Smyrna times., 1899-03-08

THE GAME OF QUOITS.
CAN BE PLAYED ANY PLACE AND Is
SPLENDID EXERCISE.

" Is very Ancient English Pas
ume' and Its Beginnings Are Lost
In the Mist of ASes-Fine Traininu
/ For the Eye and Arm.
There are some games which have
never had their boom, and quoits is one
OF them. Still, as nothing happens but
the unexpected, it may be that the time
is nearly ripe for quoits to be taken ont
OF It's undeserved obscurity, to be exalt-
ed TO the status of a national game. to
nave weekly papers named after it and
10 nave columns in the sporting press
devoted to the dOings of its champions
stranger things have happened. Who.
Tor instance, would have said when at
the end of the sixties few energetic
sportsmen went wObbling about on bone
shaking bicycles which it would have
peen far easier to push than to ride
tnat at the end of the century consider
ably more than 100, 600 BICYCLES would
De manufactured annually in Great
Britain alone and that great mart
OF the population would adopt this
means of lOcOmOtion? One cannot i'm
aglne that quOits will ever attain such
popularity as the bicycle, but the un-
preJudlced person can see no reason
why 1t should not become as favorite a
pastlme as golf, which a very few vears
ago was almost unheard of soutb of tbe
Tweed.
Quoits is a very fine game, especially
IN the winter time. 1t is splendid exer.
else and trains the eye and the hand 70
act together in way that few other
sports can do. for the very essence of if
Is accuracy of aim at mark placed he
low the level of the hand 1t has been
objected that throwing quoits makes
the player lOpsided, but, after all. that
Is easily remedied, for there is nothing
to prevent the player throwing the
quot with his left hand if he SO pleases
and such change would make a varia-
tlon In the game and also afford an ex-
cellent method Of handicapping the men
OF unequal skill. Quoits strengthens the
arms and shoulders, but it is not a pas-
time which primarily demands strength.
A great advantage of the game is that
1t can be played in any small space and
that the ground need not be particular
~ level Any rough field or waste bit
OF ground Is good enough for uuoits
pltch' and no rolling or cutting is re-
qulred to satisfy the demands of the
most exigent. For cricket you need a |
carefully prepared wicket, for lawn |
tennis and croquet piece of turf like
n billiard table and for golf the best
part Uf a country uil 10 yuufself, but for
quolts you only need a few yards of
rough ground, and you have as good a
place for throwing as any one can DOS
sibly require.
People certainly might plav ouoits
more than they do, but the taking up
of game Is usually matter of fancy,
and perhaps two things stand in the
way OF quoits. First, there is an idea
that 1t Is a rustic" sport and can only
be played by the rough country lads.
and, second, there is the legend that
The game is derived from the classical
ilscus throwing, a suspicion which it
must be confessed is enough to throw a
'lur on any well regulated game.
No treatise on quoits can begin with
'ut the time honored pedigree of the
Iuoit from the discus Strut, who lived
It the end of the last century, of course
iealt with it, and equally of course he
ragged in the discus even if he did not
invent the descent of quoits from the
ports of ancient Greece. The thing, of
curse, is absurd To make a discus,
he artisan did not, in the words of the
Irishman, take hole and put
ONE iron around it. The discus was
more like hattened Dutch cheese and
vas solid missile Moreover. it was
lot held In the same manner as a QUOT.
'ut was bowled underhand, in which
indeed it alone differs from putting the
weight. That quoits is now played
nelly In the country is the fault of
hose who do not play it and bring it
nto fashion.
1t is no doubt very ancient English
anne, and its beginnings are lost in the
list of ages Hakluyt mentions it in
is book of Voyages, so it was well
nown in Queen Elizabeth s time, when
probably was one of the favorite
ports of Merrie England In some
arts OF the eonutry the rustics used to
mploy horseshoes for want of properly
lade quoits, and there are districts in
-hich the QUOT is called ''shoe" even
this day. This gives us the clew to
ne most probable origin of the sport
nd hints that the first game of quoits
as started by throwing old horseshoes
the hob or mark, and from this grad !
ally grew up the practice of having
uoits specially made for throwing. So l
Iuch for the discus legend As for the
ord "quoit" itself, its etymology is I
ore than doubtful, and it gives us no
ew whatever to the origin of the Z
anne. 7
Shakespeare, who mentions every L
ling except tobacco, of course has a o
ference to the sport, and as Hakluyt
as contemporary of his it may be o
eld to show that the spacious times of q
reat Elizabeth were the palmy period e
quoits. 1t is true that he does not c
eak Of the sport in very reputable c
for the only mention of it a
ours in the scene in which Prince "
enry, Falstaff, Poins and the rest u
ere in the Boar's Head tavern, in u
astchepe. Falstaff. in giving char. y
ter sketch of the young prince, OBJ o
rves that he plays quoits well, but the u
ntext very clearly shows that in y
ueen Elizabeth's time at any ral
lott playing was looked down upon as !
e idle man s recreation, much as skit-