Outdoor games for all seasons

Preface

Although the present book is addressed to the same class of readers, it is neither a substitute for nor a supplement to " The American Boy's Handy Book," from which it will be found to differ in scope and character. " The American Boy's Book of Sport " is not intended as an enc3^clopasdia of games. The purpose of the book is to deal only with subjects whose novelty or practical character meets the especial need of the up-to-date American boy who demands explicit and intelligent explanations of what is of use to him.

The many years spent as a member of the Board of Education in Flushing, Long Island, and as a teacher of art in New York, have impressed upon the author the importance of early training for children in the use of their hands. It is with the purpose of stimulating this sort of schooling that the author appeals to parents and boys to encourage the home production of kites, boats, and sleds, etc. ; for the ingenuity and self-reliance thus developed are valuable qualities in a boy or man.

Moreover, a lack of the proper sort of play unfits a boy for the battle of life, and there is scarce!}^ room to doubt vi Preface

that the most successful men of to-day in business, statesmanship, art, and science are those willing to undergo and capable of enduring the most severe and continued application ; and as this power is dependent upon a robust physique and a strong, well-balanced mind, there is no doubt that well-directed boyish sport is the best school for the attainment of such results.

While this work represents many curb-stone interviews with boys, and years of observation and study of the subjects that have never lost for the writer the interest they held for him in his boyhood, it also includes the results of many carefully conducted personal interviews with experts in the various sports described, and investigations of obscure legends, written and unwritten, connected with games whose origin is older than history itself.

Golf and foot-ball are at the present time engrossing so much of the attention of our American boys that their claims have been found too important to be disregarded, while in the necessary exclusion of material in making a volume of suitable and convenient size, base-ball, tennis, and cricket, possessing an extended literature of their own, have not been described.

In many cases subjects heretofore thought worthy of little or no attention on the part of authors who write for boys, are here treated of at length. It would not be difficult, for instance, to fill a library with good books on fishing ; 3'et in the numerous boys' books consulted there appeared to be nothing modern, American, and practical,

Preface vii

or that answered the numerous inquiries the author has received from his juvenile friends on the subject of still fishing ; and this led him to believe that a popular demand for enlightenment on this matter necessitated a chapter on bait.

The novel and interesting developments in kite-making and kite-flying that have taken place in the last few years merit, and have obtained, extended description.

The great popularity of " The American Boy's Handy Book," and the favor with which its successive editions have been received, encourage its author to hope that " The American Boy's Book of Sport " will be welcomed by all the readers of the first book and will make many new friends.

Flushing, Long Island, N. Y., October 15, 1896.

Contents

SPRING.

Chapter I. Page

Marble Time — History of the Game — Sakya-Muni and Humphrey Potter — How Marbles are Made — Marble Names, Marble Terms, and Expressions — Games from Bull Ring to Long Ring.

CHAPTER II. " Fat " AND Other Famous Games of Marbles ig

The Uncertainties of " Fat," Sometimes Called " Yank " or " Yankey " — Stand-up Marbles — Follerings — Knucks, the Long Ring, and Patterson — The Scientific Bull Ring — Duck in a Hole.

CHAPTER XV. A " Rough and Ready " Boat -. 187

Just What an Ingenious Boy Must Do to Build It — Detailed Instructions as to How to Make the Boat and How to Rig It.

CHAPTER XVL Raft that Will Sail 197

And a Home-Made Catamaran — The Raft is Just the Thing for Camp Life — Pleasurable Occupation for a Camping Party Where -Wood is Plentiful — You Will Need Axes and Hatchets and a Few Other Civilized Implements.

xii Contents

CHAPTER XXI. Choosing Up and " It. " 245

"Which Hand is It in?" — " Pick'er Up, Wipe'er Off, and Stone- Holder" — "Last One Over" — Short Straw — Handy, Dandy, Riderly Ro — " Whole Fist or Four Fingers " — " Odd or Even ? " — " Wet or Dr)' ? "

CHAPTER XXIT.

