a contract from Comiskey and the figures amounted to $2,400.00 per annum. How is that Al when I was getting $2,500.00 per annum before I went to the war. Well at 1st I couldn’t hardly beleive my eyes but that was the figure all right and finely I thought they must
