The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-04-02
EARLY INDIAN ATHLETICS.

Their Favorite Games Were Bowling,
 Ball. Running, Wrestling, Etc.
 The American Indians were great
 bowlers. Alleys of greater length than
 any in use to-day were built in the
 open fields. Balls lhewn out of stone
 were rolled in genuine Indian muscle. | In fact there is scarcely popular kind I of game played in this country tot day
 but that it's counterpart can be found
 in the age of the red men They were | gamblers too even to forfeiting the clothes upon their backs, their wives or their liberty. Strange to say the aver age school history has abounded in a description of the Indian in nearly every | point except the details of the games l he played.
 | Relics of the Indian bowling alleys
 are rare except in a few sections of the country, thus showing that the game
 was not a universal one, and of all the
 games which the Indian played bowl ing is undoubtedly the most remote.
 The Western Reserve of Ohio was one of the centers for the Indian bowlers.
 In several parts of Ashtabula county sciie OL LliC ol0CI leSiuclllh udNS Lucst
 relics preserved, which they have pick ed up themselves in their early farm ing, 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 rub
 Der ball. - The alleys were built of
 wood carved out to make reasonably smooth surface The game was more to see how far one could roll rather than accuracy in striking the ten pins at the opposite end of the alley. The aI- leys were built so long that it is alleg- ed 1t 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.
 The Indians were inveterate ball players and excellent "rooters." Their game lasted usually from 9 o'clock in the morning tii sundown. It was par ticipated in by some 600 to 1000 young men, divided into two sides, and the games were witnessed by from 5000 to 1000 men, women and children, who IUTIIleu dH lfllluGllSe TllS drOuHu lHe entire field. The enthusiastic Indian yells were not altogether unlike the noises of the modern ball park. There was scarcely an 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, nlaimed limbs and bruis- | ed bodies. A prescribed line divided the ''rooters" of the. two sides, and across this line the gambling took place. Old men were selected as um- pires Women bn both sides brought l the-crude household goods of the family l 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 engaged | in the game.
 There was a feature of the Indian l game which will be new to the bal, players of the year 1900, Several medi- cine men among the Choctaws sat all l night on the spot where the ball was to be started next day and smoked to the | Great Spirit who was to witness the 1 game The night before there also oc- cured what was known 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 in the air, | and Immediately hundreds of Indians started after it. One finally succeeded | in catching it between the large ends of the two tennis rackets," and threw # "home,' or between two poles, the limit of one side or the other. This