The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-04-05
HOW 10 ENTERTAIN.
Mrs. John Sherwood on the Rec
reation Of Lawn Tennis.
HOW 70 LAY OUT THE COUNT.

HOW 70 LAY our THE COUNT.
Sslectton ~ she Representatives, Of
Ne Playsrs-RaIss and Rsguls-
tioas Of ths Gsns.
"Ihe melancholy days are come
The saddest Of the year;
Too warm, alasi for whisky punch.
1oocold for ginger beeri
'Puli up the wicket and the stake
And put by the maIlet and the ball,
No more croquct will be played this year,
II II getting too late In the fall"
Lawn tennis seems to be summer game
IN America, and to demand claret cup and
lemonade served on the green.
II has quite displaced croquet, that game
which Punch recommends to curates of the
mild kind.
Lawn tennis has great antiquity, of
course. What fashionable game has not?
Even our jokes We find all date back to the
Latin poets.
Did not Agrippina play at croquet and
Cleopatra institute Lies Graces 20 We
know that Diana started archery, for she is
always drawing . bow, and yet she died an
old maid.
The Greeks styled court tennis as
.sphairistike" and the Romans called it
pila. It was the fashionable pastime of
French and English kings. Charles v. Of
France and Henrys ", VII. and VIII. of
England were all good tennis players. 1t
became in England the fashionable sport
of the wealthy. owing to the expense of
erecting and maintaining covered courts,
for in early days We learn that it was
always played within doors. Indeed the
history of France is full of it. The un-
happy Charles TX. gave the order for the
massacre of st. Bartholomew from tennis
court.
The French revolution was born in one.
1t was the beginning of the national as
sembly, when that third estate issued
edicts from a tennis court.
Major Walter Kingfeld, an English
officer Of the First dragon guards in 1874,
took the net out of doors and no longer
did four walls encompass the players.
Now, in 1891, the game which started in
1222 is the favorite of people of fashion,
and healthy-minded young people find it
the best amusement at Newport and at
country houses, and young men and
women exercise cOmmendable zeal in get
ting up tennis parties and tournaments.
The name doubtless came from Tennois,
in the French district of Champagne,
where balls are manufactured and where,
it is claimed, the game was first intro
duced.
A lawn well clipped and evenly rolled is
the first requirement. The courts should
be laid rectangularly. The game should
be gotten up with reference to the wind.
the net being set at right angles with it.
Thus will be avoided the tendency of air
currents to carry the balls off or beyond
the bounds, and the play will then be
against or with the wind. In either case
its influence can be more easily calculated.
The lines Of boundary and division
should be indicated upon the greensward
by means of whitewash, carefully laid on
with brush and string. The larger or
double court should be seventy eight feet
long by width Of thirty-six feet, inside
measure, and the smaller or single-handed
court seventy-eight by twenty-seven feet,
inside measure.
As in the old game Of tennis, so in this,
the court is divided across the middle
and at right angles to its greatest length
by a net, so stretched and fastened to and
by two posts standing three feet outside of
the side lines that the height of the net
at each post for the doubie-handed or
larger court is four feet and in the middle
over half the court line three feet six
inches, and for the single-handed or
smaller court, four feet nine inches at the
posts and three feet in the middle over
the half court line. These divisions are
termed courts, and are subdivided into
half courts by line midway between the
side lines and running parallel with the
greatest length, which is known Is the
half court line. The four resulting half
courts are respectively divided by a line on
each side of the net, parallel to and
TWENTY-FIVE feet from it. These two lines
called service lines, j. may be observed,
will then be seventeen feet inside of the
lines of boundary for the short sides
known as base lines.
The implements comprise net, posts,
cordage, balls and rackets. The net
should be taut, the posts straight the ball
hollow, of India rubber, covered with
white cloth, in size two inches and a half,
weight two ounces. The racket is made Of
frame of elastic wood, with q webbing
nicely wrought of catgut. The large
sized rackets made in London are the best
The players don costume Of flannel
made for the purpose, wearing shoes of
corrugated rubber soles, without heels.
SO long as the dress is loose and easy its
fashion may be left to the individual.
The choice of sides and the right of serv-
ing are left to the chance of toss, with the
proviso that if the winner of the toss
choose the right to serve, the other player
shall have the choice of sides, or vice
versa.
There are double-handed. three-handed
and four-handed games, each having some
variation. In the double-handed game
the players stand on opposite sides of the
net. The player who first delivers the ball
is called the server and the other the striker
out. The first game having been played,
these interchange, the server becomes the
and so alternately in subsequent games of
the set. The server usually announces his
intention to serve by the interrogation
"Ready7" If answered affirmatively
the service is made, the server
standing with one foot outside the
base line, and from any part of the
base line of the right and left courts alter
nately, beginning with the right. The
ball so served is required TO drop within
the service line, half court line and side
line of the court, which is diagonally
opposite TO that from which it was served,
where the service from the base line must
tall to be service. If the ball served
drops on or beyond the service line, if it
drops in the net, if it drops out of the
court or on any of the lines which bound
il, or if il drops in the wrong court, or if,
in attempting to serve, the server fails to
strike the ball. it is fault" A fault
cannot be taken. but the ball must be
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