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In 1831 a club was regularly organized in Philadelphia to play the game, and it is recorded that the first day for practice enough members were not present to make up town-ball, and so a game of "two-old-cat" was played. This town-ball was so nearly like rounders that one must have been the prototype of the other, but town- ball and base-ball were two very different games.
If we could only bring back the appetite of former years we might find this pie better than the pies of old. The good brother who seems to think the textbooks of his boyhood days were better than the modern ones forgets that along with the old-time textbooks went skating, rabbit-hunting, snowballing, coasting, fishing, sock-up, bull-pen, two-old-cat, townball, and shinny-on-the-ice.
There were two varieties of the game, the first called "one-old-cat," or one-cornered-cat, and the other "two-old-cat." In one-old-cat there were a batter, pitcher, catcher, and fielders. There were no "sides," and generally no bases to run, but in every other respect the game was like base-ball.
Two-old-cat differed from one-old-cat in having two batters at opposite stations, as in the old English stool-ball and the more modern cricket, while the fielders divided so that half faced one batter and half the other. From one-old-cat to base-ball is a short step. It was only necessary to choose sides, and then the count of runs made by each would form the natural test of superiority.
With the twilight settling in upon his bed Lockwin starts into wakefulness. He has dreamed of two-old-cat. "Bully for the codger!" the tribe of red-faces yell. In the other room he now hears the dismal gasps of his curly-head. He rinses his mouth with water, not daring to ask if the worst is coming. He knows it is not coming, else he had been called. Yet he is not quick to enter the sick chamber.
Edmund Andrews, the President of '49, has also left a record of his time. Athletics were not regularly organized, nor had we any gymnasium. We played base-ball, wicket ball, two-old-cat, etc., but there was no foot-ball nor any trained "teams." There was mere ex tempore volunteering. We had jumping wickets in the same way. Fencing and boxing were totally neglected.
The neighboring tribe offered their services for two-old-cat. The little white boy with the golden curls made a great hit. "Bully for the codger!" quoth all the red-cheeked. "We will cut off his curls and make him as healthy as those young ones," said Lockwin. "You'll never do it!" said the housekeeper. "Such as him do be too pretty for this life," said the cook, almost with tears in her eyes.
"It's like watching a street medicine show, after hearing Patti or seeing Irving," muttered Bruno, drawing back and stretching his wearied limbs beyond possible discovery. "Or the A B C class playing two-old-cat, after a league game of extra innings; right you are, my hearty!" coincided Waldo, feeling pretty much the same way, "only with a difference."
In 1869 an article in The Nation, from A. H. Sedgwick, commenting upon the features of baseball arid cricket as exemplifying national characteristics, said: "To those other objectors who would contend that our explanation supposes a gradual modification of the English into the American game, while it is a matter of common learning that the latter is of no foreign origin but the lineal descendant of that favorite of boyhood, 'two-old-cat, we would say that, fully agreeing with them as to the historical fact, we have always believed it to be so clear as not to need further evidence, and that for the purposes of this article the history of the matter is out of place."
Don't take them away, pet. See, you breathe easily now." "Thank God!" says the man "that we are all doctors." The afternoon wanes. "Georgie Day, mamma." "Yes, lamby." "I want him to have my sleeve-buttons. He can play base-ball, not two-old-cat. He can play real base-ball." "Yes, Georgie shall come to see you to-morrow." Lockwin goes to the speaking tube. "Go and get Dr. Floddin at once.
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