Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-06-15
GERMAN CHILDHOOD.
Few and Simple Games All That the
Children Play.
None Of thc Healthy, ROmPing VIgor
Of American and English Chill.
dren's SpOrts-The Clergy.
mans Sons.

James Kaeg In San Francisco Chronicle.
The chill lren here have but few games to
play, and these few gre Of the most simple
kind, requiring little or no skill and having
none Of the ronping, healthy, hurrab boys
vigor which characterizes the American and
English children's sports. The girls. to be-
gin with the fair sex, have only one game
which is exclusively played by them. This
is sort Of Little Sally Water" game.
one little girl getting in the center Of the
ring formed toy the other players join
ing hands. Around this center the ring
slowly reyolves, its individual members
singing. At a certain word in the song
the center one chooses one out Of the ring,
goes thu ough some sort of mummery, wind
ing up with kiss and takes her place in the
ring, when the whole performance is re-
peatei ad infinituni. But the singing js
tame, slow and piping compared TO the !usty
song which Little Sally Waters" parties
sing in America, and the circling around is
done in the slowest sort Of tine and has none
of the dash and romp about it which rightly
belongs there. Besides playing this game,
the girls roll hoops and spin tops, but the
boys do both Of these things too. There is
an art in rolling hoop, in making it describe
all manner Of abrupt curves and follow the
slightest movement Of the drving-st as if
il were thing of life, and atnenalle to train
Ing.
ROLLING HOOP AN ART.
Tbs German children have no idea of this
art They are contented and happy to chase
the flying circle through thick and thin, hit
ting il rap now and then whenever they
get within rapping distance of it, and never
making any attempt to perform any difficult
fea,s. knowing this | was greatly surprised
one day to see a crowd Of children on the
street in front OF my window watching in
silent wonder the intricate evolutions of two
hoop-rolling boys. One Of them vas about
Z and the other 10 years old The
older one had large hoop and the
younger one a smaller one. And the
way they managed those hoops was
really a treat. The large boy would drive
his hoop Us fast as he could run and the
smaller boy would come up at right angles,
drive his hoop through the larger one and
follow it himself, all without a single in
stant's interruption of the rat-tat of both
sticks upon the hoops. Then one boy would
take both hoops and go racing up the streets,
a stick in each baud, driving the two hoops
in front OF him like span Of horses. Then
each would drive his hoop at the slowest-
paced walk, would make it turn somersaults
sidewise, jump into the air. turn short around
and 60 through n great number Of difficult
maneuvers; and the crowd Of children stood
by in open mouthcd wonder, while | began
to think that perhaps hid been doing the
German children an injustice by thinking
That they can play no skillfui games.
THE cLERdYMAN's SONS.
But the next day happened along by
where the exhibition Of fancy hoop rolling
was being repeated before large audience.
Just 60. there the smaller boy was run
ming through the moving hoop of the other
boy. And, as he stopped over TO dash through,
his short jacket did not cover the tightly
drawn seat Of his pants. The larger boy
could not resist the temptation to use his stick
on the tight place. He hit the spot a
Sounding wliack. The result was whoop Of
agony from the hittee and tho following
remark, delivered in the most commonplace
English: Darn you, Sam; you do that
again an III break yer neck" The boys
were New Workers, Sons of an American
clergyman. ! have reconsiderei my recon-
sidoration about the want OF skill of the Ger
man children These two boys have gone
away, but they have left "a remembrance be-
hind taem IN the game OF "black man. now
played as the newest game, inst introduced
from America, by the boys of the neighbor-
hood
THE BOYS GAMES.
The tops and top spinning Of the German
Children are just as primitive their hoop
rolling. Peg tops, "long-peggers and short
pesgcrs, hox-woodcrs" and all the other
kinds OF American tops such as the American
small boy delights in arc unknown in Ger
many. The only substitute for the multifari-
Gus spinning tops in use in America is a little
whip top, roughly cut out Of piece of soft
wood ami laboriously Negotiated over the
rough stone sidewalks by little girls and boys,
bent half double and whipping away as if
their very lives depended upon Keeping the
whirling top upright And those almost con-
slant companions of the pee top in the
"omnium gatheruu" pockets Of the Amer-
can boy, marbles, are al,nos. US nm
known as are their stable companions. the
top. True, one sees few glass marbles and
"commouieS' in the store windows; but |
have not seen game of marbles played on
German soil. SO that TIE German boys
vocabulary is not enriched by such expressive
terms as Boston, "bigrng, Cincinnati"
'uucble-Gown,' hoist" "alles," "taw,"
agate 'purey," and China IF the fore
going terms lie too technical for those people
who have forgotten their boyhoois sports,
let them apply 10 the iirst boy they see; lie
will give them the desired infarmation.)
Base ball, foot ball, "nigser baby" town
ball, roundcrs, cone old cat, - two old cats"
hand ball. "handy over" cricket and all the
many other games which are played with
balls in America are totally unknown among
tie German children.