Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-12-15
THE IMMORTALITY CROQUEE.


was all very we'll for the good old days
when every man measured his virility
by the bottle, and it was considered
The proper thing to go home, after
3uiet evening spent with friends,
slumbering in a wheelbarrow. Char
acter would reveal itself with perfect
open -heartedness after three bottles of
port, dozen OF claret, or a quarter
cask of home brewed ale. But nova
days-when it is thought vulgar for
anybody less than q judge to become |
incoherent--it is not SO easy to sum-
Marie our friends failiugs. Their |
real nature is concealed from us by Il |
barrier OF sobriety which the curse of |
conventionality, seldom allows to be
broken through. OF course we get |
occasional peeps of the cloven hoof in
a variety Of ways. A travelling mania |
in the direction Of Paris will often
give clue to depths of depravity
which even a gallon of spirits might
fail to bring to the surface. There is
the turf to test ones dishonesty, pro-
fessed Christianity to put one's I'M
charitableness TO proof, sports of vari-
GUS kinds to measure urdreamt- of
heights of mendacity in their votaries
But the ingenuity of man has never
conceived anything better calculated to
bring out all the evil passions of
humanity than the so-called game of
croquet. "a
Its whole appearance is Wiley de-
oeptive. There is a nice, smooth, green
lawn, dotted here and there with beds
of sweet smelling flowers which fill the
air with drowsy sense of perfume.
The busy bee huns from blossom to
blossom, gathering food for its winter
granaries. From the fields is waited
hesexquisite scent of new-mown hay,
and the occasional lowing of cattle
lends an additional charm to the scene.
Overhead an August sun is pouring its
perpendicular rays upon the earth; but
q few large elms cover the lawn with
cool and grateful shade. In the midst
of this summef, idyll two charming
young women appear on the terrace,
looking delightfully."- fresh in their
white gowns and large hats. They
trip lightly down the steps to the
garden below, and Join two young men
who are busy making preparations for
the game.
Nature is smiling; everybody seems
radiant with ainiability and happiness.
The four young people discuss the
question of partners. 1t is made clear
that the strongest must play with the
weakest to balance the game; but this
proposition awakens dark spirit of
Jealous rivalry. The two ladies are
standing with linked arms, which they
now disengage with feline grace,
wreathing their lips into false and
bitter smiles. The men talk the matter
out with studied politeness and scowl-
ing faces. Whensit has been arranged
on basis unsatisfactory to them all,
play begins As each player in sue
cession passes through the first hoop,
he or she undergoes moral meta1nor-
phosis. An intensified knowledge OF
good and eyil-principally of evil
comes to each.i They become suddenly
sware of depths OF slumbering depravity
in themselves hitherto unsupported.
The sense of honor has become blunted.
One pushes his ball to more con
genient spot when nobody is locking
that way; another declares that hers
touched somebody .else's in passing,
we'll knowing that she is the only per
son in position to have seen daylight
between them the third is busy knock
ing in the second hoop, SO that he
ball may pass through more easily
number four is lying low, awaiting
n convenient opportunity to de
ceive the rest. Stage the first, every
body has degenerated into cheat.
Now a player captures the ball of on
of his antagonists. Ii is beautiful,
placed in front OF its hoop, and d lool
OF british ferocity leaps into his eye q
he smites it away with all his malig
nant force. The owner Of the croquetet
ball grows purple in the face; he ha
rolled up his shirt sleeves, and tn
veins in his arms stand out lik
knotted whipcord as a murderous i'm
pulse surges through his brain; h
grasps his mallet more tightly, and in
wardly resolves to work the ruin of hi
friend over that little private stock OF
change transaction next week. Th
ladies, catching the infection, are say
ing the sweetest things to each other
amenities which, il the masculine min
could grasp their real Significance
would set every hair of the onlookel
in an upright rigidity of horror. i
the light of missing hoops, eroquete
balls and laundering miscalculation
horrible constructions are mental
placed upon events which seemed b,
yesterday innocent and innocuous; IL
tide Of past events, smiled at indu
gently the day before, swells now int
q flood of shameful revelation. II
male antagonist become a creatul
too vile for language; the grace
Il. womanhood has departed with Il
third hoop By the time the fourth
reached all are in boiling RACES. Sue
words as liar, cheat, brute, scoundr
or viper have passed into currenc
Rules are improvised rs the game pr
ceeds; and the basest subterfuges 4
sorted to in order to gain point.
1t is not long before every honorah
feeling, every dictate of morality h
become obliterated. In place of. o
refined and upright people are t.
pairs of gruesome moral monstrositit
full Of bitter loathing and antagonist
of low deyilish cunning and murdero
passion, each plotting some namelC
revenge upon the other. The poison
croquet eats deeper and deeper il
their souls. Their baser qualities {
called to the surface, as the reeki
mud of the river is stirred by I
barge pole; they are laid bare in tn
inner hideousness, and see each OIL
as they really are. The brute be
which underlies the thin polish
civilization is unclaimed; goaded,
fury by each corrosive click of
croquet balls it transforms gent
chivairous, good-humored man int
disappearing, savage bully, conve
the sweetest andipurest type of E.
lish fnaidenhood into sly, snarli
cheating, brawling spitfire. The no
which beckons SO temptingly ;
guilelessly from its. carpet Of gr
sward to cool and quiet croquet,
the gaping jaw Of Hades. Who ia
the mallet in his hand has gras