rolled hard, and the out-field is sown with grass seed. The grand stand which will seat nearly 1200 people, is 151 x , and in the rear is raised . The stand is reached by steps at both ends. It will be covered by canvass, requiring nearly . Seats are arranged in a circle at the eastern and western sides of the field. A platform 60 x has been erected for the reporters, scorers and invited guests, seating nearly 60 persons. Under the grand stand for the visiting and local clubs are rooms square and fitted up with wardrobes, dressing rooms square, a wash room supplied with Pawtucket water, closet, etc. The Western Union Telegraph Company have a room 8 x . There is a stockholders' room square, and a refreshment saloon 40 x 20 to be managed by caterer Ardoene. A fence with gateways has been erected in front of the club rooms, thereby preventing the crowd from having any talk with the players. The grounds are without doubt as fine as any in the country, and Harry Wright said yesterday, 'They are beautiful." The left field fence was apparently quite close to home plate. One reporter complained that "a hit made in Providence near that foul line post is not a long hit; in fact that same hit in the right field seldom gives more than one base." Despite the allegedly short fence, the Messer Street Grounds was not a friendly home run park. Only eight home runs were hit there in National League games all year long, compared to about two hundred at Chicago's tiny park. Those eight included four over the left field fence, an inside-the-park home run by Paul Hines, and one smash by Jerry Denny that landed in the carriage driveway in right-center field, which was called "the longest ever made upon the grounds." Just beyond the short left field lay a building where fans could sit on the roof and watch the game for the discounted rate of 25 cents, probably to the chagrin of the team management. One particularly powerful home run by Jerry Denny "sailed away like a hawk, rising and rising until long after it passed the left field fence, and until it was far above the housetops, finally dropping in a garden near the street." The Grays were the first professional team to install a backstop in their park.