How the Game is Played — \'arious Rhymes — An American Version of an Ancient Rhyme — Causes sf Variations — Rhymes of Different Nationalities.

Contents xiii

CHAPTER XXXI. Practical Hints for Bicyclists 365

Regarding Baggage and how to Carry It — A Photographer's Outfit on a Wheel — A Collector's Box — How to Deal with Punctures — An Extemporized Handle Bar — A Rope Tire — A Cleaning Rack, and a Bicycle Stand.

AUTUMN.

The " Get-There " and Double-Runners 47S

Instructions as to How to Build these Famous Sleds— A Safety Double- Runner.

0jjrm3

The American Boy's Book of Sport

Chapter I Marbles

Marble Time — History of the Game — Sakya-Muni and Humphrey Potter — How Marbles are Made — Marble Names, Marble Terms, and Expressions — Games from Bull Ring to Long Ring.

Marble Time.

In the early spring time, while the white frost still jewelled the grass in the mornings and the ground was alternately frozen at night and thawed by the morning sun, marble time used to begin, and on Long Island the custom of playing marbles as soon as old winter has taken off his coat of snow is still in vogue.

How my knuckles used to smart where the cold wind had chapped them and "knuckling down" had ground the mud into the raw places. But, pshaw ! What did I care for raw knuckles, as with a pocketful of assorted varieties of marbles I watched eagerly for a playmate, and as soon as one appeared, shouted, " First for keeps ! "

In those days I thought that gambling consisted only in playing games for money.

Four hundred years before the first incidents occurred that are written of in the New Testament, old Sakya-Muni was dead and buried, but, like John Brown, his spirit keeps marching on.

Sakya-Muni was a great man, but I doubt if any of my young readers would like him. Mr. Muni founded a great religion, but he was narrow-minded. Boys in those days were just like the boys of this day — they were fond of fuii, fond of games, and they made little windmills, and they enjoyed seeing the wheels buzz in the breeze.

Old Sakya-Muni thought this sinful and silly. He forgot that he was ever a bo}- himself, so he forbade windmills as "detrimental to progress in virtue." Sakya-Muni, or Gautama Buddha, was an ancient Puritan ; he was down on chess or checkers, hop-scotch he abhorred, jack-straws to him were the invention of the evil one, ball was a game of perdition, drawing pictures, blowing horns, racing, archery, and marbles, were equally bad and forbidden sins.

There are man}^ estimable, narrow-minded, half-developed people of to-day who think just as Buddha did so long ago, but fortunately for the j^oung people no one now takes them seriously.

Sak3^a-Muni had no intention or desire to be of assistance to the author of this book. No doubt if the old pagan were alive he would forbid its publication, but nevertheless he is introduced to the reader because his denunciations of these games prove that the youngsters of his day found entertainment in the same games that occupy the leisure of the school-boys at the close of the nineteenth century.

Not many years ago there was a bo}^ named Humphrey Potter, who, sad to relate, in spite of Mr. Muni's harangue against games, would rather play marbles than work; but he was a poor boy, and he would rather work than see his parents deprived of the comforts that his little earnings could procure. Humphrey was only a boy ; he did not know anything. Not one of the great men who had invented the awkward, puffing old steam-engines that were used in those days would have condescended to consult Hump in regard to his invention.

The poor little chap had to sit all day on a stick of wood for a stool, and, with one hand on the steam-cock and the other on the water-cock, alternately turn on steam and water. When he turned on the steam this vapor rushed into the cylinder and forced a heavy piston up ; when he turned on the water, that fluid rushed in, cooled off or condensed the steam and down came the piston. So that without a boy at the steam and water cocks this great invention of full-grown men would not work.

But Hump had a better head than these men, and the lad wanted to play marbles. So down went his hand into that junk-shop which every boy has, but which he calls his pocket, and out came a piece of string — most likely it was a top-string — and Hump harnessed up the piston to the valves.

