The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, July 18, 1897, Page 17

( { Call //: - /",‘ /‘//// ’tfg?'fl /] e ' /5 Croquet, the Game of Our Grandmothers, Has Been Revived and Now Bids Fair to Supersede Lawn Tennis as the Fashionable | Outdoor Amusement. The Old Game of Days Gone By | Has for Many Years Been Given Over to Young Children, Schoolgirls and Nursemaids. AWN TENNIS is likely to lose the favor it has held for many vears. It must give way to a renewal of one of the most old- fashioned games — the zame of croquet — which now has, for some own reason, risen high in popular favor and, in fact, pro ¢ to gain a position which it has never before achieved. More than once social autbority has no hesitation in saying that tennis and golf must look to their laurels. In both f thess games muscular energy is in greater evidence than in croquet. Therefore, with fushion’s indorsement, it would s em that croguet would have a stronger hold than either of the others. Modern croquet is a game requiring not only a deal of skill and knowledze, but also calm judgmeént and, above all things, an imperturbabla temper. At any given moment one player has the most complete command of the balls and the other has to submit to being deprived of all chances of making progress. His turn may come if his opponent makes a mistake, or if he can succeed in the apparently hopeless task of hitting a single ball at the other end of the grounds, more than thirty yards v, and even this slender chance may not often be afforded. k vlavers are careful to wire an adversary for whose long shots they entertain any respect, finishing each break by placing the ball liable to be picked off under the er of one or more hoops. A judicious antagonist, when he has established a d, will tuke tne utmost care not to lose it by risking brilliant strokes or by weakly showing mercy to his rival. In making along break—in other words, making several hoops in the same turn—the skill of the best piayers is chiefly shown in the admirable tics employed to keep one ball under due contro! and another waiting in a central yosition to be used when required. In siriking this second ball great precision is exhibited in first getting such a posi- 7 near it that it can be forced toward the hoop which is next made. Croquet this ris played both upon lawns and sanded fields. For some reasons the first is the most pleasant, but when it comes to actual skill in playing the sanded field should have supremacy. There is greater opportunity for clever shots, there are no obstacles in the way of concealed twigs,and it becomes a game where science and brains always overmatch ignorance and lack of skillfulness. Onthe lawn accident sometimes favor the poor player. On the sand, provided the field is in good condition, the playermust depend altogether upon his judgment and his cieverness in handling the mallet. Another fact that is making croquet rather popular this season 1s that none of the expense which attaches to golr and also tennis is caused by it. The ordinary dress for croquet is that which every one wears. Neither knickerbockers nor short skirts One does not have to wear a cap, neither is he obliged to provide him- self with sticks or other equipment. The host or hostess is bound to provide the balls and mallets for the guests and this relieves them of an iafinite lot of bother. 1tis not the rule in croquet, as in other games, that one has a favorite mallet or a favorite ball. One may prefer a certain weight mallet, but that can be selected just as a man who hgues into a billiard-ball to play a game of billiards selects his cue of a certain weight, It is the general opinion of persons who are familiar with croquet that there are two reasons for lawn tennis having gained supremacy over it. Oneis that grounds have be§n especially prepared for tennis. The second is that tennis was something new. Now, however, tennis has been played for a sufficient longth of time that the supremacy of the two zames may be decided upon the merits of each. In the minds of most people there 1< small question that eroquet has the best claim, for the simple reason tha: in the long run it is the better able to hold the interest, because it really requires infinitely more skill and science. No one can sav at what time this year croquet forced itself upon the thoughts of people. Perbaps the first intimation of this was tne formation of croquet clubs. The first amused, the second caused inquiry, the third resulted in investigation. Now it are necessary, Lappens that croguet clubs are being formed right and left, and Dame Fashion herseif has set the seal of approval upon the revival of the old-time society amusement. It {is a fact tha:, if society often wanders after strange gods, it invariably returns sooner | or later to