Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1925-09-02
HOrseshOes Coming Back.

It wasn't so long ago that if you
admitted any knowledge, however
vague or scanty, of the ancient
game of horseshoe pitching, you
were written down a yokel, "clo-
ver-kicker," by your fellows, ard
requested, with but little courtesy
to return to the native farm out by
Three Corners, says a writer re
Gently
Nowadays, if you aver that you
can toss about as mean a shoe as
the next guy, your conversation is
attended as politely as if you re-
lated feat Of doing that tough
hole at the club in a three, when
all the rest of 'em took five. Horse
shoes, be it known, is not bucollc
sport for the husbandman after
the COW has been MIXED, nor d
pastime for the red-handed, blue
coated fireman 1t has ARRIVED.
Who plays it? Not the people who
used to. The farmer spends his
leisure moments tuning up the hiv-
yer or putting a new tube into the
radio set. The fireman hasn't any
place to play any more, and he
hasn't any horses left, to rob OF
their footgear. The advocates of
horse-shoes are regular city folks.
MY gosh" said a voice on the
other end of the wire, in the inner
Office Of the fire marshall in Chi
cage. "Horseshoes!' There was a
deep sigh-contempt, amusement,
surprise, "reminiscences certainly it
was something.
Lad, there hasn't been a shoe
tossed in a department station here
since the Chicago fire. I'll do bet
tern that-I'll make it since che
time they gave up hand-pumping
apparatus. The fire department al
ways has got the reputation of be-
ing a mob of horseshoe pitchers.
But the indictment-or the honor,
whichever way you look at it
amt merited.' '
Your horseshoe pitcher of today
IS a member of clubs organized
specifically for that reason, declares
Walter Wright, superintendent of
small parks and Fairgrounds, vino
encounters plenty of them in tours
Of his domain. Tournaments, for
the purpose of establishing the
local champion, are held annually.
Boys clubs have horseshoe teams
as hard to make and as coveted as
the basket ball and baseball.
Three years ago, according to a
salesman at a branch of Spaulding
and Company, merchants Of ath-
letic equipment of every conceiv-
able nature, which has stores i'll
every city of consequence in Amer
lea, he'd never sold a set of shoes.
This year it's rather a problem to
keep a stock Of them on hand, ne
declared.
Another proof of the evolution of
the horseshoe from its lowly
status in the barnyard to it's share
of the athletic spotlight is the fact
of its nationwide organization, in
the National Horseshoe Pitchers
Association Of the U. S. A., which
has laid down a. code of rules to
number of nineteen.
The laws Of the game cover every
thing from the size of the courts,
the situation Of pitchers boxes,
the shoes, the length of games and
the value of points, coaching from
the sidelines" las grave misde-
meanor in horseshoes as in football,
evidently and the national state
tournaments.
No shoes, declare the rules, exceed
two and one-half pounds in weight,
seven and one-half inches in length,
or seven inches in width. The
stakes shall not be less than eight
feet apart.
Fifty points, with ringers" and
counting three points-the most
one can make in one hand"
stitute the game, according to the
rule makers. The shoe nearest to
the stake wins a point for It's
OWNER, and two shoes nearest the
stake means two points.
Few people in India know how