Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-07-07
.PASTIMES In PLENTY.
A Variety of Games in England for
All Seasons of the Year.
CRICKET THE MONARCH OF ALL
Paper Chasing Sport That Should be
Imported to America.
SOME VERY ANCIENT INSTITUTIONS
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH,

iWhAA1hr rOh AAb OlbfAIChs.
The games of the Britisher are many and
various. From the lowly chuck-farthing to
the lofty cricket, there are games the very
enumeration of which would cover whole
pages. verify believe that our trans-At-
lantic brothers have distinct pastime for
every day in the year. But Of course only
a select few of these games merit considera-
tion. Every season has its peculiar game
suitable to the climate; but il is only in the
great public schools that the precise order Of
rotation is strictly observed.
In winter and early spring football reigns
supreme. Most Americans know how foot
ball is played; many of them, no doubt,
have practiced it themselves. The foot
ballist dons tight Jersey; knickerbockers-
generally flannel, long stockings and stout
shoes. Thus equipped he joins his side
usually 10 in number, and does his best, ac-
cording to his position on the field, to drive o
spherical leather ball through the goals The
ball is about the size of mans head, and
varies in shape. Those who play "Associa-
ton" rules use round ball. while the fol-
lowers OF the Rugby" rules, by far the
most popular in England and ireland, pre-
fer an oval one.
The main difference between the two
great sects into which the football world is
divided is, that the Rugby rules permit
their votaries to take up the ball with their
hands and carry it, while the association
rules forbid all touching or lifting with the
hands. 1t would be impossible in my
allotted space to enter into the minutie Of
of the great winter game. Suffice it, that
the amount of running about and the con-
slant hard work which football engenders,
make it the warmest of games; while it is
just sufficiently dangerous to make il dear
to the average youth.
RESEMBLES BASEBALL,
Before spring variety of games obtain
before cricket and tennis appear. Among
these minor sports is one called FOUNDERS"
which Is almost exactly similar to baseball.
1t is played at Eton and Harrow and in the
great Jesuit colleges; but beyond school
walls it is little known. Raequets, hand
ball and ives, all played in high-walled
courts, are other spring games. The scor.
ing of racquets is like that Of tennis, and
the implements used are wooden bat and
soft ball.
With summer comes cricket-and the big
county clubs play matches and return
matches necessarily. The famous Aus
tralian team goes over every other year, and
generally manages to beat the mother coun-
try into fits. The gentlemen of England
play the professional cricketers at ''Lords''
-buC SEOuuu Vi Tue MlQQQIeScx
Cricket Club; and this annual match vies
in interest with the Eton VS. Harrow, and
the Oxford VS. Cambridge matches. The
three great cricketing counties in England
are Motifs, York and Surrey, and one Of
these is generally champion OF England.
In ireland the cricket playing is always
very fierce. The team sent over here
last year by the Emerald Islanders was not
by any means a representative one, mas
do 70
tleman players, and contained not a single
professional. The rules of cricket are too
well known over here to need any descrip-
tion, and the same may be said anent lawn
tennis, the other great summer game.
Tennis is played in country places much
more than cricket, because it requires but
two to make a good match, while a really
good cricket match cannot be got up under
II side.
QUITE GAME.
1t is all nonsense to call tennis lady's
game. OF course ladies play 1t, but when
two muscular specimens OF British human
ity stand on opposite sides of the net there
is quite as much exertion and quite as much
strength required for tennis as for any other
game. Autumn brings football back once
more, and it is played throughout the win
ter, except during the weeks that ice pre-.
walls, when curling, hockey and the various
There are few pastimes indigenous to
particular portions of the British isles.
Among these may be mentioned hurling-
the national game of ireland. OF old, high
kings and mighty chiefs took part in hur-
ling matches but now the sport is mostly
confined to the peasantry. 1 know of no
finer sight than determined hurling match.
There are generally some 80 men on each
side, and the game is played with long
otio ourvad nd thioE OF w.
a hard ball, in shape similar to base ball.
Hnrling is a very dangerous game and few
PLAYERS escape without severe bruises.
A kind of mounted hurting is polo, q game
much played in military circles. The play,
ers riding ponies specially trained, and
armed with long mallets, try to drive a
small white ball through their adyersaries'
goal. Polo is extremely risky, aud in
wolves great expense, as the ponies have to
be changed over and over during the match.
Golf, which is a Scotch game, requires
good eye and some muscular power. have ,
played it more than once, but could never
see any particular attraction ia spending
ones time hitting balls in pits or hollows,
with slender and slightly curved sticks
such being the principal part of the game
A POPULAR PAsTIdE.
If paper-chasing can be called game. IA
is certainly one of the most popular. Two
swift runners, llgully cidu, SET OUT lQLO the
open country, laden with bags containing
torn-up paper. These they scatter after
them at intervals as they run-crossin9
hedge and ditch, stream and fence on their
vay. When the "hares," as they ara
called, have had fair start, the "hounds"
pursue, following the trail of the scattered
papers There may be any number Of
''hounds"-I have seen a field of 136 set
out on an eight-mile chase. I think this
ha Il
lean youth in the fall and the early spring.
Croquet, once a popular game, is ns-
reekoned "slow" in England, and is played
by old maids and country curates. The
ancient game of bowlsstiil survives in quiet
country inns, and on the close clipped
village greens in, the west of England.
Skittles and beer are, as they were in tho
days of Shakespeare, the dearest pleasures
of the Hodges of Southern England. They
will swill their beer-or as we would call
it-"ale," and roll their wooden balls
among the pins from early morn to dewy
eve.
Quarterstaff is still preserved in Berk-
shire and Wiltshire. 1t is played with two
oak cudgels, and the object Of the player
is to raise piece of skin on his opponents
crown. The moment blood appears the
match is decided. But the list Of minor
games would startle the reader with its
numbers; and the pastimes have already
referred to are the only ones which are at all
widely distributed. The only English
games proved 70 have been in existence in
early times are football and bowls, while in
Ireland hurting is mentioned by the ancient
poets as early as 500 b. G.
One tact is pretty certain, namely that
the English, Scotch or Irish boy need never
be at loss for game.
PEREGRrsE QuuL.
Retort In Kind.