Casey at the Bat
But the lengthy comedian regarded it with dismay, for it seemed to him even longer than himself. But when he read it over he saw its possibilities, pitched into it and mastered it in a couple of hours. He had no need to study its atmosphere, for he had always been a baseball fan himself and could visualize every line.
When the curtain went up that night the two teams, headed by Anson and Ewing, were in the boxes, and in the course of the show Mr. Hopper, as he puts it, "pulled Casey on them." Any one who has ever heard him recite it can imagine the effect. It brought down the house, and then and there took its place in his repertoire.
After the performance he hunted up Mr. Gunter and asked him who wrote "Casey," for it seemed only fair that the author should have a share of the glory; but Mr. Gunter did not know. It was not until four or five years later, after Mr. Hopper had recited the poem during a performance of "Wang" at Worcester, Mass., that a note was sent in to him asking him to come around to a club and meet the author of "Casey." Of course he went, and was introduced to Ernest L. Thayer. "Over the details of the wassail that followed," says Mr. Hopper, "I will draw the veil of charity."
Meanwhile, as is usually the case with famous fugitive poems, many claimants to the author-
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