The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-17
CHANGlNG FASHIONS
- nv CHILD GAMES.
NJ, satbsts Tries iisv Scotch ard
Notes . Pew ~ ths Differences.

~ NV afHnt a4Nl NlthiHtlia " auNfft
Nv esafdiaa lhem aad sheH I u%nttyriiai
their fneNnine . i@ ~ forgotten thing
csWs tTuuplNe back ~ mr fIw eha
markings m The haasl0aea wefr fuHdr w,
evrhiHg bsfdfu w a,tne ehtblfeu Wfp hs'
heun playgne hopcotch 'Msmtmf hor.
sc0tehf am afraid that t6u many NJ ~
efgWnup sihhrfs have q mDfp vivid hnuwi
eiea ~ kolactch than ~ have fccpl.
iectlona ~ hotucUtch, but N couruc MI
~ NJ arowBupa payed ~hotacotrh
var ur anethsf whrn ~ wrre yuung 'tina
Tho chart tpfscd difefrnt. thuuah, from
Tho bognrutch charts 80 tssd 10 make.
and I had ~ study for eofne time tvfprr
could recall hlst Was the difference was.
sThe various compartments ~ the hop.
scotch diagram when I vas q shaver ussd
10 be simply numbered, but nov the com.
paftmen,s are MI dignifrd by geographical
names, a. of states and kingdoms. That
sans evening on my way home ! stopped
10 watch q numbsr ~ children dancing
around on ono foot playing h%orRcotch.
The girls spemed 10 be able 10 play tho
game better than the boys. probably bc.
cause girls are lighter on their feet and have
a better sense of balance.
ADObA Vbty ubtF tfo Noii't wv ~ N''
want TO ascertain beyond all doubt that
you've experienced, cay, thirty years Of
vicissltudes since the last time you played
hopscotch, just you try n hop or 20 at u.
I did that the evening I stopped to watch
the children and they made great fun Of
me-some Of them were my wi children.
Il found that my sense Of measurement
had undergone q curious deterioration.
And what hard work. that hopping about
on one foot. Such hard work that ! fell
TO wondering why I used to play at hop
scotch 10 enthusiastically after school
hours and all day Saturday when ! was q
tike.
THE children in the cities nave certain
| seasons for certain games, but I've noticed
| since moving out to the suburbs that the
suburbaa children sort Of mix all OF the
games UP all the time. For instance, fol-
low my leader used to be a great game
| for the fall and winter in the city when l
was a boy, but they play it all the time
and at all seasons, do the suburban children.
It's interesting to watch how the game
is started. In every congregation OF
youngsters there's invariably one strong
willed, determined, masterful boy or girl
who overtops the others and whose exac-
ton Of unquestioning obedience from all
the others is quite beyond analysis,
"This masterful young one is the leader
in the follow my leader game, by general
consent, and chosen for that position with
out any spoken words. It just falls out
that way. Follow my leader is a sort
Of game that Is calculated to bring out
the strong points and the nerve Of the young
uns who en- G ge in IT,. 1t is the business OF
the followers Of their leader TO do anything
and everything that the leader does, includ-
ing the wading through paddles, hopping
picket fences, scaling wabbly ourbs, climb
and other little diversions sufficiently
out Of the ordinary to cause the reluctant
youngster to be called 'cowardy.'
They play tops all the year round out
in the suburbs, too, but right now, l should
Thu girls have Of late years been playing
tops-they didn't have much truck with EN-
when l was a boy-but girls don't seem to
master the curves Of the top business, A
girl throws a top from its string something
like a grown woman shies a rock at a hen,
But the patience Of the little girls who
try top spinning is commendable. They
contrive to get their tops to whirl around
feebly about once in every five throws,
but they stick to the game and look as il
enviously, however, in the direction of the
otherwise quite incompetent and unworthy
boys, who, with the simplest kind OF twists,
heave a top ten feet away with a precision
and skill that causes II TO spin hummingly
for a long time-until, in fact, the boys
pick their tops up on the palms Of their
hands and let 'em spin there. | notice hat
the girls don't make much of a fist Of pick
ing up their tops on the palms OF their
hands, They go about the Job a bit too
gingerly, as II afraid OF dlrtying the backs
of their hands.
"The boys who spin tops nowadays, by
the way, seem to've forgotten the trick-we
all had it a quarter of a century or more ago
of cutting deep vertical hicks in their tops,
in order to extract a ehriller humming
from them as they whirled around. The
boys still play ring top, though. The girls
don't take to ring top. They can't see the
sense of risking their tops, TO the top-spikes
OF boy top throwers a good deal more clever
at top throwing han they.
And, come to think Of it, this gene OF
ring top is a queer sort Of an affair. The
boy who accidentally makes q hash of
throwing his top has to permit the top to
remain within the big chalk marked ring. !
at 1t with their tops. The boy who hits
the top in the ring with the spike. OF bis
top (Which must remain spinning after the
impact OF the blow, and remain within the
ring hesides' becomes the posses
know how to strike a dead top without
splitting it,.
And, while the boys play marbles most
OF the year out where live, this is the big
marble season., TOO. Inc h0ys nave GOV a
game of marbles now that Idon't remember
having played when l was a young 'un.
The ring ia only about a foot in diameter,
and the taw line is a dozen feet away.
From the taw line the boys plump at the
marbles in the ring, n they are hot al.
to roll their marbles on the ground
at all. This is q game OF marbles that re-
quires a steady and and first rate Marks
manship. Only the most scientific marble
boys play this game. The others
stick to the old time big ring, about five
feet in diameter.
. 'snatching up still goes, I note. 1t
will probably always endure as long as
there are naturally predatory boys. The
youngsters Of to-day, however, seem to be
possessed OF a hawklike vision for snatch
ers up, and when they perceive these BAN
dts in the ofing they knock of playing
until the pirates get out Of the way. Now
here Is a curious thing about boys. They
think splitting the girls tops Is all right;
IL appeals to them as something
funny; but they don't snatch up the girls
marbles.
Some Of the boys play the game Of mar
bles called ~'purgatory' on vacant lots.
Golfsh sort OF game. this %purgatory, except
that instead Of using clubs the boys direct
the mari les into the purgatory holes by
knuckle force, as in the regular game OF
The boy who Is last to get his
marble into the final p~urgatory hole has,
as of old, to permit his knuckles to DO shot