The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-14
THE GAME OF MARBLES.
An CID UncIe's Experience With a
Young Nephew.
From the - - Rs.

/ marbles IN forty years or Whereabouts. A
| A-year-old nephew from the city had come
on one Of his rare visits TO my hermitage,
| and it behooved me 70 put my best foot
| foremost in the matter Of schOolboy jokes
| and games. At dinner on the day of his
arrival had attempted an allusion to that
| hoary and time-honored jest as TO "hu-
| jus hume of hook" which had never failed
Of an appreciative reception from the
young Latnists of my time. But l had
| the modification to ind that the univer
sal Introduction into the schools Of the last
| decades of the continental pronunciation
had blunted it's point, and my poor joke
was met with that dubious look OF queS-
| tioning-of silent demand for explanation
| that is SO fatal TO even the best Of wit.
! My "Ohe jam salts at dessert was still
| less successful. Even my more seriously
meant Latinity was dSapproVed OF, ana
| had it pointed out that 10 render "Omnia
| Gallia" as "All Gaul' is d hideous and in
| elegant provincialism. unworthy of the
dullest tyro in the lowest class the only
| true and acceptable translation in this
year of grace being "Gaul as a whole"
The discussion turning at intervals upon
| other branches of schOolr0Om lore, found
with a growing sense of discontinue, that
| in every direction the old methods had
| in the drift /, with my obsolete scholar
| ship, had been left stranded high and dry
| cut off from the receding deeps behind me,
| and unable to attain to the shadows
ahead
With this sentiment upon me of failure
| and of fossilization but determined, if
| possible, to retrieve in some measure my
| lost position, l proposed, one morning
during my nephew visit, game Of mar
! bles. We had, indeed, but one tor agate"
| between US, a Clipped and defaced globe
| of porcelain, that saunterng one day,
| some years ago, round about the long
| abandoned schoolhOuse Of my own school
days. 1 had kicked out of the clay, in
| which it had been embedded two-score
years or more, and, half mockingly, half
sentmentally, had brought home and
| foolishly treasured away. Under no cir
| cumstances, possibly, could a game of
| marbles in which the ''Ting-men' were
represented by pebbles Of varying shapes
and sizes-the one tor being interchange
| able between the players-have been
| satisfactory or scientific one. But 1 pass
| that over, my object being to show how
| the universal deterioration of things has
| invaded even the realms of pastime
My drawing of the ring was, in the first
| place, criticised and derided. My nephews
| drawing was 1 candidly acknowledge, in
| finitely superior both in accuracy and
| boldness of outline. Il was a perfect cir
| Gle, a thing of geometry and of beauty.
! We had not been taught the necessity,
| when l was young, of having the radii
| from center to circumference of a marble
! ring of equal length all around. When,
| however, at last, the ring, had been made,
and the pebbles doing du& as ring men
| had been placed in position, and a base of
| operations established, "come to tor I
| exclaimed. Now. my young nephew had
| never heard of tor, and again l expert
| enced that dampening of enthusiasm
| which naturally accompanies the necessi-
| ty of explanation. 1 could, indeed, give
neither the etymology of the word, nor
| it's Derivation nor even its authorized or
| biography. But to the best of my ability
! l did explain 1t, and [ required his "toeing
the mark a regulation of which he also
| seemed to be in ignorance.
These preliminaries adjusted, l gained
| las 1 supposed a recognized advantage,
! by calling out Barley me first 60" The
young man stared. do you mean" he
inquired. in the calm tone of a seeker af-
ter information mo doubt as one would
address himself to mummy for curious
| data as to the Pharoahs)-'dO you mean
that you claim first shoot?' This appear
ing to me needlessly harassing question,
l replied to it only by taking my go"
shot (as Is. indeed, the only just and
| and creditable way to do) with my toes
touching the mark, with my elbow stead
led on my hip, and observed the ancient
| and undisputed rule of shooting high
from tor" My agate described a beauti-
full parabola, and fell into orthodox posi-
ton within a foot of the ring.
1t was now my nephew's turn. He stood
| loosely, with both feet halfway over the
mark" and he poked-positively poked!
| ''Vaunt We pokancer / shouted, but was
baffled by the serene assurance that no
| penalty attaches TO pokance under the
| modern code, and that my phraseology
| was obsolete and barbarous! The chill of
| sequestration had been gathering closely
about my heart, and the feeling passed
| into bitterness, as, in defiance of all es-
tablished rules and of playground ethics,
the young fellows conquering tor swept
| pebble after pebble out of the ring, each
| new victory giving him new right as to
| sequence of go" 1T was, as the old
warrior declared of another brilliant game,
| magnificent but 1t was not-marbles.
| And the fellow played for "keepsv' There
was no playing for keeps forty years ago.
| In the SOS, out-of-school amusements
! were more limited in variety than IS the
| case to-day. We had no grand gymnas-
| iums with all the wonderful combtna-
tons of pulleys and springs and rubber
| helting. We knew nothing of systema-
tized athletics We rode no bicycles. Ko-
oaks were at yet undreamt of. For rainy
! days we had draught-boards and building
| blocks and for the greatly preferred out
"
snow snow forts and SNOWFALL battles.
| For the rest of the year there was the
Defense of the Bridge" by Horatius
! Coolies realistically rendered, after Ma
caulay. And there was always marbles.
Especially was this true of those rural
schools in one of which / received my
training In marble playing and other mat,
| ters The public school was not so uni
| versal then as 1t has more lately become,
| and even where IL was established, was
| of low grade and narrow curriculum. At
| the mid-century epoch of which 1 am
| speaking it was not an unfrequent Gus
tom in the Isolated families of country
| gentlemen to procure the services of some
| hedgling collegiate as tutor TO his young
sbarbarians. The privilege accorded to the
| tutor of taking a few Select day schol-
| ars was supposed to have the double ad-
| vantage of helping TO fill the young pedd-
| gogue's pocket and of bringing the desir>
| ed element of wholesome competition to
| the little school. These tutors were not
| always in the highest sense of the word,
| educators; but what was lacking of skill
| i'm their conveyance Of Information was