the best that is offered to it. No one familiar with the two yames can deny that croquet is as scientific as billiards. Billiards have and presumably always will be a favorite pastime. The revival of croquet indicates that hereafter it will be con- | sidered in the same.category. Very many persons have in some way gained the impression that since croquet has comparatively cease! to be a National amusement, it is nothing at all. Far from this teing true, there is a National croguet association waich meets at Norwich, Conn., this year, on the Monday precediug the third Tuesday in August. There are no better grounds in the country than those to be found in New York City at the corner of Eighty-eighth street and Madison avenue, sanded grounds, too, and not a lawn. Odaly enough, Sailors’ Snug Harbor, on the west side of Staten Island, boasts of delightful grounds, where the old salts enjoy themselves. There are croquet grounds at Twenty-second and Brown streets, Philadelphia. Leominster Mass.; Northampton, Danbury, Conn.; New London and Middieton, in the same State, Springfield and Shelburne Fatls, Mass., a8 wel: as Cottage City, the star town of Marthas Vineyard, have excellent grounds. Further south are Washington City, Wilmington, Del, and Norfolk, Va. Cro- | quet Las become a decided fad in each of these, and goodness, how many persons are playing it. Therm, out West, Los Angeles and Palo Alto, Cal., have enthusiastic clubs, and their membership is growing in surprising degree. There are no more en- thusiastic players than the Trenton (N, J.) Association, and the players of Albion | N. Y., are not in the least inferior. In many of these vlacesthe croquet associations | have fine clubhouses, and tournaments are of frequentoccurrence. The crack players of the country are said to be at Elyria, Ohio. The up-to-date croquet player must remember that the gume should be played on a ground as nearly level as possibie, and ordinarily 86 by 72 fee* in size. In every in- stance the ground should be well rolied and sand iightly sprinkled over it, this latter being to hold the balls, and prevent them from slipping and sliding, and thus giving unintentional advantage to poor shots. The decline of lawns in the favor of persons wio best understand the game of croquet'is fully ‘'shown by the fact that all National or tournament games aro played on what is called dirt ground. If there is one thing | more than another which could be called the central principle of the game of croquet it is accuracy, and this is so much easier on the plain dirt ground than the lawn that comparison shows the widest possibla difference. | The most fashionable ecroquet tournament of modern society is known asthe eight-mallet game, meaning, of course, that eight players engage therein. Asa rule four are on a side, and this, it is considered, furnishes the best opportunity for skill to be demonstrated of any combination of players. ‘Experts hold that there is more science displayed in an eight-mallet game of croquet than in a dozen lawn tennis or golf games. In no other sport is there greater necessity for what is termed a “‘good eye.”” Toa person who cannot accurately judge distance, croquet is an impossibility so far as success is concerned. Another requirement is that the player must thor- oughly understand the degrees of force necessary in striking a ball. Given these two requisites, a player is almost certain of success. Without them, he might as well cease playing the game. Inasmuch as croquet is both economical and fashionable, we may look forward to | seeing the popularity of the revival grow steadily. It1s all the more likely to gafn | favor because it can be plaved by persons of all ages. And therein may be said to be the reason for the revival of croquet. Tennis and golf are all very well in their ways, but it tukes an athlete to play them—that is to play them with any satisfaction. Of course this excludes grandpa and grandma. They can only sit on the porch and watch the young people skip about and knock the ball over the net. But with croquet the whole family can join and have the liveliest l kind of times without fatigue to any member. 