The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-11-24
BOWLING AS OLD AS THE HILLS
Played in Medieval Days With Stone
of Peculiar Form.

| Bowling, which is about the most
popular indoor winter sport of this
country, is also one of the oldest games
known in the civilized world, says the
Washington Star. Our ancestors hun
dreds OF years ago INDUCED in a pas
time which, excepting a few radical
changes during che last century or SO,
was substantially the same as the pres
ent game of bowling, and seems to
have have been just as popular with
them.
mated early in the middle ages 1t was
at that time purely an outdoor sport.
AS was the rule with everything of
that period, the sport was known by
bowls" French bowls and car
! rean. Those three names seem to
have been the most common. At that
time the game was different from the
present sport, but there was much sim
ilarity. The game was played with
teams as today.
The balls or bowls. as they were then
called, were made Of stone, one-half
spherical, the other half oval shape.
This gave the ball a curve as it sped
down the bowling alley or green, as an
alley was called in that day. The scene
of the game was a plot of ground
called a ring or bowling green, at each
end of which was placed a cone. which
was the mark for the bowlers to roll
into The cones were Dowled to from
one end of the rink and then from the
other.
The object of the game was for one
side to place the ball nearer the cone
than its opponents. Thus the side
bowling would try and knock their op-
ponents' ball away from the cone, sup
planting their own, as in the game of
Quoits, the one nearer the cone scor-
ing one point for his team Skill was
required to bowl so as to get nearer the
cone without knocking the opponents
ball closer.
Later the stone ball was supplanted
by ono made of lignum vitae. The lat
ter being made Spherical, the outside
of the tree from which the balls were
made being lighter than the heart. nat
urally gave the bowl the desired basis
for a curve. Some bowlers loaded one
side Of the ball with heavy metal, so
as to obtain the desired effect for a
curve.
The cones were finally done away
with and superseded by stone or
earthen ball about three and one-haif
inches in diameter. The new ones were
known as Jacks" Instead of having
a stationary mark at which to bowl
the jack was knocked all over the
green, and it required strategy and
skill to play a good game.
The bowling green of that period
was one Of the most cared-for spots
about a village or an estate. A plot
Of ground as level as it was possible to
find was picked out for it. Draining
was the first process in making. This
was done in such manner that even
the hardest rains could not soak the
ground and make it muddy The size
of the plot was usually about 90x15O
feet. surrounded by a ditch or gutter
four or five inches deep.
During the reign of Queen Anne and
the first three Georges a bowling green
was as popular and necessary to gen.
tleman's country seat as a billiard ia
BILE is today As an after-dinner sport
Of our British and Dutch ancestors it
was very popular.
The game was introduced into Amer
lea early in the. eighteen century. It
seems to have been very popular in
New York early in the eighteenth cen
fury. In 1892 there was a locality in
New York at the foot of Broadway
called Bowling Green and it is still
known by that name. From the time
that the sport was introduced into
America it has rarely ever died out,
although the outdoor game has long
since given way to the indoor.
As an indoor sport the game origi-
mated from several games, among
which were eagles. French DULLES,
skettles leggets and sayles. In the
game of eagles and leggetts conical-
shaped pins made of bone were set in
rows of six or eight and the players
tried to knock them down by throwing
clubs at them. Knocking the pins
down by bowling ball came at
much later period. The sport was
stopped for a short time by some laws
which prohibited the playing of nine
pins and similar games. The objec-
tionable features were cut out and in
stead OF having nine pins set up in a
acknowledged frame ten pins were
set up in a triangular-sha frame.
The first game known to have been
played indoors was on covered alley
some time in the twelfth century. The
first match game indoors in this coun-
try was a game. played on the Knick-
erDocker alleys in New York on jan
uary L. 1870. Until 1875 there was no
standard length of the alleys or the
size Of the balls and pins. Before that
time the pins were longer and much
heavier than those of the present day
and it was much easier to get the
Strike
The rules and regulations for the
bowling game came into effect in 1875.