The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-03-22
POM.POM PULLAWAY.

a Broker Reviews the Games OF His Boy
hoOd-Lively and Healthful Outdoor
Sports of the Past GeneratiOn-Sheep-
Fold, Skinny and the Ancestors of Base
Ball.
'Were y-u ever bov?" asked a
broker O. a young friend the other day
] he youn man mode Sly admitted that
he had been, and asked the broker in
return what he meant by thus inquiring
into his private affai 5. ''Well, I'll tell
you," said the broker. 'I've got boy
not an office boy, but boy of my own.
He's turning h tenth birthday, and |
thought I'd do something nice for him.
So began hunting around to find out
what he'd Ike, and [ asked him what
games he PLAYED at school. Well, may
/ be caught short ON Northern Pacific if
the only game, as underst nd him,
that he plays ism tmarbles. Now, mar
bles is all right, but l don't like the
idea of a steady diet in that line. 1t
isn't broadening. It's q sort of one
sided d, velopment. know that ii my
repertoire of games when l was ten
years old had been United to marbles
I'd have been of no earthly good in the
village where l wa; raised. 1t isn't
very much of a village, 100 or !, 200 in
habitants and don't suppose there
were more than twenty five or thi ty
boys who usually ran together, ut we
had great many different games.
TO begin with, there were half a
dozen games, of which 4 spy or as we
called it, high spy, was the prototype.
The most famous of these was sheep
e ard down, or as it was sometimes
called 'sheep-fold 'Sheep-guard down
was a RAFT ing good game, and I've
spent hours chasing aro4nd my fathers
house whe we usually played it. 1t
was too hot asgame for summer, but
first rate for fall and early winter We
lived ABOUT half mile of the village
then. When cold weather approa he'd
my father used to bank up the house,
and then we were ready for sheep guard
down. You don't know what 'Lanking
up house is, do youP Well, it's build
ing wall of tan bark or sawdust, or
earth even, q ound the walls on which
your no sc stands to protect the cellar
from frosts The wall is held up in
place by boards and the boards by
stakes driven down Inside of them into
the ground. But to return to the game.
We ok stick-sometimes a broom
handle, sometimes one of those banking
stakes-and leaned it up against the
bank ng, and then the shepherd closed
his eyes and counted twenty, thirty, for
ty, any number agreed on, while the
rest us skipped ont. When he'd fin
ished co ming he began looking for us.
All he had to do was to ee one of us,
get to the guard that is, the stick
before the man seen could, and, touch
ing the guard, call the man by name.
Tn 1t man WIS out OF the game unless
the guard was thrown down by one of
the men hiding. in the shepherd alb
sence. While the shepherd was looking
in one direction one of the men would
slip up, throw he stick over, and sho t
sheep guard down. The they wo Id
MI come in, and the shepherd would
have to start in afresh.
'The e was another game we used to
1lay which l venture to say you never
even heard of. We called it blank a
lio.' Now, as to the meaning of that
name, if it has any mean ng, haven't
64en theory. It's sort of hare and
bounds in the dark, with call for a
rail instead of its of paper. A man is
selected--a good runner-for the blank
lilo, and he is given a little start.
Then the rest of the players start afte
lin, guided in the chase by his cry of
b aux lilo, which he is obliged to ut
er every me he turns a corner or
Starts in a new direction. We had
tp-top place to play it. | used to think
Il fun. and / like hare and hounds for
no other reason. spent fortnight in
be village last summer. was sitting
one night in front store facing the
Green, as the little park in the center
d the village is called, talking with the
goprietor, who was an old school
aum of mine. 1t was after nine clock,
sstarlight ght, wit no moon. All
sonee boy dashed tn ough the store
mm rear door, sprang by us, and
aIe out on the street fairly rose on his
trtoe as he yelled Blank lilor BY
I've, almost answered him, and was
Mi tempted to go after him as he tore
noss the Green and up the street.
10 boys play it there now, I'm told,
rRe played i years before them.
+ the running games there were
5nber which called for agility as we'll
speed. The best of those, in my
pion, was prison goal ! see the