Year: 1870

How to play Croquet.


Apropos of croquet, we find in an
English journal some very sensible
remarks touching the game. Nine
teen people out fevery twenty, says
the writer, who will tell you that
they play the game, do not know
what they are talking about. 1t is
the misfortune of croquet as a mere
game, that it has been found so ad-
mirably subscrvient to that higher
game which all young men and wo-
men of good and natural impulses
will play together whenever they
have the chance. Its own peculiar
merits are thus thrown into the
shade, and by most diHotonti are to-
tally unobservcd. Now, as a game
to be played by the head as well as
by the hands, as one which requires
considerable forethought and imag-
nation, croquet does not come very
far below whist and chess. Novices
and at croquet most people re-
main novices to the end Of the chap
ter-innocently suppose that the
game consists simply in getting
through your hoops when You can,
and croqueting an enemy or helping
friend when you have a chance.
The player who does nothing more
than this at croquet, is precisely on
level with whist player who can
do nothing but follow suit. The
whole science Of croquet consists in
the combinations, in the mutual sup
port which may be afforded by
friendly balls. Four balls is the
largest number that can be scientiti-
cally used; and inasmuch as open
consultation between the players
will be as fatal to strategic move
ments as it would be if two persons
were consulting over each side in 4
game of chess, one oftwo plans must
be adopted. Either one of the play
ers on each side must be absolutely
master of the other, or the game
must be reduced to game of two,
each person taking two balls. Then
indeed, and then only, can the charm
of croquet as rs game be thorough
" enjoyed. This pastime, which
had been joyously adopted at first
as nothing better than IN excuse for
miscellaneous garden parties of any
number has been improved so won
derfully that it is for some players a
game scarcely inferior to billiards:
but this Improvement has been ef-
tected at a certain cost. The per-
feet game can only be played by two
or four persons at the most. A fifth
and sixth may be generously taken
in for courtesy, but their presence
is absolutely fatal to the interest of
the game. The point to attend to i'll
playing, is this, you must always try
to keep your own balls together and
your advcrsary's apart. Getting
through your hoops must be help
quite subordinate to the necessity OF
Keeping together, and it is only pos
sible to keep together by constant
foresight. Combinations are every
thing at croquet. To describe those
of more complicated kind would
be impossible; but if any one who
wants to know what the game is will
take piece of paper, sketch out 4
croquet ground, and imagine tn.
strokes, he will find clew which he
may easily work out. OF course in
playing the game practically, skill
in hitting the balls will go Il great
way, but the most skilltul striker
who ever used mallet, if he totally
disregarded combinations, would i'll
fallibly be beaten by very inditfer
ent PLAYER who understood them.


There will be a transit Of Vcnu.
across the sun in 1874, and astrono
mers are already busy in making
arrangements for it's careful exami
nation, as by it the distance OF ths
sun from the earth is determined
The last transit of Venus was il
1899, and since that time instru
ments of greater exactness have
been made. Its results will b.
watched with much interest by scien
tific men.