The Worthington advance., 1900-04-13
INDIANS AS BOWLFRs.
The Game AZ 1t Was Formerly PIayed
In Alleys Built in the
Omen Fields u

The Game a. 1t Was Formerly >Played
In Alleys Built i'm the
Open Fields.
The American Indians were great
bowlers. Alleys of greater length than
any in use to-day were built in the
open fields. Balls hewn out of stone
were rolled by genuine Indian muscle.
In fact, there is scarcely a popular
kind of game played in this country
to-day but the: it's counterpart can he
found in the az" of the red man. They
were gamblers. too, even to forfeiting
the clothes uton their backs, their
wives or their liberty. Strange to say,
the average school history has abound
ed in description of the Indian in
nearly every point except the details
OF the games he played.
Relics of the Indian bowling alley
are rare except in few sections of the
country, thus showing that the game
was not univ ersal one, and of all the
games which the Indiao played bowl
ing is undoubtedly the most remote.
The western reserve of Ohio was one
of the centers for the Indian bowlers.
In severa! parts of Ashtabula county
some of the older residents have these
relics preserved, which they have
picked up themselves in their early
farming, usually in the open field.
The balls used, instead of being large
wooden ones like those in use to-day,
were made of light colored stone and
range in size from an ordinary league
ball down to the common small toy
rubber ball. The alleys were built of
wood carved out to make reasonably
smooth surface. The game was more
to see how ia: one could roll rather
than accuracy in striking the ten pins
at the opposite end of the alley. The
alleys were built so long that it is al
legged it was hard matter to roll one
of these stone balls so that it would
reach the end. The Indians, too, kept
a score and, like in all other games,
they gambled. Sockalexis is not the
only Indian interested in the national
game.
The Indians were inveterate ball
players aud excellent ''rooters." Their
game lasted usually from nine o'clock
in the morning till sundown. 1t was
participated in by from 600 to 1000
young men divided into two sides, and
the games were witnessed by from
5000 to 5000 men, women and children,
who formed an immense ring around
the entire field. The enthusiastic Indian
yells were not altogether unlike the
noises of the modern ball park. There
was scarcely en- intermission of five
minutes during the entire day.
The game, however, resembled our
football rather than baseball. When
the ball was in the air there were kicks
and struggles, manned limbs and
bruised bodies. A prescribed line d.
vided the ''rocters' of the two sides
and across this line the gambling took
place. Old men were selected as um-
pires. Women on both sides brought
the crude household goods of the fam
lily to the ball park to be staked on the
game. Shareholders guarded the
goods. The scene resembled two dis.
tinct camps, although there was not
necessarily more than one tribe en-
gagged in the game.
There was feature in the Indian
game which will be new to the ball
players of the year 1900. Several med
icine men, among the Choctaws, sat all
night on the spot where the ball was
to be started next day and smoked to
the great spirit who was to witness
the game. The night before there also
occurred what was known among the
Indians as the ''ball play Dance
Prior to the game each Indian was
provided with two instruments which
resembled our tennis rackets of to.
day. The judges threw the ball into
the air and Immediately hundreds OF
Indians started after it. One would
finally succeed in catching it between
the large ends CT the two "tennis rack
cts" and throw it ''home," or between
two poles, the limit of one side or the
other. This would count one point to-
ward the game and the side getting
100 points frs, won. Often in the ter
rible struggle for the ball difficulties
would rise between two slightly in
jured contestants and the game would
stop until they settled the dispute.
The women"elso played ball. When
the men were tired they would an
nounce game among the women and
prizes would. be awarded their winning
wives.
Among the popular amusements dear
to the lighter side of the American, a
parallel for which has been found
among the Indians, are the following:
Bowling, ball playing, horse racing,
foot racing, dancing, wrestling, check
ers, dominoes, cuoits, sham fights.
Many things which: some of us to-day
may believe are contemporaneous only
with the age in which we live by re-
search may be found to have existed
in the everyday life of the American
Indian. Polygamy was practiced by
certain Indian tribes long before JOS
eph Smith founded the Mormon belief.
Vapor baths were enjoyed by the In
dian before the first white man came
to disturb his hunting ground.-Chi-
cago Chronicle.
Frog Showers in Arizona.
1t rains frogs in Arizona. The old
timers believe there is no doubt OF it,
though they cannot explain from
whence frogs were originally ''lifted.'
But this much is straight-let there be
summer rain along the line of the
Southern Pacific in southwestern Ari-
zona, and behold the next morning
every little pool has a myriad of little