The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-19
FL PATIO, AN EXTINCT GAME.
A Sort of Football Played by Horse


 men,
 When and where and how the game of 'el pato" first arose I have never heard; probably it was not invented or introduced by any person., but came into existence by chance, and being ad- mirably suited 10 the disposition and habits of the horseman on the pampas (where I imagine the game must have had it's origin) it quickly grew in favor and took deep root in the country Un- like most outdoor games it retained it's original simple, rude character to the end. Pato means duck; and to play the game, a duck or fowl, or, as was usu- ally the case, some larger domestic bird turkey, gosling, or muscovy rawhide, forming a somewhat shapeless ball, twice as big as football, and provided with four loops or handles of strong twisted rawhide made of a size con venient to be grasped by mans hand. A great point was to have the ball and handles so strongly made that three or four powerful men could take hold and tug until they dragged each other to | the ground without anything giving away.
 Whenever it was resolved in any place to have a game, and some one had offered to provide the bird, and the meeting place had been settled, notice would be sent round among the neigh bors, and at the appointed time all the | men and youths living within a circle l of several leagues would appear on the spot, mounted on their best horses. On l the appearance of the man on the | ground carrying the duck the others would give chase; and by and by he | would be overtaken, and the ball wrested from his hand: the victor in 1 his turn would be pursued and when | overtaken there would perhaps be a i scuffle or scrimmage, as in football, on | ly the strugglers would be first on | horseback before dragging each other i to the earth Occasionally when this | happened a couple of hot-haded play 1 CTS, angry at being hurt or worsted, ! would draw their weapons against each i other in order to find out who was in l the right or to prove which was the better man. But, fight or no fight, some one would get the duck and carry it away to be chased again Leagues of grund wuld be gone over by the play CTS in this way, and at last some one | luckier or better mounted than his fel- ! lows, would get the duck successfully run the gauntlet of the people scattered 1 about on the plain and make good his escape. He was the victor, and it was 1 his right to carry the bird home and have 1t for his dinner. This was, how ever, mere fiction; the man who car ried off the duck made for the nearest house. followed by all the others; and i there not only the duck was cooked, but a vast amount of meat to feed the l whole players. While the dinner was in preparation, messengers would be dis patched to neighboring houses to in vite the women; and on their arrival i dancing would be started and kept up | all night.
 The game of "el pato." abolished a long time before I was born, was noth- l ing but memory of middle-aged men when grew to boyhood and began to listen with interest to the tales of my elders. The most delightful old yarn
 spinner, or historian of the vanished l days, l remember at that period. was a gaucho neighbor named Francisco de la | Cueva, familiarly known to us as
 "Pancho," dark, thin, wiry old fellow
 of over seventy. The reason why one of his innumerable stories f the past
 stuck in my mind was because it 1 touched on an historical event of pe-
 culiar and melancholy interest to every
 glo-Argentine-I mean the disas-
 trous attempt on Buenos Ayres by a
 British army. But there Is also in the
 narrative glimpse of the grand old
 game of "el pato''; and it is curious at
 this distance of time to see, as by a
 flash of lightning, the men of those
 days absorbed in a pastime which was
 so much to them and is now so com
 pletely forgotten.-T Radmintor
 Magazine.