Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-30
GAME OF HOCKEY

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The aristocratic game of golf. in some OF
Its features is so much like the old-rash-
toned and now out-of-date game OF handy
or Skinny or hockey-they are all the same
old game-that there can be little doubt
that golf is an evolution of the latter.
In the arena of sport there Is no niche
today for handy ball. but time was when
it was a decided feature OF athletic diver
sion. It's origin can be traced back. like
foot ball, to the mother country. though In
these modern days It is not INDUCED In Oh
the other side of the water any more than
it is in this country 1t Is out of existence.
Lut there are old boys today-plenty Of
them, even I'm this city-who in the youth
full period of their lives devoted many hours
IN the exhilarating pastime. There were
never as far as any printed accounts so,
any written rules for playing handy or
shiny The game was a very simple one.
Two of the players would choose their
sides: the goal might have been a certain
house or tree or any object determined
upon before the game began, and the side
which banded the ball. generally a wooden
sphere beyond the mark won the game.
There was a time when the killed Scots
played handy ball up to the queens taste.
Ii was a great game among the stout yeo-
many and hardy farmers of the Caledo-
MAN fields England was not wanting i'll
these same days in driving the handy ball
to the goal. but that was long ago, and
even few among the present generation IN
America. where hockey survived long be
yond the attention given 1t in the old
world have memories of the old game.
1t has been relegated to the past Foot
ball and golf have crowded it out.
Hockey played with a stick curved
at the end, or rather curved club, ana
+1,A 600 1,at q
long golf stick is fashioned after the handy
stick. There is this difference between
the games: The stretch of ground in handy
was never so extensive as that encompass
ing the golf links. There was no hole in
the ground to drive ball into. When it
was determined TO have a. game two men
tossed up and the winner took his choice
of a player and so on alternately until the
sides were arranged The ball was placed
in the middle of the stretch, and at the
word the leader who had first choice of
men gave it a knock with his handy stick
and the tilt began. First one side had pos
session OF it and then the other. very much
as in foot ball struggles There was earn
est work. No man had a right to go over
the ina ginary line that divided the players.
Shiny on your own side was the shibbo-
leth, and the fellow who did not obey the
commandment. and be quick about ii, was
very apt TO get a blow the shin that in
some cases rendered him out of the combat
for that time at least. There was no re-
blow with a handy stick If he violated this
unwritten law of the game, and cases are
on record where severe conflicts resulted
when hot bloods invaded the territory that
was not theirs to play on.
Hockey was at one time a feature at the
fairs and rural festivals in England, and
novelists in many books have depicted the
plays and the prowess of the players.
No one ever heard of a hockey club or as
ISOLATION. at least in this country. There
were many among the young men who had
regulations among their fellows as crack
players, but they belonged to no associa-
ton to foster the sport. The season for
playing the game in the fall and win
ter, and nearly every man who INDUCED in
the sport had his own favoTite handy stick.
Small trees dogwood trees particularly, be-
cause of their large and tough roots. made
excellent handy sticks. and they hurt. too.
when a player shinnied on the wrong sr2a
of the road to the goal.
Not only is golf to some extent an evolu-
ton of handy, but polo is as well. 1t is
even more so than golf. Polo. like golf has
its clubs and its laws and regulations, but,
stripped of all these, and all it is, is handy
on horseback.
In the northern states and in Canada
handy was a great feature of olden-time
sports, and hockey the ice was one of
the most eXhilaratng games eXtant in its
season.