The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-03

an evolution of court tennis which is probably the oldest ball game now play | ed Historians assert that ball games have always been the natural diversion of mankind. Human nature is so con stituted that given a ball and bat it can realize one of the greatest pleasures in life by striking the one with the other. There is more satisfaction, in the words of an epigrammatist, in driving a ball straght in a close contest than in 1 Keeping the ten commandments
 The Greeks and Romans of earliest his tory played ball. Excavations at Cairo | reveal balls made of leather and wool which were used by the Egyptians in 1 their games 4000 years ago Plinys friend | Purrina played ball to preserve his health and while the ancients in Europe amused themselves by batting small spheres about the aboriginal inhabitants of North Amer lea played la crosse. The terminology of court tennis figures in literature as early as the beginning of the fifteenth cen | tury. It was at first a French game and | 1t Is well known that a tennis court was the birthplace of the French Revo- ! luton. It was popular in England as early as the reign Henry V.. and that monarch, as we'll as several of his successors, was devoted to it. The French and Spanish kings of the time also played tennis. Shakespeare mentions it when 1 In Henry V.,' he tells of the French ambassadors bringing the young monarch "a tun Of treasure from the Dauphin Henry asks what the treasure consists of and is told that it is tennis balls whereupon he expresses his gratffca- ton.
 The word tennis is derived from the French "tenetz," the equivalent of take heed' or mark used to announce a stroke, just as the word play or 1 ready is used in games today. The game is a silent one nowadays. the play | CTS concentrating their energies and wits upon swift play and consuming little time in conversation except for relaXa- tion between strokes. Tn the early days | of court tennis shouting to announce stroke was obligatory, no stroke count ing unless the player called out in ad- vance So much shouting was done that 1t was considered exercise especially | for the lungs and throat. Tissot, sur | geon- major of the Fourth regiment Che l vaux-logers, described it as late as l7sO as the most efficacious remedy for para lysis of the pharaynx and tongue which sometimes remains thlckened and heavy | so that persons stammer"
 In the royal game of tennis declared the physician and surgeon lay the cure for all such ailments, because players were necessarily excited to shout either for appeals or claiming scores. Many of the shouts that rang across the net in those days were good round oaths The trench ordinance for the royal and hon. orable game of tennis, drawn up in twen- ty-four articles in Paris in 1892 prescribed in it's opening paragraph that players should exercise their lungs In different fashion. You gentlemen who play to recreatr your bodies and exilarate your minds should do so without blaspheming 0Vd,' was the language of line in the document. The ordinance was constantly re-issued in the seventeenth century, and in cas-. of a prize match it was pro vided that players should be fined for each oath uttered.
 During the days of the French Renais- sance tennis was extremely popular, and in an effort to famlliarize the young peo- pie with Latin, dialogues bearing upon the game were printed in that language and widely distributed. Erasmus, Cro- dier. Wives and others learnedly dis cussed the game of the day in the clas- sic idiom, and a book of such dialogues was compiled. That the game was played somewhat after the manner of lawn ten his today is evident from the remarks exchanged by players. In one of the da- logues the two opponents toss racquets to determine by rough and smooth which shall serve, and the scores thirty
 
 are today. There was nlver a stroke played without the preliminary "exeipe," which corresponded to the French ten etz." Court tennis is still skilfully played in France and elsewhere but persons who have paralysis of the pharynX go to Ak and do not take Tissots advice to shout and swear their ailment away.
 Court tennis is played in court en- l cased by four walls The net is high at both ends. One side Is the service side and the ether the hazard side. Balls are served from the service side only. Spectators sit upon what called the 'dedans' which are openings in one wall enclosed with netting. One wall Is a smooth service with buttress projecting from the hazard side. while the other walls are broken by what are called pent houses the latter being so constructed as to cause the balls to rebound at vary ing angles. The buttress on the main wall iG known the tambour Beyond in the end of the wall of the hazard court, is a screen covered cupboard called the grills. Along the left hand side of the wall below the pent house roof is TO wof small openings called galleries the furtherest being called the winning gallery The court thus partially 1e- scribed Is intricately marked and the game is far more intricate than modern lawn tennis.
 
 Lawn tennis IS played today is one of the liVeliest athletic contests It requires an imperturabe temper, a quick eye rap idity of mental and physical. action and good wind One reason for it's wide popularity has been that 1t is much l more inexpensive game than it's prede- cessor which hequired a costly court. The modern tennis game is much more rapid and constitutes a much finer exhi- bition of skill than the game played when lawn tennis first came into favor in Eng land and America. This is due to the development of difficult strokes. resulting from the efforts of players to introduce styles of playing calculated to nonplus their opponents on the other side of the net.
 When lawn tennis was a game the player who could serve cut ball had his anta gonist a his mercy, because the ball rose from the ground at an unexpect- ed angle and almost Invariably missed. But before long players learned 1 that this kind of a ball almost always rose at the same angle, and "smashng the cut ball became possible This put the | once invincible server of cuts al disad- | vantage He was hoist with his own pe tard. The cut ball is still played but it is not an effective weapon against the swift players of modern times. The sec ond tennis trick of importance was the | hard overland stroke introduced by w.
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