It was as simple as falling off a log. The piston opened and shut the valves itself, and Humphrey played marbles and drew his pay at the same time.

Simple as falling off a log, but like many things it was too simple for a man to think of, and yet simple as it was Humphrey Potter's invention lifted the steam-engine from the plane of a clumsy machine chiefly used for pumping purposes to the higher field where its uses are so manifold as scarcely to be numbered, and Humphrey was only a boy and an inveterate marble-player at that.

Boys, when you hear the thunder of the railroad train, the hum of the factory wheels, or the whistle of the big steam-boats, rattle the marbles in your pockets, and say,

Spriii

" Well, if it were not for one of us, where would all your wonderful inventions be, 3-ou great, big, bald-headed, bearded boys that build your cities without leaving us room for a Bull Ring?"

Terms Used in the Game.

Before going any farther, I might as well give the meanings of the principal terms used in marbles — the phrases which mean so much to boys and so little to those who are unfamiliar with them.

The Taw or Shooter, is the marble used for shooting.

The Taw Line or Tie Line, or Scratch, as it is often called, is the line drawn for a starting-point in games like the Long Ring.

Ducks are the marbles to be shot at.

Dubs* means that you take all the marbles knocked out of the ring by one shot.

Fen Dubsf means that you must put back all but one marble.

Lofting means shooting through the air. When you loft you knuckle down and your taw goes through the air and does not strike the ground until it hits the duck aimed at, or a spot near it.

Knuckling down means what the name implies, resting the knuckles on the ground during the act of shooting.

Hunching means shoving your hand over the mark as you shoot. Hunching is unfair, and if a good shot is made and the player making it is caught in the act of hunching he should be made to shoot over again and shoot fair.

Histing is holding the hand some distance above the ground. Histing is not allowable in the Bull Ring or in Meg-on-a-String.

* An abbreviation of doubles. t An abbreviation of defend doubles.

Roundsters means taking a new position on one side or the other of some obstruction. This is not fair in Bull Ring.

Sidings means to move your taw from one side to the other in a straight line when about to shoot, and is not allowable in Bull Ring.

Burying is the term applied to the act of placing your taw in a good spot and then forcing it into the ground with the heel of your shoe. Burying is sometimes allowed in all games of marbles, but only by unskilled players ; with the others " Fen buryings " is the unwritten rule of the game.

Laying in is similar to burying, with the exception that your taw is left on top of the ground. This is also a "baby" game and not often resorted to. " Laying in " also means placing the marbles in the ring.

Clearances means removing stones, sticks, or other objects between your taw and the ducks.

Sneaking is the act of shooting for a position.

Babying is shooting with little force, so as not to knock the ducks far or to cause your taw to fly far. Babying is not of much use in large rings, but is often resorted to in small rings and in such games as Follerings. There is no rule that can make you stop babying, so the other players always try ridicule. This never succeeds to any extent, though it eases the minds of the unsuccessful players when another boy is " skinning " the ring by babying.

Playing for Keeps is a game in which all the ducks won are kept. Playing for Fair is an Eastern term with the same meaning, and for Fun means of course that all the marbles are returned to their original owners when the game is over.

The Right Spirit.

It is not necessary to gamble with marbles, as many suppose, and in fact there is little doubt that the game was first played "for keeps" centuries ago when pebbles were used for marbles and the pebbles won were only valued as trophies or counters. In reality a marble won is a point won in the game, and it is not necessary to keep the marbles after the game is over, any more than it is necessary to keep the balls and bats of the defeated base-ball players or the balls and rackets of the defeated lawn-tennis players or the foot-bal) of the defeated foot-ball players. What the American boy plays for is to win the game, not the implements of the sport. It is only the occasional " tough " who manages to get into the game who has the real instincts of the gambler, and he is the boy who always cries "grinder," and "snatches up " or " swipes " the marbles of smaller or moi'e timid lads. Such a boy should be avoided just as respectable men avoid the gambler and black-leg.

