Casey at the Bat
to Mr. Hopper, he replied that very possibly it was not until 1888 he first recited the poem, but he adds quite positively, "the initials E. L. T. were at the foot of the copy Mr. Gunter gave me. The nom de plume 'Phin' did not appear." This is probably a slip of memory, but if Mr. Hopper is right, it is one more item in Mr. Thayer's favor.
It is worth pointing out that the poem has sometimes been ascribed to "Phineas Thayer"—it is easy to see why.
Mr. Thayer was born at Lawrence, Mass., in 1863, but his family shortly thereafter moved to Worcester, and he was graduated from the Worcester high school in 1881. Four years later he graduated from Harvard College, engaged in journalistic work, as has been said, in San Francisco until the winter of 1887, when he returned to Worcester and went into his father's woolen business. He retired some years later, and after traveling widely, settled down at Santa Barbara, Cal., where he now lives. He has never thought it worth while to gather his verse together in book form.
"Please to understand that I never had any pretensions as a writer of verse," Mr. Thayer writes. "During my brief connection with the Examiner, I put out large quantities of non-
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