The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-07-28
The Revival of an Obsolete Pastime.


IN these days, when polo and lawn
tennis and croquet are SO popular, and
everybody is racking his brains to in
vent a new game with which to amuse
the youth of America, we should like to
suggest the revival of a pastime that
was much in vogue among a former
generation. 1t is sad to think that such
healthy and lively means of pleasure
should have gone out of fashion as much
as it has, and that only unpretenJious
persons in out-of-the-way places devote
themselves to it. 1t is a spring and
autumn amusement designed for the
country. To play the game fairly re-
quires twenty acre lot. Each player
needs, to begin with, team of good
horses and very peculiarlooking
chariot which cuts through the sod
with its sharp point, and has only
one wheel at the side to serve rather to
guide its course than aid in its running
The driver hangs on behind, laying hold
of two light handles which project in
the rear for his convenience. The rate
of progress across a field is of necessity
slow, but the course is very exciting,
especially where the ground is stony,
In which case the driver, tying tine
reins of the horses about his waist, is
compelled to use great deXterity and
strength to keep his chariot in its proper
furrow and is jolted like couple of
lovers sitting on blackboard. The
game consists in traversing the field
from one side to another, day after day,
until the whole surface is overturned,
when the ground presents a series of
long, regular ridges of clay, drying in
the sun and looking desolate but extreme
ly picturesque. This sport is so fascina-
ting that those addicted to it continue at
1t from sunrise to sunset, scarcely tax
ing intermissions for their meals, and
they grow brown, hardy and manly with
the exercise. To prepare the field for
the continuance of the game is work
of great pains and no little time. The
monotonous ridges of brown or yellow
clay have to be broken down to an even
surface, and to effect this an ingenious
instrument, called harrow, has been in
vented, which is u frame set with great
number of iron teeth. When this is
dragged rapidly backward and forward
over the field it reduces it in time to a
pleasant level plain marked with deli
cate wrinkles. 1t is then necessary to
sprinkle in the ground some cereal, such
as wheat, oats or barley, in order that
by means of a new growth preparation
for another sod may be laid. And when
this grain crop is cut down the ground is
in such a condition that it will be ready
for renewal of the game during the
next season. In this prosaic description
we have aimed merely at giving definite
idea of the sport, and have avoided any
idle disquisitions on its beauties. Suffice
it to say that when it was popular the
whole country blossomed like the rose,
and the foundations of our prosperity
were laid, and if gu" young men could
be induced to take up this obsol, te pas.
time again and desist from hOckng to
cities for more artificial amusements.
spending their precious time in summer
travels and squanderng their spare cash
in European tours instead of investing it
at home, something of the old-fashioned
might return to the land.