The New York herald., 1874-09-02
, Croqust In Central Park.

Croquet is not the most exciting game in
the world It is not likely to encourage a
taste for betting as racing, billiards, boating
and base ball are said to do Extremely ac-
complished croquet players have organized
clubs and have tried to establish q croquet
championship, but with little success; for this
delicate, modest game refuses to be dragged
into the arena of outdoor sports" where
men are as earnest as they are in their rivalry
OF business. Croquet must by its nature con-
tinue to be social enjoyment, and is, above
all others, the recreation in which ladies' and
gentlemen can meet upon equal ground and
combine the refnements of the drawing room
with open air exercise that strengthens but
does not fatigue.
Cruel is the man who would deprive the
sexes OF the right to meet upon the neutral
ground of the loop, the stake, the mallet and
the ball. Yet this is what the Park Commits
sioners have undertaken to do in New York.
A correspondent appeals from their decision,
by which gentlemen are not allowed to par
ticipate in croquet in our Central Park,
and says that it is unanimously decided
that the game is thus deprived of halt its
interest We should have said of all its inter
est, especially to the ladies. This is the one
game Of skill in which they are superior to
men, and they are not permitted to profit by
their supremacy. A game of croquet con-
Quoted by ladies only loses its spirit and
vivacity. game of croquet played by
gentlemen is fiat and Improbable All the
courtesies Of society," the attentions of friend
ship, are excluded by such selfish arrangements,
which resemble the old-fashioned churches in
which the women are separated from the men,
as if they were obliged to take different ways
to heaven.
As gentlemen and ladies are allowed to walk
together, to ride together, to boat together, to
skate together. to sit together, we think they
are entitled to play croquet together. There
are no good reasons advanced for the prohibi-
ton, which is, indeed, q relic OF barbarism un-
worthy of q great metropolis. In Prospect Park
there is no such interference with the amuse-
ment, and, though Brooklyn is not now
considered as moral city as New
York, there have been no evil re-
suits. We therefore plead for the admis-
sion of gentlemen to the croquet ground in
behalf of thousands of suffering citizens. We
warn the Park Commissioners of the danger
of a refusal. It is now believed by many per-
sons that the Commissioners do not know how
to play croquet, that they have made tremen-
dous efforts to acquire the art without sue
cess, and that in revenge they have resolved
as they cannot play no other gentleman
SHALL We deeply regret to say that the mat
ter has this appearance, and that what was
once only suspicion is rapidly becoming a
conviction. They can only answer this
serious charge by making croquet free to all,
and ceasing to enforce barbarous separation
of the sexes, Of which even the Turks and
Hindoos are becoming ashamed It is really
a serious matter when q Park policeman can
interpose his club between brother and sister,
husband and wife or lover and sweetheart
and make the innocent game of croquet almost
as terrible as divorce.