The Portland daily press., 1890-04-22
NUhIUUb HIbTUKINAL OUMb1N1
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The New ParIor came-KerIon Races.

To the Editor of the Press:
Science shows itself in very graceful at
titude when it does not disdain little things;
and, since Edison has wished to construct
the talking doll, there can be no indiscretion
in the mention of an ex-president of Harvard
University as the inventor of new game
which-on account of its variety, its opportu-
mites for skill and foresight, and the charm
inseparable from even little work OF a
learned and imaginative mind-will become
the favorite and fashionable indoors diver
sion at mountain and seaside resorts this
summer, and at social reunions next winter.
1t is called the kerion Races, and Kerion
was Greek to me, until informed that 1t is
Greek also in the vocabulary, and means "a
honey comb" 1t is, by the way, prounced
ke-re-on, with the accent upon the Sc" In
fact, the small board, upon which the game
Is played. Is divided into 1877 spaces, shaped
like the cell of bee; and across this yerita-
BILE honey comb two ardent Swarms of black
and yellow individuals resembling minia-
ture chess pawns) run their busy race. Of
these hexagonal spaces the central seven are
set apart for mystic grove, wherein no
man, yellow or black, may enter. On oppo-
site sides Of this grove are heart shaped
courts all these things have delicate liter
airy SAVIOR as OF some classic myth revived
and IN these courts are stationed the two
OoihPdhioo VI HILL. lHty move AROUND the
grove in opposite directions by means of sin
gle steps from space to space, precisely like
the moves of the king at chess or by series
OF leaps, like those of king at draughts, ex-
cepting that the men oyerleape1 are not
taken from the board. The player who first
succeeds in making the circuit of the grove
and replacing his men in their original court
wins the game. This is the simple race, the
nucleus of interesting variations.
The stited race is so called because the
men have the advantage of being supported,
as IL by stills, upon the cast of die which,
according to the momentary caprice of For
tune-she must be the goddess enshrined in
that mystic grove !-allows to the player one,
two or three consecutive moves.
A still more difficult and brilliant game is
that OF the hobbled races, in which the moral
becomes evident that the favors Of Fortune
are not seldom drawbacks to real progress;
since, with two dice and possibility of as
often finds his men "hobbled" by this fixed
number Of their movements. OF course
pure skill is the only winning force in the
first mode of playing Kerion. In the others
Is added the element of luck. Yet, as DIR.
HilFs. printed directions wisely note, ''al-
though the higher skill may not always win
there is still more urgent need of a highe
skill, since the player is continually called
upon to confront unexpected situations and
to convert as Wordsworth phrases it
interpretations, which would hide,
And darken,
Into repeated and triumphal
Contingencies of pomp."
Z. CAvAZZA.
The game of Kerion Races is for sale by
Mcclellan, Mosher & Co., Cushman's toy
store, Days toy store. Owen. Moore &c Co.,
j. M. Dyer & Co., Frank Clark, Loring,
Short & Harmon.