The American national game of base ball has reached a period in its history, when it no longer needs to be referred to as a field exercise, calling for particular mention of its peculiar merits. It is now the established favorite game of ball of the American people, and occupies a position in public estimation which no other field sport in vogue approaches. The game has attained its present position of popularity, not only from its adaptability to our peculiar national characteristics, as regards its possession of special points of attraction; but also from its value as a field sport which presents sufficient excitement in itself to draw thousands of spectators, without the extrinsic aid of betting as its chief point of interest, the latter attraction being something which pertains to nearly every other popular sport. Then, too, it should be borne in mind that base ball first taught us Americans the value of physical exercise as an important aid to perfect work in cultivating the mind up to its highest point. It is to the introduction of base ball as a national pastime, in fact, that the growth of athletic sports in general in popularity is largely due; and the game pointed out to the mercantile community of our large cities that "all work and no play" is the most costly policy they can pursue, both in regard to the advantages to their own health, and in the improvement in the work of their employees, the combination of work and play judiciously, yielding results in better work and more satisfactory service than was possible under the old rule. Thus, the game has acted like a lever in lifting into public favor all athletic sports. A great deal is said about the special attraction of this and that leading sport of the day. The turfman thinks there is nothing approaching the excitement of a horse race, which from the start to the finish occupies but a few minutes of time. The rower regards a three mile "shell" race as the very acme of sporting pleasures; while the yachtsman looks upon all other contests as of trifling importance compared with that ending in the winning of his club regatta cup; and so on through the whole category of sports of the field, the forest and the river. But if any one can present to us a sport or pastime, a race or a contest, which can in all its essentials of stirring excitement, displays of manly courage, nerve and endurance, and its unwearying scenes of skillful play and alternations of success equal our national game of ball, we should like to see it.