"Frank Merriwell's Lacrosse Team"

          In this classic Dime Novel, Tip Top Weekly features the great athlete Frank Merriwell in a lacrosse adventure, or The Great Hustle with Johns Hopkins. It begins with the Hopkins lacrosse team in a grueling match with the boys from Harvard, and in it the captain Fred Fillmore, a central character in the novel, is injured by the Harvard captain Herbert Onslaw. This injury forces Fillmore to leave the game only to watch his Hopkins men be defeated by Onslaw and the rest of the Crimson team. After this game, Fillmore foreshadows what is to come in the novel when he vows for redemption and plans that someday he will get back at Onslaw.
When Fillmore returns to campus, and as his lacrosse season is winding down, he realizes that his boys are not scheduled to play Onslaw and Harvard for the rest of the season, and being that Onslaw is a senior, he may never get his chance at revenge. Meanwhile he has instead taken a liking to a lovely girl with whom he leaves near named Inza Burrage. After trying in vain to talk to Inza, Fillmore is alerted that Inza is infact, Frank Merriwell’s fiancé, and he becomes dangerously jealous of Frank. When Fillmore then hears that Frank Merriwell is looking to start an amateur lacrosse team to go after the amateur Championship of the United States, and also that Herbert Onslaw will likely be a member on this team, Fillmore immediately hopes to schedule a game so that he may not only get back at Onslaw, but also show up Frank in front of his new love, Inza Burrage. Because of this, the match to be scheduled has much more than just bragging rights or friendly competition on the plate.

          Before the match is scheduled; however, Fillmore and his friend Tom Hackett attempt to disgrace Frank in front of his girlfriend and get him intoxicated. They bring him to a bar and begin ordering him drinks only to be outsmarted by Frank. Instead of drinking the gin, Frank is drinking the water chaser and sending back the gin, staying completely sober while the others are getting heavily inebriated. Frank then “drunkenly” agrees to a boxing match with the boxing legend Husker Galway, another plan of Fillmore’s to disgrace Frank even more. Little do they know that Frank is completely sober and he easily handles the pro in the ring to the amazement of the drunk bystanders. At this point Frank realizes that Fillmore and Hackett are trying to make him look bad; however, he keeps this realization to himself. Instead of making Frank look terrible, Fillmore and Hackett are the ones who show up and embarrass themselves in front of the ladies with whom they have taken likings to.

          By the time of the game, both Fillmore and Hackett are irate because of their failed plan, yet Fillmore is confident he will find his chance to get back at Onslaw and show up Frank on the field. Hopkins scores two early goals and the crowd is expecting a blowout; however, Frank’s girl, Inza, has great confidence in Frank to field a strong team. During the game, Fillmore exacts his revenge by clubbing both men, Frank and Herbert, on the head with his stick, and in turn showing everyone his malicious intentions. Frank’s team goes on to score the last goals of the game and Hopkins is then defeated by Frank’s amateurs. Fillmore is shown up by the two men yet again and he boards a train for NY to skip town and avoid any more embarrassment. A tale of deception and cheating ends with the great and honorable Frank Merriwell defeating the coward, Fred Fillmore.