Knuckle Dabsters.

Every boy who plays marbles should possess a knuckle dabster ; these can be made from bits of soft woollen cloth,

Fig. I. — A Quilted " Knuckle Dabster.

Fig. 2.— Mole Skin " Knuckle Dabster."

felt, or the skin of small animals. Mole skins make the softest and prettiest of knuckle dabsters, but any piece of fur will answer. Some boys wear them fastened to the hand, but the most expert players seem to prefer to throw them down at the spot from which they are about to shoot and then knuckle down on the soft fur or woollen cloth.

A knuckle dabster prevents one's knuckles from becoming sore and raw, and adds greatly to the comfort of the player.

Your sister, mother, aunt, or grandmother can in a few moments stitch two pieces of thick, soft cloth together for you when marble time arrives, and if they will add to this favor by making you Fig- 3— Mar-

^ J ble Bag.

A Marble Bag

with strings to draw the mouth

together, you are ready for the

season. The marble bag should

be small enough to slip into your

pocket, where it will prevent the

loss of many marbles that might

work their way through that hole that is always to be

found in a boy's pocket after he has worn his clothes for

a short time.

I remember how I used to plan leather and buckskin pockets that would not wear out, and I made up my mind that when I was old enough to make money and buy my own clothes the tailor should be instructed to put in leather pockets.

Alas! when I reached that age it took so much cash to buy the clothes that there was never enough in the pockets to wear them out.

Fig. 4. — Same with Strings Drawn.

lo spying

Whom to Play Marbles With.

If Little Lord Fauntleroy had been born in a Western town his life would not have been worth living. He was a gentle little " sissy " aristocrat, who would never have been tolerated by the " Huck" Finns and Tom Sawyers inhabiting the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries.

Imagine, if you can, such a little chap wearing the clothes with which Mr. Birch, in his beautiful illustrations, so appropriately dressed him ; imagine him down on one knee, with his girlish hand chapped with the wind and the cracks, filled with grime, knuckling down and lofting on the ducks in the middle of a bull ring, or with doubled fists standing over his marbles, defending his property against some young highwayman from the rolling mill on the river bank !

As the New York bo)'s would say, " He wouldn't be in it." No, the house is the place for him. This is a rough world, and it requires experiences outside of a gentle, loving mother's care or the sweet lad)^-like tuition of a governess to fit a lad for the battle of life.

What we want for a pla3'mate is a fair and square fellow, who will stand by a friend through thick and thin, and, without being quarrelsome, defend his rights and never " weaken." It is unnecessary to say that such a lad's love of justice will always prevent him from imposing upon smaller boys and his manliness will cause him to treat his companion and the girls with courtes3^ You need not watch him in any game, for he will not cheat. Among my old schoolmates I have known many such fellows, and, to a man, they are all good fellows now ; good citizens, good fathers, and they still enjoy watching the boys play the games in which they used to excel themselves.

How Marbles Were First Made.

With the aid of frost and sun nature splits the rocks, dropping the fragments into the water, and the ever moving water rolls the fragments over each other and against other stones until they become smooth pebbles, many of which are almost as round as the marbles sold in stores. Away back before history was written the children used these natural marbles to play with, but there is nothing to tell us whether they used a " long ring " or a " bull ring," or what rules governed the game.

When the Tammany Halls of Rome and the citizens in general became wicked and corrupt it made nature very ill, and she broke out in volcanoes. While the terrible fires from the bowels of the earth were spouting and scattering their ashes and lava over towns and cities, Pompeii was buried with all its streets and houses and with some of its people and dogs. Among the many curious things found in the ruins by the antiquarians who have unearthed the old cities were — what? Marbles left by the boys in their flight from the doomed city, and, I think, if the truth were known, some of the little rascals delayed their departure long enough to secure and carry away with them their " megs," as the New York boys would call the ancient marbles.

Marbles in America.