3 7 by, | not half a dozen birch-bark caroes. The Difficult Pastime of Canoeing Has Become the Most Popu- lar Summer Recreation and Has Devotees Everywhere. HIS is to be a year of aquatic sports. More orders for canods have been placed tbis season than at this time during any pre- vious year. To the majority of persons this will be a surprise, but the fact is that for years this sport, which is really the only one that is purely amateur, has been steadily gaining in favor untilnow it has achieved the distinction of becoming a summer fad, as well as a bobby wiih all those who love the sport for sport’s sake alone. Where formerly it was considered a pastime that belonged particularly to Canadians, 1t is now Canada’s only to the extent that the sireamsof the Dominion are more suited to the sport than the majority of those of the United States, except in the Maine woods. For years the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay have been the Mecca of the Ameri- can canoeists. Hhere was the opportunity for which they all sought—that of demon- sirating whatskill they did possess and acquiring stiil more. At first it was the plain paddiing canoe; then the more venturesome of the canoeists tried the tactics which the Canadian Indians employed years ago on the Si. Lawrence—sailing, though with somewhat different sails. The result has® been a steady growth of the popularity of the saiiing canoe, until this season the summer of sailing canoes will approach very closely to those which are operated by paddlesalone. It must not be supposed that canoes are to be found only in Canadian waters, There are plenty of them which skim over what the oid settlers of the West used to call the unsalted seas. The rivers of the East also number not a few of them among the ¢ their surface. When at Albany the other day the writer saw as trim a s, t that dot ling canoe | as was ever built, and the way she was handled showed that her skipper was no novice. She was of that variety known as the St. Lawrence racing skiff, and the speed she showed was something marvelous. She was decked over entirely, as all of the best racing canoes of to-day are, and was fittea with what is called the sliding seat. This seat is worth more than passing notice, for to me it seems one of the clever- est features which modern ideas have given the canoeist. It is constructed, as a rule, of a piece of stout two-inch plank which extends 18 inches from the side of the canoe. Upon this the skipper of the canoe sits while eaiting. It fits upon the side of the boat in such a manner that it can be shifted from one side to the other at the pleasure of theskipper, when the canoe tacks. Letsome of the old-timers who read this com- pare it with the ancient method of sitiing upon the deck while sailing. No one minds a ducking if he is a real canoeist, but the cunoeist loves comfort, and here is a bright | and shining example of what he can do to gain it. For those wuose taste does not run in the direction of sails the good old paddler is as strongly in evidence as ever. If one is going into the woods then should he depend upon his paddies. Itis an absolute necessity, if one is zoing to take a canoe trip all alone, that he should be an expert with the canoe, a good shot, a good cook and moderately well skilled in wood lore. Then he must be a first-class swimmer, as the one accident which the canoeist has most to fear is drownin For the reason that it is not often oce person combines all the knowledge referred to unless he is a professional woodsman in the Canadian country, it is the practice this year for two { ersons to take the canoe trip together. This is a decided safeguard against accident, forifanything happens to one it is more than an even chance that the other will bes abie to give aid, where, if there was only one parson, that one would be obliged to depend sole’y upon himself at ail times. In the minds of most persons the word canoe immediately calls to mind the Indian and the birch-vark crait that the novelist has always given him whenever the slightest opportunity made it possibie. As a matter of fact in Canada to-day there are The person who wishes to view and ride in the old-time birch-bark affair must needs journey into the Maine woods. There, not so | very far from the Canadian line, he will find both the birch-bark canoe and the backwoodsman, who seems from Lis appearance to have just stepped from the pages of an old-time novel. The birch-bark canoe is much more uncertain in its movements than the more modern one, con-tructed of cedar or basswocd, such as even the Canadian Indians use nowadays. The canoeist will tell you that it is “‘cranky,’ and there is no other word which better expresses its general characteristics. Still, there is infinite pleasure in forcing it with gentle but firm strokes of the paddle to take you along, and realize that you have mastered this most unraly of boats. Mcre people go to the woods and camp out every year. Time was when it was thought that to camp out in summer one must needs be by a lake, but that idea has gone glimmerinz with a lot of others about camp life, which were equally as foolish. Peovle go to camp out for the benefits to be derived from out-of-door life. Itisan absolute fact that the majority really care little or nothing for hunting or fishing. They go to have a good time, and sometimes because some one else has told them how pleasant it is ana how inexpensive.