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


in front of the City Hall by the boys
hanging around there. They call it
prisoners base.' In pr son goal you
select two captains, and they choose
their men, first one making pick and
then the other. The boys known as
good runners are most in demand, and
are, of course, first chosen. Often they
are made capita ms. When the sides are
chosen each takes goal. In our
school yard ere were dozen or more
Big locust trees ranged in four rows,
two on each side 0 the long walk lead
ing fir IN the street down to the wood n
sehool-house. There were two trees on
tre outer rows next to the street, re-
hans twenty-five feet from the side
walk. They were usually the goals,
and the trees next to them the prisons
Each side had goal and a pr son.
The game was for the men on one side
to capture all those on the other and
put them in prison. You can orly
catch man when he is away from his
goal, and when you do catch him and
get b m in prison that is, take him to
the tree on your side n xt 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. Jud priest,
young man, that's game worth play
ing! just imagine ten to twenty boys
on side, G CHI side SIX FINISHING out to-
ward the other, tantalizing them with
near approaches, lodging, running
back, and then having one of your own
men run out and catch the man chasing
L
the name of johnnie Reel, and how he
could run! He was blu 1t like a grey
hound, slender and wiry, and he never
tired any more than the Wee s in the
clocks which his father sold. I've seen
teel run ear around the goal on the
opposite side and not boy ecu d touch
him. He could dodge as well as he
could run. He's since become sailor
on the lakes, and his father is selling
clocks and mend ng watches to this
very day in a neighboring V llage.
leach man to his own goal was
much like prison goal cNcelt that
each man had goal to himself and
preyed upon or was the p ey of every
other man playing. We u ed to play
that nights in the green The were
number of locust trees there, and we
played around them. A ter while the
vii age trr stees planted young NAPLES
between the locusts, with t lie idea
getting rid of the locus eventually, as
they are not very su table for shade
trees. We played around the maple
because they were slender and we could
catch on to them better when we came
ba k with rush. The trustees pu a
OF To hot Iv,,-
the trees. l don sup e it did do
them any good, the wren hing and
twisting we gave the n, but at the tine
we thought tne stamp act was conces-
ion of mercy compared with the injus-
tice we had to suffer at the hands of
those stony-hearted trustees. l remem-
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 Lave grown to be we'll
sized and the locusts have been cut
down.
"After prison goal came, in the order
of popularity, pom pom ullaway. How
on earth the game ever got such name
| haven't tie 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 m.ddle of the
ground Casually on the long walk lead
ing up to the school-houSe in the old
school-yard) and the rest gathered in
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 ptllaway;
Come quick, or I'll fetch you wa
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 a slender fellow, he went
down under that rush, just as a racing
smell goes over when wave strikes it
broadside. A very dirty, dusty boy,
often with torn clothes and more or
less bruised person, wasall shat was left
to tell the story. That didn't happen
very often. The 'pullaway' can usually
catch and hold ONE man, and then the
prisoner has 10 take his place. Speak
ing of the name of the game, it occurs
to me now at pullaway is probably
the two words pull and away. Ican't
i. agine what pom means, unless it S a
corruption of come
"About the only outdoor game not
requiring special effort was humble
typeg. 'Mumbletvpeg', is, l am told,
a corruption of humble the peg, and
takes its name from the fact that
the oser is obliged to draw
# m the ground with his te sth peg
which his opponent has driven in.
'Mumbletypeg is layed now, telieve
at least NY boy was telling me OF a
game that seems the same. he game
was played with the ordinary pocket
knife viii, h boy carried until he 10 t
it. The trick was to toss the knife from
various positions on the hand or in the
ing rs into the air and have the point
stick into the ground when it came
down. 1t required some little k II to
d. it. although it seem ID simple enough
here were fifteen or twenty different
movements, as | remember the game,
and each man played unit he missed =
that is, until his knife failed to stick
into the ground. One curious mo e.
ment, remember, was to hold the
KIN fe by the tip of the blade, between
the thumb and inger of the rig hand,
with the hand placed close to the tip of
the left ear, and the thumb and nnger
of the left hand holding the tip the