The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1905-07-08
BRITISH PASTIMES
YOUTHS OF TIE ISLES ARE
trough AND READY
Some of the so-called Genteel Acaden-
les Pretty Rough - seuttling
Matches Nothing More Than Bat
ties with Stones" Prisoners Bars
and Hockey Popular Diversions
Football Never Brutal.
BY OSWALD LYLE TRAFFoRD.

field; a Romance, Of Queen Vie
toria.s Reign lAnnouncea1.
| Copyright 1905, by Joseph B. Bewles.o
The good people. of Lancashire and
Yorkshire have pretty tough eonstitu-
tons. It shows in their pioneer achieve
ments in the arts, sciences. inventions,
and all-round doggedness that make
material progress AS lads they learned
| TO trough it, long before they reached
their teens. Two imps, staggering
along the streets in all the glory ofthei1,
first breeches, were very unlikely to
pass each other without the bigger one
either chatting or challenging the other.
'.Tha Waddles (the "Wao pronounced
like bad) loike a ovid duck j. them
breeches thi mother made thee aat o thi
dads ovid duds!" Any peg serves for a
rough-and-ready test of a youngsters
grit courage and endurance are there
symbolized as grit, short for granite, as
here the symbol is sand). The usual re-
suit is d match at brag, Or a round Of
fstieuffs, in which the smaller fellow
makes or loses a reputation.
From the example above it must not
be inferred that the challenger belongs
to the lower orders. must confess
that 'genteel'' youngsters who were
schooled in select Academies and
Summaries for the Sons of Gentlemen =
fused to glory in their proficiency in the
argot of the slums, which they disereetly
] tried to veil from their deluded mentors
in the home and school.
I have vivid recollection of a strap
ping earned from my venerable, If not
venerated, dominic, who was passing
during one of the usual exchanges Of
salutations, provoked by a ragged urehin
with a huge bundle of freWood for sale,
whose most proper fury had kindled.
Something of this sort was going on
when I was marched away by the ear,
a fortunate escape from the licking /
would most likely have had, for which
my public strapping and lecturing III
school was probably a bargain ex-
change.
Without being ambitious to pose as a
hero, the average small boy, in those
days and parts, soon found it would
pay him to be able to stick up for him
self" The schooling was rough, but
so is the way of the world, and young
sters are not the only victims to inele-
CANT fashions. A black eye on a small
boys face is perhaps less ornamental
than court plaster patch or a surfeit
! Of rouge on the face of a WouId-be
beauty, yet / have known the time when
the wearer Of that greeny-blue eyemark
was, while it lasted, the pride and glory
of our school.
| These ultra elegant Academies were
sprinkled over the genteel suburbs of
! the great cities. usually presided over by
reverend divines who had failed as pull
piteers. Gentle mothers were assured
that no vulgarity, no roughness OF
speech or play, could possibly penetrate
1.-The borders of scholastic paradise.
They believed it, We never disturbed
that sweet faith, save by accident.
/
It was the custom for these schools
to '.seuttle'' each other. We scorned
each other in the bullying fashion of the
i
| matches were our mode of war. IN some
mysterious way, unfathomed by us Of
the rank and file, our big fellows man
aged to find, provoke, or invent the nee
essary casus belli with a neighboring
school, and for weeks the coming fray
nonopolized our souls, leaving but a
sorry traction of mind for lesson drudg-
| cry.
The secrecy was delieious1y inspir-
| ing. We met in the dark and exhibited
our latest weapons, always homemade,
! and thrilling were cur emotions il enc
of the captains praised our newest de-
vice. We made death-dealing sings of
leather and cord; tied three-cornered
stones, of every size up to that of an
egg, IN our pocket handkerehiefs; and
cut sturdy oak branches into long-reaeh-
ing bluGgeons No knives, daggers or
pistols were thought Of. much less re-
sorted to- These fights took place in the
dusk. We were on our nlettle in hand
cannonade of stone ammunition, which
/ was over IN about five minutes, and then
/ the grand charge and hand-to-hand con-
/ fict. usually ending after a hot Is min
/ utes, by which time We resolved our
selves on both sides into a working Red
Cross committee, which included the
/ duties of making each other as present
able as schoolboys usually are when
they enter the drawing-room after the
/ two evening hours of play. :.
Obviously. with these grand battles
before his eager eye, the seFen-yearling
/ David took early lessons in the fine Vir-
tue of fortitude We took them because
we could not help it, they came whether
we wanted them or not.
Suppose you become one of our glorius
school company. We quickly get your
/ birthday from you on promise of pleas
ing celebration. When the happy morn
I ing comes, your heart futters in wonder
as the boys gallop up TO greetyou, each
the boys galIop up to greet you, each
/ bearing a gift-Which proves to be a
hearty tug at your hair for each Of your
wears, say nine years, and 80 boys, 270
attempts to pull as many locks out Of
/ your scalp. Some are mereiful, and a
/ dominant spirit of fairplay prevents real
injury. In some cases thumps are given
on the shoulders, instead of tugs.
Our games invariably schooled US in
| the Indian knack of endurance. Ourfa-
vorite game with marbles was ssnogue-
hole. =
1 Several games resen1bled what I think