One hundred and twenty-eight years after Columbus discovered America, and when many of the ancestors of this generation of boys could call themselves Americans, the Dutchmen imported marbles to England, and it is very probable the old Knickerbockers introduced them here, but it matters little who had the honor of introducingf them to

America. They came to stay, and now, from California to Maine, and from the Calumet and Hecla mines at Red Jacket, Mich,, to New Orleans, the boys all play marbles.

Made Abroad Nowadays.

Where do they all come from ?. Some of you win them, some of you trade postage-stamps for them, but some person bought them, probably, at the little store around the corner.

When I attended the Eighth Street District School in Cincinnati we used to replenish our stock from " Malaney's." I do not recollect the real name of the proprietor of the little store, but that is the name it went by among the boys. There we bought our butterscotch and bull'seye candy ; our match-sticks for kites, our elastic bands for slings, our tops and top-strings.

Local Names of Marbles.

But Malaney must have secured his supply from somewhere, because I know he did not make them himself, and he always had a quantity on hand of "potteries," "plasters," "chinas," "crystals," "agates," " alleys," and "commies."

Atlantic coast boys do not use these names, but they use the same marbles. We had a tradition that the potteries were made at a pottery near the Brighton Hotel in the suburbs of Cincinnati. What truth, if any, there is in this tradition I am unable to state. In New York I seldom see this rich brown mottled marble, whose glossy surface is marked by three rough dots.

The " crockery " never had the splashes of white that distinguished the " burned agate " of New York, nor the green of the " moss agate" of the same place. Both of the latter were unknown to the Western bo3^s twenty-five years ago.

At the beginning of this century marbles were sometimes called "bowls," and all came from Nuremberg, down the Rhine to Rotterdam, and thence to all other parts of Europe.

How Marbles are Made.

They are now manufactured in immense quantities in Saxony for exportation to the United States, India, and China. The common marble is manufactured of hard stone quarried near Coburg, Saxon}^, and the process is practically the same as that used by nature in grinding out the little round pebbles originally used by the children of long ago.

Nature, though constantly busy, is slow. We do not want to wait a thousand or ma3^be a million years for her to get our marbles ready. Our fingers might be too old to shoot with them, so we adopt nature's principles, but make more haste. In place of frost man uses a hammer to break the stone into fragments.

The hammer breaks the hard stone into small squares, or, more properly, cubical shaped blocks. These are placed on a large millstone one hundred or two hundred at a time. The millstone has several grooves cut in it in the form of rings, one ring inside another, or, as your Geometry would put it, in the form of concentric circles. Over this a block of oak of the same size as the lower stone rests on the small square fragments and is kept turning while water flows upon the bottom stone.

Power is supplied by a water-wheel, and when the machiner)^ is set in motion the little cubes are compelled, by the pressure and motion of the upper piece, to roll over and over in their circular tracks, and round and round and round they travel like circus horses in a ring. In fifteen minutes' time the mill does what nature takes years to accomplish, and the little blocks of stone are turned into small stone balls. These are the unfinished marbles and need smoothing.

One such mill can turn out two thousand marbles a week, and if there are four or five sets of millstones running, eight thousand or ten thousand a week can be manufactured.

In another part of the establishment the water-wheel turns a number of wooden barrel-shaped receptacles, something like the copper ones used for making candy in this country. Inside the wooden casks are hard stone cylinders. These revolving cylinders smooth the marbles, which are compelled by the motion of the machinery to keep up a constant rubbing against each other and against the stone cylinder. When they are smooth enough the dust made by the last process is emptied from the casks and fine emery powder substituted. This gives finish and polish to the marble.

Common Marbles.

The small, gray marbles are what the Western bo3^s call "commies" or "combos." They are often painted bright colors, but the paint soon wears off and they look like little dried clay balls. They are not much valued, and five " commies " usually represent the value of one " plaster."

