Like Most Rebel Soldiers, Sam Watkins Owned

Between 1861 And 1865, Americans Made War On Each Other And Killed Each Other In Great Numbers - If Only To Become The Kind Of Country That Could No Longer Conceive Of How That Was Possible.

And There Is The Headlight, Shining Far Down The Track, Glinting Off The Steel Rails That, Like All Parallel Lines, Will Meet In Infinity, Which Is After All Where This Train Is Going.

Say This Much For Big League Baseball - It Is Beyond Question The Greatest Conversation Piece Ever Invented In America.

Beneath Everything Else, North And West, There Ran A Profound, Unvoiced, Almost Subconscious Conviction That The [american] Nation Was Going To Go On Growing-in Size, In Power, In Everything A Man Could Think Of-and In That Belief There Was A Might And A Fury That Would Take Form Instantly At The Moment Of Shock.

There Is A Rowdy Strain In American Life, Living Close To The Surface But Running Very Deep. Like An Ape Behind A Mask, It Can Display Itself Suddenly With Terrifying Effect.