Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-05-03

wv ASHINGTON, D. c., April 27-The
wv facts having gone forth that Presl-
W Harding is very fond of the game OF
quoits, or horseshoe pitching, that he has
joined a national organization of horseshoe
pitchers, and that he may pitch horseshoes
in the White House yard to recuperate from
the strain of running the country, the friends
of this fine old American game hope that it
may achieve a new popularity.
There is tendency IN this country to fol-
low the lead of the president in matters of
sport Mr.. Roosevelt undoubtedly did much
to popularize the study of birds, and he prob
ably also helped by his example to swell the
army of American hunters. On the other
hand, it is not of record that Mr.. Wilson,
whose favorite diversion is said to be reading
aloud the poems of Wadsworth, caused any
heavy sale of the Dard's works in America.
The American mind does not take easily
to Wordsworth, but it should take easily to
horseshoe pitching. For, although played in
England and Scotland, the game is indigen-
Gus to the United States, and may confident
ly be regarded as one-hundred per cent
American. Furthermore it smacks strongly OF
that America of yesterday, to the spirit of
which we are now trying to return-the
America of peace, contentment, "normalcy,
America supremacy self-satisfed in the be-
lief that it is the greatest and most perfect
nation on earth, America doing in the warm
sun of prosperity untroubled by its relations
with the rest of the world.
Rural Sport
Horseshoe pitching had it's origin in a thou
sand little crossroad towns, where, on sum-
mer evenings, well-fed farmers gather under
the tree in front Of the blacksmith shop. For
the most part they sit and smoke and talk.
They are not restless men. They never play
tennis or golf or anything else strenuous, be-
cause they get plenty Of exercise pitching hay
and digging potatoes. But now and again
the spirit of play strikes them in a mild and
friendly form. Old horseshoes are lying all
about. Two pegs are driven into the ground,
and soon game is in progress. 1t is good
natured, easy-going game. Contested points
are decidedly finally by an umpire armed with
a straw. There is no hard feeling, no per-
spiration, no excitement. 1t is the typical
sport of a well-fed, easy-going, complacent
folk. You can imagine man with revolu-
tiOnary thoughts in his mind playing a fiery
game of tennis, but you cannot imagine him
playing quoits. 1t is not, in fact, game
calculated to appeal to any man who is lead
ing an exciting life, whether it's eXCitements
are chiefly intellectual or chiefly physical
Its pIeasi but monotonous movements and
mild crises are diverting only by contrast
with daily tasks even more monotonous. 1t
belongs in the same school Of things with the
old swimming hole, the country fair, the
church sOCiable 1t traces its ancestry even
farther back to the days Of husking bees and
quilting frolics. 1t is associated with the
smell of wet black earth and growing corn,
frogs and crickets sing, with simple tasks
and neighborly feelings, with fried chick
en- dinner on Sunday and good soothing
! sermon, and a long nap in the hammock on
the front porch. 1t belongs to the good old
American school of philosophy which holds
that Cod is in his heaven and all is right
with the world, that civilization began after
| the revolutionary war, that every American
| boy has chance to be president if he will
| just lie on his belly in front of the fire and
study hard Abe Lincoln did.
| Such is the environment that produced the
game of hOrseshoes and it still flourishes in
what is left of that environment. You do not
see it played much in New York or Chicago.
or any other big city. 1t does not fit in with
| the subway rush and the of lower
Broadway. Men and women who struggle
with straining nerves for life and love and
money, who shimmy in jazz-racked cabarets
and pack the follies and the movies not
horseshoe pitchers. They would vote horse
shoe pitching a deadly bore. Nor is it in
| tune with the mental life of the new metro
| politan America, which is so self-cOnscious
and worried-the America that reads Main
street and patronEes British high-brow lee
| lures and tries hard to guess what is going
on in Russia. Antebellum, horseshoe pitching