Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-05-11
PLAYING BADMINTON.
A TWO HOURS FRouc FOR NEW
Works. SOCIETY YOUNG FOLKS.

Arrival Of the Biggest Swell Of the Dam
dies After an Elaborate Course Of
Thought-sixty Thousand . Year and
the Results Thereof.
People who imagine that the young men
and women of New York society are stih
and formal in their manners would have
been somewhat surprised at the crowd OF
young people who met together one
afternoon to play badminton in queer
little Fourth avenue building.
It didn't take q very shrewd observer
to discover that badminton, as played In
New York, consists Of conversation TO
very large extent, interpreted with few
cursory bits Of hit and misplay with the
racduets There were no chaperones at
all at this game, and 1t amounted to .
merry sort of q froiic for two hours in the
middle Of the day. 1t was amusing to
listen to the talk, for the English accent,
which is affected, 50 laboriously by some
Of the society people, was picked up and
dropped precisely as fancy dictated by the
gorgeously attired people, who made bad
minton an excuse for meeting without
being oppressed by the presence Of chaper-
one duennas.
A DEEP AND LOGICAL CONCLUSION.
The biggest swell of the handles arrived
an hour before time. He was a small man
with prominent teeth, rather pallid face,
and a pair of shadowy side whiskers- He
pranced up to the door Of the fiimsy frame
structure and nodded carelessly to stolid
Englishman who stood by the door with a
straw in his mouth and his hands in his
pockets.
GGood mawnin'. Fowbes." said the new
conner. screwinp single glass into one Of
his weak eyes, and glaring hard at the at
tendant: @is any one heah,S
1Not vet. sir" said the attendant, re-
spectfully.
aAw.n muttered the young man, COM
placently: II am the first one then" Hav-
ing arrived at this deep and logical con-
clusiop. after an elaborate course Of
thought, he cast q ghostly and transparent
smile at Forbes and drifted through the
doorway into the barn-like structure.
Here he cast critical view at net which
extended across the floor, went to one
of a series Of small lockers and took
therefrom q racquet. Then he assembled
the small stairway to a gallery, where
there were a few dressing rooms, and press
emily emerged in all the glory of white
flannel knicker bOckerS and shirt, with long
red stockings. a blue and white silk Nor
folk Jacket. and q blue worsted Tom
O'Shanter cap perched artfully upon his
rather peculiar looking head, Around one
of his slim wrists there was a broad leather
band clasped with four buckles-a scheme
by which champion badminton and tennis
piayers strengthen wrists that have been
strained by everyday. The single glass
now hung over his breast. He danced
about for a moment to Timber up his legs,
and then, stepping out into the inclosure
across which the net was placed, he
slipped off his silk Jacket, produced a little
cube into which was inserted a rim Of
| feathers. and tossed it in the air. Wheni it
came diving forward, with bullet-like
directness. he caught it deity on the end
of his racquet and sent it into the air
again.
HowLIsG SWELL OF HIGH ORDER.
The solitary Young badminton player
who WAS romping SO ioyously was howl
ing swell of n very high order. He didn't
look like a man Of great Importance, but
socially his position is enyiable. A man
who at the age of % spends s6O, 900 a year
without earning the reputation of being a
snendthrift or N fool rnust necessarily