The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1884-02-14

10 capture ali those on the other and
put them in prison. You can only
catch man when he is away from his
goal, and when you do catch him end
get him in prison that is, take him to
the tree on your side next to your goal
his own side can release him, if they
can get to him without your catching
them. He is in honor bound to stay at
the prison until rescued. Judas priest,
young man. that's a game worth play
ing! just imagine ten to twenty boys
on a side, each side SIX FINISHING out to-
ward the other, tantalizing them with
near approaches. dodging. running
back, and then having one of your own
men run out and catch the man chasing
you in. We used TO have a runner by
the name of Johnnie Reel. and how he
could run! He was bu lit like a grey
hound, slender and wiry, and he never
tired any more than the wheels in the
clocks which his father sold. I've seen
Reel run Gear around the goal on the
opposite side, and not boy cou touch
him. He could dodge as well as he
could run. He's since become "A sailor
on the lakes, and his father is selling
clocks and mending watches to this
very day in a neighboring village.
"'Each man to his own goal was
much like prison goal, except that
each man had a goal to himself and
preyed upon or was the prey of every
other man playing. We used to play
that nights in the green There were
Il number of locust trees there, and we
played around them. A ter while the
vii age trustees planted young naples
between the locusts, with the idea o
getting rid of the locusts eventually, as
they are not very suitable for shade
trees. We played around the maple.
because they were slender and we could
catch on to them better when we came
back with a rush. The trustees put a
stop to that because they said we hurt
the trees. | don't suppose it did do
them any good, the wrenching and
twisting we gave then, but at the time
we thought the stamp act was a conces-
sion of mercy compared with the injus-
tice we had to suffer at the hands of
those stony-hearted trustees. l remcm-
Der we vented our spite by abusing the
trustees, in their absence, in the pres
ence of their unfortunate sons, who felt
the outrage as keenly as we did. Since
then the naples have grown to be we'll
sized and the locusts have been cut
down.
after prison goal CAME, in the order
of popularity, pom pom pullaway. How
on earth the game ever got such a name
| haven't the faintest idea. 1t was
usually called pullaway, and that may
be the correct name of it. The game
was rather one-,ided and rather rough.
One man stood about the middle of the
ground usually on the long walk lead
inc up to the school-house. in the old
school-yard) and the rest gathered in a
line on one side of the ground. Then
when it was played as it ought to be,
the man in the middle of the ground
sang out:
'POm-pOm lJlulaway:
Come quick, or I'll fetch you away.
And how they came! One invitation
was enough. 1t was wave OF boys
straight across the ground. Ii the man
in the middle, who was called the pull
away was slender fellow, ne went
down under that rush, just as a racing
shell goes over when a wave strikes it
broadside. A very dirty, dusty boy.
often with torn clothes and a more or
less bruised person, was all that was left
to tell the story. That didn't happen
very often. The 'pullaway' can usually
catch and hold some man, and then the
prisoner has to take his place. Speak
ing of the name of the game, it occurs
to me now that pullaway is probably
the two words pull and away. Ican't
imagine what pom means, unless it a
corruption of come.
about the only outdoor game not
requiring q special effort was mumble-
typeg.' 'Mumbletypeg', is, am told,
a corruption of 'mumble the peg and
takes its name from the fact that
the loser is obliged to draw
from the ground with his teeth peg
which his opponent has driven in.
'Mumbletypeg is layed now, believe;
at least my boy was telling me of a
game that seems the same. The game
was played with the ordinary pocket
knife which boy carried-until he lost
it. The trick was to toss the knife from
various positions on the hand or in the
fingers into the air and have the point
stick into the ground when it came
down. 1t required some little skill to
do it, although it seemed simple enough.
There were fifteen or twenty different
movements, SIS | remember the game,
and each man played until he missed
that is, until his knife failed to stick
into the ground. One curious move
ment, | remember, was to hold the
KIN fe by the tip of the blade, between
the thumb and finger of the rig hand,
with the hand placed close to the tip of
the left ear, and the thumb and finger
of the left hand holding the tip of the
right ear. In this position the knife
was thrown. Then it was changed to
the left hand and thrown in the same
way; then thrown backward over the
shoulders from the same position. The
winner was the man who executed the
movements first Mumbletypeg was a
pretty good game. If it is played now,
1 suppose they've got Judge or two
and a referee, and play it in uniforms
and charge an admission fee to see the
game.
There were good many rough games,
though none so rough as modern foot
eball or lacrosse. Foet-ball. by the way,
was seldom played, because few boys
had money enough to buy the balls.
When it was play ed it was just kicking
the ball around and up and down the
sahool ward, between the center of the
village and the railroad station. 1t was
simply a scramble, but a good-natured
one. Lacrosse was never neard of, but
we PLAYED 'shinney,' which is much the
.onaa ,vifhout the science and the