The Century Dictionary gives an " alley " as one of the definitions of a marble. On what ground it bases this information I am unable to state. " Agate," " meg," "duck" or "real" would be just as good a definition. " Meg " or " duck " would be better, inasmuch as, in different sections of the country, both of these terms are used to define marbles of an}^ description; while "alley" in almost all parts of the country means a particular kind of marble.

The Alley.

In some parts of Ohio and Kentucky the marble desig^- nated by the latter name is a small, hard sphere with a yellowish - white ground, streaked with wavy lines of bluish green. These are not the same as the " Croton alley "or "Jasper" of New York. 'The latter, I believe, are made of glazed and unglazed china marbled with blue, and are generally larger marbles than the so-called alleys of the West.

The China and Plaster.

In Cincinnati and the adjoining cities of Covington and Newport, Ky., a china is what its name implies — china. This term, when I was a boy, was used only to designate a glazed china ; the unglazed ones we called plasters, from their resemblance to that substance.

Both of the latter marbles are decorated with lines of various colors, sometimes crossing each other, forming plaids, and again arranged in circles and called bull's e3^es. They are made in wooden molds and are dried, baked, and painted like any other chinaware.

The Bumbo and Peawee.

" Bumbo," " bumboozer" or" bowler " are names applied to very large marbles of any description. A " peawee " is the name used for any very small marble.

Crystals

is a general name applied in many parts of the country to all glass marbles, including "opals," "glimmers," "bloods," " rubies," etc. They are all very beautiful, but their beauty i6 is only skin deep, and when used much they become dull and full of nicks. Some of these glass marbles are called " agates " in the East, and hence the genuine agate is called a " real," to distinguish it from the counterfeit glass one. Glass marbles are made by melting the glass and pressing the hot substance in polished metal molds, the halves of which fit so neatly that no trace of a seam or line is visible on the glass to mark where the parts of the mold join.

The " Lucky Taw."

Our lucky taw, or the marble we used when a skilful shot was required, was carefully selected for its weight and symmetry, and was generallj' an agate or real. Agates are beautiful gems of agate or carnelian, varying in color from a smoky gray to a blood red, or variegated with mottlings or stripes of different colors. Agates are made into mar-, bles at Oberstein. The workmen are very skilful. The stone is first broken into fragments of the proper size, and then, by means of a hammer, clipped into rude balls; these balls are then worn down on the face of a large grindstone, and are managed with great dexterity by the workmen, who in a few minutes bring them into perfect spheres, after which they are polished by hand on lapidary wheels.

Cunny Thumb or Scrumpy Knuckled.

If Little Lord Fauntleroy played mar-, bles, any boy could tell you how he would shoot. He would hold his hand vertically, place his taw or shooter against his thumb-nail and his first finger. He would shoot " cunny thumb style," or " scrumpy knuckled." The thumb would

Fig. 5. — " Cunny Thumb."

flip out weakly (Fig. 5), and the marble would roll on its way.

Tom Sawyer would lay the back of his fist on the ground or on his mole-skin " knuckle dabster," hold his taw between the first and second joints of the second finger and the first joint of the thumb, the three smaller fingers closed and the first finger partially 'open (Fig. 6). From this animated ballista the marble would shoot through the air for four or five feet, alighting on one of the ducks in the middle of the ring, sending it flying outside, while the taw would spin in the spot vacated by the duck. Tom or Huck Finn would display as much skill with his taw as an expert billiard player would with the ivory balls.

Fig. 6.— As Tom Would Shoot.

Fig. 7. — Western Reserve and New York. Fig. 8. — Another and Better Style.

A Southern Way.

Down in Dixie I have frequently seen grown men, white and black, playing marbles, and one or two of the expert players held their taw on their second finger, holding the second finger back with their thumb ; then suddenly removing the thumb and straightening out the finger, they sent the marble, like a bullet, straight to the mark. This manner of shooting must require much practice, and I doubt if it is more accurate than the one just described as Tom's method. Some boys, skilful in the game, squeeze the marble they shoot with between the thumb and the forefinger, wetting it with their mouth to make it slip quickly.