"Dick Merriwell in the Tank"

         In "Dick Merriwell in the Tank, or Rushing the Regulars at Water Polo," the country’s greatest athlete and role model to all young men, Dick Merriwell, tries his hand in water polo and attempts to survive the hazing of the older athletes at Yale. The short novel begins with a light-hearted conversation with a fellow freshman, a Frenchman, Leon le Blon. In this conversation, Dick talks jokingly with le Blon and teaches him slang after realizing what a huge part of the English language it is. While they are engaged in this conversation, the reader is introduced to the rest of Dick Merriwell’s pals of the freshman class as they storm onto the scene. The crazy Texan, Brad Buckhart, is by far the most charismatic of the crew and scares le Blon mightily. Dick is asked in passing by Greg McGregor, a sophomore who hangs out with the freshman, if he wants to take up water polo. Dick agrees and proposes to form a freshman squad. They all settle on a fun practice at the baths for the next day.
Walking alone and on his way to the baths for practice, the Texan freshman Brad Buckhart is intercepted by a group of sophomores looking to haze him. Brad drops his intense accent and pretends to be a boring, studious kid from Texas and answers all of their questions rather easily. The boys then attempt to disgrace Brad and ride him like a cowboy; however Brad gets the better of their leader, Pettinger Cunningham, when he handles him in a wrestling match in front of all the freshman and sophomores. Because the freshmen are outnumbered, however, they all retreat into the baths for their practice instead of dueling with the newly irate and embarrassed sophomores.

         The sophomores plan to get back at the freshmen after being embarrassed and letting them get away, so they kidnap Dick's dog, Suds, dress him up in a cap and Merriwell jersey, and bring him across town, forcing him to drink beers and become very intoxicated. The sophomores arrive at a Chinese bar and begin playing pool while Suds passes out from too many drinks under the table. While Cunningham and his friend Duncan are playing pool, a strange man from the street walks in and challenges Duncan to a game. It starts off relatively even; however, the strange man from New York, Mit McGann, finishes him off with ease. Immediately after the match, there is a large commotion in the bar when a fellow sophomore Du Boise storms in high on dope. In the commotion, McGann and Suds vanish. The sophomore boys go back to Cunningham’s room to find McGann waiting on the sofa chair with Suds asleep at his feet. It turns out that McGann was really Merriwell in disguise. Dick then scolds the boys for stealing Suds and treating him so badly as well as for drinking and smoking, and then storms out with his dog, leaving the boys stunned.

          The water polo game between Merriwell’s men and the Yale Varsity team is scheduled hastily by le Blon and creates much excitement on campus. Initially in the match, Merriwell’s men do remarkably well and dominate, much to the displeasure of Webster, the captain of the Regulars. At halftime, the Regulars are losing 2-1 to Dick’s squad; however, fatigue then sets in for the freshman (excluding Dick and Brad), and they simply cannot hold off and defend the physically trained Regulars. While Merriwell’s team loses, they gained the respect of all the Varsity members and are congratulated for their effort. The novel ends with Merriwell’s team coming up short; however, the honorable Dick Merriwell is respected and applauded for his heroic actions in and out of the water polo tank.

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