The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1884-02-14
P0M.P0M PULLAWAY.

P0M-P0M PULLAWAY.
A Broker Reviews the Games of His Boy
hood-LiveIy and Healthful Outdoor
sports of the Past Generation-Sheep-
Fold, Shinny and the Ancestors of Base
Ball.
Were v-u ever bov?" asked a
broker of Young friend the other day
he vounr man modestly admitted that
he had been, and asked the broker in
return what he meant by thus inquiring
into his private affairs. "Well, III tell
,ou.' said the broker. .l've got boy;
not an Office boy, but boy of my own.
lIc's turning h 5 tenth birthday, and |
thought I'd do something nice for him.
SO oegan huRing around to find out
what ned ike, and 1 asked him what
Games he PLAYED at school. Well, may
lie caught short on Northern Pacific if
the onlv game, as | underst nd him,
that he plays ism marbles. Now. mar
lies is all right, but | don't like the
idea of IL steady diet in that line. 1t
sided development. / know that if my
repertoire of games when | was ten
years old had been limited to marbles
I'd have heen of no earthly good in the
village where | was raised. 1t isn't
very much offs village, 900 or ! ,200in-
habitants and l don't suppose there
were more than twenty five or thirty
boys who usually ran together, but we
bad great many different games.
To begin with, there were half a
,lozen games, of which Il spy, or as we
called it, high spy, was the prototype.
The most famous of these was sheep
guard down. or as it was sometimes
called 'sbeep-fold.' 'Sheep-guard down
was u ralt ing good game, and I've
spent hours chasing around my fathers
house where we usually played it. 1t
was too hot a game for summer, but
first rate for fall and early winter. We
lived about half a mile ont of the village
then. When cold weather approached
my father used to bank up the house,
and then we were ready for sheep guard
down. You don't know what banking
up house is, do YOU? Well, it's build
inv wall of tan bark or sawdust, or
earth even, around the walls on which
YOUR ho Ise stands to protect the cellar
from frosts The wall is held up in
place by boards and the boards bg
stakes driven down outside of them into
the ground. But to return to the game.
We [, ok a stick sometimes a broom
handle, sometimes one of those banking
Stakes-and leaned it up against the
banking, and then the shepherd closed
his eyes and counted twenty, thirty, for
ty, any numler agreed on. while the
rest OF us skipped out. When he'd fin
ished counting he began looking for us.
4 H. h.,I - Il Nf
get TO the guard that u.s. the stick
before the man seen could, and, touch
ing the guard, call the man by name.
That man was out OF the game unless
the guard was thrown down by one of
the men hiding, in the shepherds alb
sence. While the shepherd was looking
in one direction one of the men would
slip up, throw the stick over, and shout
Sheep guard down. Then they wo1ld
all come in, and the shepherd would
have to start in afresh.
'"There was another game we used to
play which venture to say you never
even heard of. We called it blank a
lilo Now, as to the meaning of that
name, if it has any meaning, / haven't
even theory. It's sort of hare and
hounds in the dark, with a call for a
trail instead of bits of paper. A man is
selected-a good runner-for the blank
lilo, and he is given little start.
Then the rest of the players start after
him, guided in the chase by his cry of
blank lilo, which he is obliged to ut
ter every time he turns a corner or
starts in new direction. We had a
tip-top place to play it. used to think
it fun, and l like hare and hounds for
no other reason. spent fortnight in
the village last summer was sitting
one night in front of q store facing the
of the village is called, talking with the
proprietor, who was an old school
chum of mine. 1t was after nine o clock,
Il starlight night, with no moon. All
at once boy dashed through the store
from rear door, sprang by us, and
once out on the street fairly rose on his
tp-toe as he yelled. Blank lilo! BY
.love, almost answered him, and was
half tempted to go after him as he tore
across the Green and up the street.
The boys play it there now, I'm told,
as we played it years before them.
''Of the running games there were a
number which called for agility as well
as speed. The best of those, in my
opinion, was prison goal l see the
same game played now and then nights
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
a-e, of course, first chosen. Often they
are made captains. When the sides are
chosen each takes a goal. In our
school yard there were dozen or more
Big locust trees ranged in four rows,
two on each side OF the long walk lead
ing from the street down to the wooden
School -honsa Thara mara two trees ON