His wrestling pictures, dating from Adamsville days, had been properly
admired by his room-mate, Neil Morton, a strapping, likable Texan, who
had prepped at Hill. Pelham, a mere graduate of a city high school,
could not expect to be ranked with the products of Lawrenceville, Taft,
Hill and St. Paul's.
After the heavy-weights and middles had been annexed by the juniors,
there was a lull. No freshman light-weight could be located.
Neil rose to his feet. His yearling bellow rang over the heads of the
crowd. "Judson! Try Judson, here!"
Another group was singing out, "Claxton! Claxton! We want Claxton!"
Others near him joined Morton's cry. "Judson! Pell Judson!"
Claxton did not materialize.
The new crew captain squatted under the nearest torch, and peered at the
group. "Judson there?"
Pelham, protesting and nervously laughing, was shoved forward, stripped
by the big Y'd team men, and edged into his corner. He found himself
facing Ted Schang, of last year's wrestling squad, one of the promising
light-weights of the University.
The derisive juniors gobbled their war cry. "Go it, Teddy boy! At 'im!
Eat up the dam' frosh!"
Teddy ate him up, the first fall, by a swift half Nelson, and a quicker
recovery when Pelham tried to turn over and wriggle out.
"Yea 'Twelve! Kill 'im!"
In the brief rest, he ground his fingers into his palms, and determined
to show what 'Thirteen could do. He was the crest of the class wave for
the moment; an aching loyalty shook him.
This time he was more cautious. The team sub was confident now, and left
a careless opening, which Pelham seized at once. After a long, tough
tussle he won; but this left him winded; so that the third fall, and the
match, went to the upper classman. But he had won one fall; and he was a
figure in his class from that night.
His mother was inordinately proud of the boy's participation. Her
elaboration of his night-letter home, which she wrote to her sister,
fell later into his hands, and he shook delightedly over it. "Think of
the honor, Lotta! Selected from all of Yale to represent his school on
the opening week, and landing the second fall in the whole University!
We are surely proud that God has given us such a strong, manly son. Paul
is very pleased, and is sending him a check for fifty. Jackson can show
those Yankees something yet."
Paul's pride showed in more definite and characteristic fashion. He had
a story run in the _Times-Dispatch_, and the _Evening Register_;
Pelham's picture headed the account, which stressed the fact that he was
a product of the local high school, "the son of Mr. and Mrs. Paul
Judson, of Hillcrest Cottage, and a grandson of Judge Thomas F. Judson,
the distinguished jurist of Jackson." All these things advertised the
family, and the business.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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