article dated September 19, 1857, reporting a "Game of Town Ball" at Germantown (now a neighborhood of Philadelphia). Reporting another game, the Clipper for August 11, 1860, commented, "The Olympic Club dates its existence back to 1832, so that properly speaking it is the parent Town Ball organization in the city of Philadelphia." Informal groups were playing town ball at Market Street in Philadelphia and across the Delaware River in Camden, New Jersey, in 1831 and 1832. Irving Leitner quotes a 19th-century source: "All the players were over 25 years of age, and to see them playing a game like this caused much merriment among the friends of the players. It required 'sand' in those days to go out on the field and play, as the prejudice against the game was very great." The two groups merged in 1833 to form the Olympic Ball Club. In the introduction to his book Baseball, John Montgomery Ward wrote of the Philadelphia game: A copy of the Olympic Ball Club's constitution exists, but it contains only rules for governing the club, and no rules for playing ball. Contemporary accounts describe Philadelphia town ball as played with eleven men on a side, with four bases and the batter standing between fourth and first bases. They played two innings of all-out, all-out or eleven innings of one-out, all-out. Typical games were high-scoring with the victorious side often topping 75 runs. The players are said to have made their own bats and balls. They were adept with two types of bats. For a two-handed swing, a flat cricket-type bat was used. For a one-handed swing, a smaller round model, called a delill, was chosen. There is evidence that over the course of three decades the Olympics played varieties of baseball, wicket, and old cat, as well as town ball. In Philadelphia Town Ball, "every at bat resulted in a home run or an out". The bases were very close together, and were not safe havens, serving merely to mark the circuit the batter-runner must take. "Soaking" was permitted but rare. In 1860 the Olympics converted to the modern "New York game", but the old style was still being played in rural areas. That year members of Athletic of Philadelphia — originally formed as a town ball club — traveled to Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, for two contests, one of New York-style baseball and the other of town