Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1894-05-03
W0RKMEN'S GAMES.
WAYS IN WHICH BRITISH LABOReRs
AMUsE THEMSELVES.

Loves Vigorous Sports and Those in
Which a Dog Is Principal.
A cynical Frenchman who claimed to
have closely studied the subject once an
nounced his conclusion that the British
workman's chief sport and almost sole
amusement was beating his wife. His die.
tum has been widely accepted, until it has
come to be almost an axiom. But it does
the British workman injustice. Not all Of
his class are bad, as this would make out.
while the majority are fertile in amuse
ment resources. Taking them as whole
| it is likely that no similar class in any other
country has such varied resources of sport
or is so jealous in its pursuit as the Brit
| ish workman.
Perhaps it is in the colliery districts that
sport, in all its peculiar forms, most flour.
ishes, for colliers usually have more spare
time than other rough manual workers, and
used to have much more money. Here some
''event" or another may be seen any day of
the week, Sunday especially, in which usu-
ally the collier's dog his chief instrument
of entertainment, is the principal figure.
| Rabbit coursing, one of his principal
amusements, has recognized place among
the standard sports of Britain, and receives
great attention in the sporting press. Dog
racing is another favorite sport in the
north. The course is usually about 200
yards long, and the races, in handicaps, are
run off in heats. The dogs are trained to
race at highest speed and exert themselves,
without rider or other inducement, as
much as does a race horse. The owner of
each animal plants himself in the course
just past the finishing post and urges his
animal on with shouts, imprecations and
wild gesticulations. The animals are slip
ped at one end and tear down the course at
hottest speed between the throngs of eX-
cited spectators, allowing nothing to divert
them from the effort to be first past the
post Hog racing handicaps are regular
attractions on Lancashire racing grounds,
and the stakes run from 500 to 5000, or
even $500.
Rat coursing is another popular pastime
Advertisements in newspapers and posted
on billboards and fences may regularly be
seen, announcing that some public house
keeper will give e5 to be coursed for at
rats by all classes of terriers, fighting dogs
barred" A sweepstake is made with the
stake offered and the entry fees, and the
whole affair conducted with much formal
ity and solemnity. The referee and the
rats are furnished by professional rat
catcher. A dollar dozen is the average
price for rats. A long stretch of green turf
is inclosed and boarded up foot or two in
height for course. The rat catcher has the
rats all together in sack, and he deftly
snatches one out with his bare hand and
tosses it into the inclosure. Two dogs are
slipped in after the rat has had short
start, and the first to kill wins. The rats
are usually very nimble, and the dogs need
to be clever as well as, swift.
Plain rat killing divides high honors with
rat coursng as well patronized game
among northern British sports" A match
usually arises out of discussion over the
merits of two dogs, but gate money Is
charged, betting books are opened, and
when the event is called it has developed
into an affair as exciting as horse race. A
match is usually for 20 rats a side. The
rats are starved, so as to make them wiry
and fierce. The whole 90 are turned into
the pit at one time, are made to run around
for few minutes, then the first dog is
turned in, the referee touches his stop
watch, and the sport" watched by hun
dreds of human eyes, begins. The dogs are
trained to their part, and often 20 rats are
killed in less than 90 seconds. The other
dog is turned in with the remaining 20
rats, and the victory is dependent on COM
parison of the respective times occupied by
each dog in killing its quota.
Trail hunting by dogs is another popular
sport. 1t is conducted on the same general
plan as are the anise bag hunts by our fash
ionable fox hunting clubs, except that only
the dogs take part in the hunt, and the first
dog in at the death gets the figurative brush.
A hllly stretch of country is chosen, and
swift runner trails an anise bag over a diff
cult route, up hill and down dale, through
hedges and over high stone fences, ending
in long, staked out homestretch. The
dogs are let loose and they follow the trail
at full speed persistently and ardently, un-
TIL they come in yelping squirt over the
homestretch to the finish This is an at
tractive sport, and a good trail hunt is worth
seeing.
Bird singing matches are another promi-
nent amusement. 1t is not an exciting
sport to the uninitiated, but to the north
srn British workman, with his money up.
1t Is intensely exciting. The birds, in cages
covered with screen of cloth, are placed
side by side on a table, or hung together ON
the wall OF room. At a given signal the
cloths are removed and the contest begins
Not whisper is heard in the room, crowd
ed as it is with an excited audience. First
one bird chirps or trills or bursts into
song, ana then another. Or perhaps one
or all remain persistently silent. The con-
test Is IN heats of so many minutes each,
and is decided on a mystifying basis of
trills, chirps, MARBLES and various oddly
named and distinguished notes. Sometimes
TOO eager owner will chirp or otherwise
encourage his bird, which brings down a
storm OF profane expostulation and may
precipitate fight.
Brass band contests are form of amuse-
ment in which the whole community NAV
snare They are scarcely peculiar ito the
north, for now almost every large Sunday
school in an English town has a brass band
organized among its members. If not a
Drass band, then drum and fife corps,
winch Is unlike the corps familiar in this
country in that the proportion is about one
drum to half a dozen or more flies. Most
villages OF Importance in the north have
thelr local brass bands, and local contests
are frequent, while occasionally there will
DC national contest at some seaside re-
sort. They are source of delight to the
BRUSH workman, to whom the main inter
u