The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-17
PELOTA IN CUBA.
New Court Erected in Havana for
the Spanish National Game

1
| The news that 'fronton" or court for
| the playing of the national BAN game OF
| spain has been built in Havana at a
| cost OF 100000, and formally blessed by
| the blshop, does not Indicate that the
Cubans are in any near danger of losing
| their racial identity with the Iberian
! peninsula To most Americans. on the
other hand, it Will be something of sur
prise that such . thing as a Spanish
| national ball game exists and with the
surprise there may be some little dsap-
pofntment here and there over the van
| ished possibility Of AmericaniZinE Cuba
through the kindly influence of American
baseball
The game of 'pelota" is not more purely
Spanish. in fact. than baseball is purely
American. As the latter can be traced
to a remote English ancestry somewhere
in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.
so is the former evidently only variant
of that French jeu de paume' from
which a building in Paris. famous for 4
game of tremendous historical import
ance, took it's name and the leu de
paume, again, is related to both the
English game of iiVes, the Irish hand
ball. and the casual American boys game
of househall.
Still. peIota has its own peculiarities.
and, with these differentiating character
istics, has existed for many centuries in
Spain. In the Basque Province of C'ulz-
puZcoa. pelota has been played. rs tradi-
ton has it. since the days of Adam and
Eve From San Sebastian, in that pro-
IL
where II has long been popular. and
where. some years ago at least, large
crowds of Medrileno 'roOters used to
gather to witness the games, to bet and
to behave themselves with the abandoned
demonstrativeness of their kind. u is
noticeable. as showing the persistence
of the old tradition. that the exhibition
game last Sunday in the new fronton of
Havana is said to have been played by
Basque PROFESSIONALS elotaris, - to give
them their right name.
The dimensions of the Havana court
as given in dispatches. appear to be con-
siderably greater than those usual in
Spain the latter being only about 30
by POO feet. but this may be an effect Of
the policy of expansion which has had so
much influence upon the recent history
of Cuba. The walls against which the
ball is played are those which form the
two lesser sides of a rectangle. A lon
ger wall closes the third side. and the
fourth is left open fol-. spectators. in and
out OF the grand stand.
Upon the shorter walls two horizontal
iron strips, respectively four and thirty
four feet from the ground. mark the lin
its of play. The balls used are small,
elastic and exceedingly hard. But what
gives the Basque game its peculiar char
acter is the racquet. or substitute for
that implement. which it employs. This
consists of a curious SDoonlike affair of
wickerwork. curved at one end like a
birds beak. and tightly fastened to the
hand by means of a glove. Another pc
cullarity is that the game is opened by
pelotari propelllng the ball with back
ward swing from the hollow Of his wicker
spoon, turning his back to the wall at
which he aims. The rest of the
game is much like fives, or tennis; every
failure OF one side or the other to catch
the ball on the rebound and return it to
the wall. making it strike between the
upper and lower lines, counts as one
point to the opposing side, and fifty
points make game.
Pelota is regularly played with two on
side. The fashionable pelota costume
in Madrid used to be loose white trousers
and a loose shirt of some bright color.
players on the same side wearing the
same colors. In appropriate recognition
of the games origin. the usual head COW
ering of players is the Basque "boyna.'
white or colored cap shaped like "A Tam
o Shanter, but without the ribbon tails.