The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-12
GAMES OF THE FRENCH BOYS
TT IS AN INTERESTING SIGHT TO
 SEE THEM AT PLAY.

| Their Games Are Horse and Hoop OhIi | They Are Fifteen Years old When More
 Athletic Games Arc Indulged In.
 Paris, March 16, 1895.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER;
 It would do all your hearts good to see French boys at play. An after noon in the garden of the Tuileries would not be wasted if devoted to the subject. The French boy is so gentle: so pretty; so agile, and so anxious that no one be hurt. His little screams are so attractive, and his little jumps are so faun-like and so graceful. Until the French boy is fifteen his pet games are "horse" with his nurse and "hoop" with his sister. To see a French boy driv- ing a hoop while his elder sister runs beside him to set the pace is one of the prettiest sights in Paris. For the game of "horse," French shops offer rich and costly accoutrements. The game itself offers endless variety of artistic inter est. The nurse may drive the boy. The boy may drive the nurse. There may be two boys to intricate matters; and there may even be three boys with the nurse as a sympathetic and encour- aging whip. The start; the midway career. and the final stop, are equally entrancing to mammas and to outside spectators Battledoor-and-shutt cock is also played; but played after very mild and gentle manner There is no effort made to hit the shuttle cock over three or four times without stopping and commenting the brave pace at which the game is proceeding. The pause, too, enables mammas to wipe incipient precipitation from the lofty brows of their darlings. Outside boys may join in and make play at the shuttleoock as 1t flies at a distance. They don't hit 1t, of course, but they join in the general squeal and share the fun. Besides, the shuttlecock is just as likely to come their way as any other way. Then they can really pick it up and really try to hit 1t with as big bang as the other boys make. But battledoor-and-shut Is still re- garded as rather dangerous amuse- ment. It is whispered that once the eye of a promising juvenile was struck by the feather of flying shuttlecock; that the juvenile had to be taken home
  in cab; and that his mamma held one hand and the nurse the other all the l way to calm the perturbations of his | frightened soul.
 When the small boy Is no longer a | small boy, but a fully grown boy, he | plays football and hand-ball. Let no | one imagine that the football is the | naughty thing it is at home. Take | from the naughty home game the goals, l sides, points all contact Of players with | players, and all contact with the ball | except with the toe of a finely pointed | French boot, and you will have some | Idea of the sweet little game as the | French boys play it. The ball itself is a large, comfortable ball. which looks | as if it were made of rubber and were filled with atmospheric air. One boy | gets the ball and gives it a nice little | kick. Then another boy gets it and | gives it another nice little kick. If the | boys run after the ball they always stop | for the man who is ahead to get the ball | and kick it at his leisure. Should a | boy get a tumble everything stops till | he is helped to his feet and has been | given the ball as compensation for the | mishap-should amy one be in the least | degree hurt, all mingle tears and the game stops for the day. Mammas and | nurses are not allowed to witness the | game de "foot-ball' because of the ef- | feet it's blood d-thirstiness might have on | their delicate sensibtlities. Besides | there must come a. time for mammas | and nurse to be ordered to the rear. l The game de hand-ball" Is heroic and | mature. It is not played by the boy till | the boy Is advanced in manhood The | French hand-ball is quite extraordina- | ry. It is played with ball; very nice, | round, easy comfortable ball; not too | hard, of course, but still hard enough | CO SuSSGSL SOlluILy dlu h SIldll ldli- l bourine. There is but one ball; but | each player has his own tambourine and is very fond of its decorations. | There is no limit to the number of play CTS. Every one having a tambourine can join in. When everything is ready | stalwart creature advances with ma jestic tread, holding the ball in one hand and his tambourine in the other After a pause for focusing attention he whirls his tamboLrine awhile, and then whacks the ball with it with all his might and main. The ball scars aloft, twenty feet or more, and then obeying laws of gravity, begins to descend. As it descends another tambour1ne-armed stalwart rushes forward with intent to whack it anew before it touches mother earth and send it again skyward. If he miss, as he generally does, then he must pick the ball from mother earth aforesaid and recommence the game. A re-whack excites great applause. A triple whack, should such thing ever hal 111 4o I