Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-03-13
AN EXCITING CONTEST
%. III. BarnhiII Describes Recent
Basketball Game at the High
School.

/ have been asked to give my i'm
pressions of the Ashland-Yreka bas-
ketball game not because ! know
anything about this athletic exercise,
but because the way it impressed a
tyro might be interesting. For a
long time | had been wanting to
witness one of these exciting con-
tests, but could not seem to get
around to it. Chasing the elusive
codling moth and doing other stunts
connected With the production OF
peaches and pippins leaves little
time for the festivities of life
All work and no play makes Jack
good clerk, but why saw wood
when you can saw the air? Why
punch tickets Md COWS when heads
are waiting to be punched? Why
kick at the high cost of living when
there are footballs lying all around?
Some people are bound to kick
even if they are hung-so why not
90 through the motion in a manner
that will best develop the muscles
and yield the largest amount of
pleasurable excitement? Basketball
beats football because there is no
danger of player leaving the field
feet first, with his right superior du-
plex jammed through his medulla
20 n Crar iC tn
the swift not the strong, and in
stead of making jeffries and John
sons it develops people who are
quick on their feet and know how
10 get there. Eli.
This game of basketball is quite
different from what its name had
led me to expect The players do
not carry the ball around in bas-
ket, but endeavor to throw it
through rings. oGe of which is fixed
at either end of the ball, True,
there are basket, fastened under
have long ago been knocked out,
permitting the ball to- drop through
onto the heads of the excited play
ers. The ball itse!e is about the size
of a California watermelon, being
an oblong affair made of pigskin and
filled with gallon or two of cele-
brated Oregon atmosphere
Another surprising thing about
basketball is that special uniforms
are worn by the players. At the
high school where the writer alb
sorbed knowledge--it was just an
ordinary school located high up on
a hill-the pupils never thought of
changing clothes in order to play
games-not even hockey
These basketball suits deserve
more than passing notice and should
he of particular interest to dress re-
formers. Those worn by the girls
do not require tight lacing, beins
designed to put corset-makers ou
of business. The writer had won
dered how it was possible for any
one to play ball when attired in
fashionable hobble or tube skirt
which prevents the taking of step
more than nineteen inches long.
The feminine basketball costum
somewhat resembles Turkish trous
ers, being inclined to bag at tn
knees like the bathing suits worn b
society queens at Palm Beach tn
past season This garment permit
the free use of the limbs and is c
special advantage N pitching the ba
from position. when the feet al
spread as far apart as possible, tn
player presenting a aStriking and pie
turesQue figure.
When the masculine player
emerged from their dressing roo
| at first thought they had absen
mindedly forgotten to don their on
er garments. As | realized that the
garb of abbreviated underwear W;
the regulation basketball suit
blushed for my sex and endeavore
to hide behind a large iron pilli
near which ! was sitting. My con
panion did not appear to be at a
shocked, egclaiming, Amt the
splendid" Perhaps it is only ma
ter of getting acquainted. with II
various styles Of dress and undres
We are told that in some parts {
Africa the natives habitually wei
their persons on the outside of the
clothes. often wearing nothing ell
in public save a grass girdle and 3
expression Of tropical content.
Such economy Of clothes may
all right in warm countries, but
could not help feeling sorry that ol
boys we're forced to appear in SUE
scanty garb in the dead of winte
with the ice frozen ten inches thit
at the plant on Water street al
nine feet OF snow in the mountain
1t looks Ike cruelty to animals
expose such a large amount of Gu
Gle and epidermis. to the cold mig
air Snmenun ShOIild call the site