Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-01-18

l
or bowling?
Consider this question for a mo-
ment. Base ball is the game which
| northern sky and glows hot upon the
| face of the earth, or that part of the
earth around which run the boundaries
/ of Uncle Sam. 1t fiourishes in the
spring If the weather permits RACES
! in the summer and expires in a burst
of glory and a din of noise with the
worlds championship series in the fall.
The crash of falling pins breaks loud
upon the ear in autumn, thunders
throughout the winter and rumbles on
through spring, and the music of the
balls and pins and the echoes of the
alleys are not stilled in summer.
The horsehide whirs and whizzes only
when the sun shines. but the lignum
vitae spheres roll on whether the sun
shines or sulks. whether the stars
glitter or whether gloom o'ercasts the
sky. They will roll as long as the cleo
trio current holds out or as long as
wick in an oil lamp will drink up
kerosene and feed flame.
Bowling is an older game than base
pail. 1t has come down through the
centuries. And while one is thinking
of the long and honorable past o.
bowling 1t is worth while to cast ones
thoughts back to that dim and remote
time when men began to amuse them
selves with and to gamble on games.
EthnoloSists have dealt with this SUBJ
ject in many learned treatises. which
very few people read, but most of their
ba To do
played with cards, dice, chessmen. STICKS
of wood and disks of shell or bone
These games reach farther back into
the desps OF time than recorded his
tory runs.
Games played with balls are very. yery
old Many, many centuries ago in the
days when Greece was youthful and
ancient Rome was young, there lived a
historian whose name was Herodotus
he Travelled through countries whose
names can now be found only in classic
ancient tones, and among races of peo-
pie whose names have faded from the
memory of men. He wrote extensively
| OF the manners, customs and habits of
the people he visited. and related what
they tod him OF the peoples that had
! gone before. The Lydians told him that
they were the inventors of the games
which the Greeks came to play 1t is in
terestihg to open that book of Herodotus.
II You are interested in sports, and to
read what he writes about the Lyd!ans
and games. y nearly literal translator
OF one paragraph of Herodotus follows:
| THE customs of the Lydians differ
F.; little from those of the Greeks except in
the manner of treating their females.
/, They are the first of all nations we know
OF that introduced the art of coming gold
| and silver, and they were the first re-
, tailers.
I The Lydians say that the games which
are now common to themselves and the
Greeks were their invention: and they say
i they were invented about the time they
sent colony to Tyrrhenia, of all OF
which they give the following account:
| 9" During the reign of Atys, son OF
Names. King of Lydia, a great scarcity
of corn pervaded all Lydia; for some
i time the Lydians supported it with con-
stancy, but when they saw the evil still
continuing they sought for remedies, and
some devised one thing and some an
| other, and at that time the games of dice,
hucklebones, ball and all other kinds of
games except draughts were invented, for
! the Lydians do not claim the invention of
I the last; and having made these inven-
/; tons to alleviate the famine, they en-
ployed them as follows:
Iney used 10 play one whole day
that they might not be in want of food,
and on the next they eat and alb
stained from play; this way they passed
eighteen years: but when the evil did no.
abate, but on the contrary still became
i more virulent. their king divided the peo-
pie into two parts and cast lots which
should remain and which quit the coun-
try, and over that part whose lot it should
be to stay he appointed himself king: and
over that part which was to emigrate he
appointed his own son king. whose name
was Tyrrhenus. Those whose lot il fell
TO leave their country went down to
Smyrna, built ships. and. having put all
their movables which were of use on
board, set sail in search of food and
land. till. having passed by many ma
tons, they reached the Ombrici, where
they built towns and dwell to this day"
You will lose out in any effort to fol-
low the history of sport down through
the ages. Sporting editors seem to have
been few and many of the files have
not been preserved. Games appear, dis
appear and reappear Like SO many other
things, a game played by ancient man
will drop out of view. for centuries and
then bob up somewhat modified and will
be hailed as q brand-new thought and
the man who dug it up will be crowned
as its discoverer and revered as the
father of the sport" In games, as in
everything else. there is a good deal Of
new wine in old bottles or old wine in
new bottles.