The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 14, 1902, Page 2

9 THE SUNDAY CALL. [IE ECPRL1/25 An Expert Who Claims It Is One of the Few Sports at Which N Women May Compete Equally With Men. surprising that the Francisco have not one of their most ports. The game is fas- ing. Any woman can play. k womar for bowl- for should play nfinite possibilities pment. few sports at which wome te equally with men. Indeed 1CE m my experi- ence erage woman who bowls time can play quite as well ce who has never Strength counts is not everything ness, judgment and cularly—count for f fact, the mascu- y wastes stremgth and energy g to acquire the whirl- wind de! experts, when a slow ol would serve the better. women bowlers with t fragile, and yet they the very high ave out of & poss the uninitiated this may not seem at all remarkable, but—well bow! a while and you will soon learn to appreciate those figures It might not be out of place to state that the perfect score of 300 points has only been m three or four times at most by world. In Los Angeles bowling is: the most popular of all sports. All day long and until late at night the alleys are crowded with women from the best families in the south, many of whom are rapidly be- coming as expert as the men in knocking down the pins. A match game between picked teams of the best women players now takes on the air of a smart social function, particularly as these games have all the privacy and exclusive- ness of a fashionable pink tea. And the scene itself is as beautiful to the champion bowlers of the more behold. Such animation: ch eager in- terest—such excitement. Basket-ball, golf, tennis and ping pong pale into ut- ter insignificance beside it, because bowling has all these advantages over the other games. In the matter of dress—and perhaps after all that is woman’s first considera- tion the world over—there is practically no limit to what she may wear, since Dame Fashion has not yet brought the bowling costume within the strict lines of convention as in these other games. She may wear the short skirt, the red vest, the low shoes and the crisp shirt- waist of the golf girl, the blouse and bloomers of the basket-ball girl, the white ducks #nd the soft shoes of the tennis girl; the befrilled and beribboned fabrics of the ping pong girl, or a combination of all these costumes just as her own CHAMPION WOMAN ‘BOWLER OF THE o S FoR B aTUD variable fancy dictates. Coolness and free- dom of movement are the chief entials and it matters not whether it is a golf suit or a soft clinging lace creation, so it be serviceable and pretty—or perhaps it:should be stated vice versa—pretty and serviceabie to appeal most strongly to the feminine mind. In Los Angeles the daintiest and pret- tiest gowns imaginable are worn by the players during the match games, giving the women that distinguished air of cul- ture, refinement and perfect gowning without which no fad ever becomes Popu- lar with the sex, while the spectators are always as smartly gowned as for & fash- fonable matines For my ewn part I find the walking THE SWING AT ITS GREATEST skirt, with an elbow sleeve shirtwaist cut low in the neck, most serviceable, since it saves all the trouble of changing one's clothes in going to and from the alleys. ! But apart from the infinite possibilities of dress the chief charm of bowling over all these other sports, which has done more than anything else to make the game such a rage in Los Angeles, is the fact that one may bowl for hours with- out displacing even the smallest unruly curl. The players do not get wind-swept and dusty as in golf, sunburned and freckled as in tennis, or grimy and tousled as in basket-ball, nor overheated and flushed as in.ping pong. A well constructed alley is .comfortable and attractive beyond de- scription. In summer time it is cool, airy and shady, while in the winter, even on the coldest days, the game always affords just enough exercise to keep comfortably warm. Q 3 10, 80 it is not at all surprising that a sport which permits a woman to indulge in to her heart's content and still look her sweetest and prettiest the while is bound to be an attraction, especially when there 1s 80 little difficulty in learning it. And the secrets of the game might best be told in & series of “don’ts.” To the average woman player what not to do is far more important than what she ought to do, since very few beginners bowl cor- rectly from the start. This is surprising, too, because the correct way is really the easiest. Of oourse everybody knows the game of tenpins, It is one of the oldest sports in the world. The object is to knock down all ten pinw at a single strike, if possible, D v 4 or with two strikes at the very most. This means acouracy of delivery. The experts gain the requisite skill by = swift-curving ball. The novice will fre- quently accomplish the same result by rolling the ball gently down the alley, knocking all ten pins over with the weight of the ball itself. And now for the “‘don’t.” Don’t try to bowl with the regulation sixteen or seventeen pound ball when you first begin. It is too heavy, and if you attempt to deliver it with any force whatever befors you have mastered the principles of the game you will awaken with a very sore arm and shoulder in the morning. An eight pound ball is quite heavy enough. Don’t use a ball in which the holes for the thumb and forefinger do not fit your hand. This is quite important. If the holes are too close’together you cannot get & good, irm hold on the ball. If they are too far apart your hand will be severely strained in the span, giving the ball a curve on the delivery which will invariably send it into the gutter before it reaches the pins, or if it remains on the alley, take down only one or two of the outside pins at the most. Don’t dangle the ball gingerly between thumb and finger, but take hold of it securely so that the fingers spread over it naturally. It the holes are placed properly the thumb and forefinger should get & good grip on the ball, while the other fingers are just sufficiently spread to guide the ball in an even line straight from you. Don’t throw the ball with both hands. This is the sign manual of the verfest novice. Good playing may be done that ‘way, but no great force and consequently no great skill s ever attained In that ‘way, and from the feminine standard of srace and beauty, first in all things, it is awkward and absurd. Don’t bounce the ball when you throw it. This I find is one of the commonest faults with beginners, and besides the possibility of damaging the smooth pol- @ ished surface of the alley, it is fatal to an accurate delivery. Don’t throw the ball from you with the back of your hand toward the pins. This not only makes a well directed delivery impossible, but there is danger of twist- ing the fingers in the grip holes in the ball. Don’t stand still when delivering = strike, for in that case you are compelled to propel the ball with the arm and shoulder entirely, which not only wrenches the muscles severely, but ren- ders accurate placing of the ball next to impossible. I mention all these *“don’ts” particu- larly because ridiculous as they may seem to the expert, they are very com- mon faults with beginners—and not the feminine novice alone. And now as to the proper dellvery: Btand erect and face the pins some four or five paces behind the foul line, which means the lmit of the distance at which you may approach the pins in making & strike. Polse the ball in your left hand, while you get a firm hold of the grip holes with your right hand. Now take a short, quick run toward the pins, drop- ping the ball from the first position of your hands with an even, pendulumlike swing as you rush forward until the weight of the ball itself has carried It round and up to a horizontal po- sition directly Dbehind .you. When half way to the foul Iline stoop low, 80 that the ball will leave your hand as close to the surface of the alley as possible without bouncing, with- out & thud of any sort, and drive ft straight at the pins. Finish your on- ward rush with a short slide to maintain “your balance after the ball has left the hand, and the delivery is complete. Now, remember particularly that the palm of the hand must be kept toward the pins throughout the whole of this long, pendulumlike swing, from the be- ginning of the delivery until the ball leaves the hand for the strike. This short, quick run serves the double purpose of giving tremendous force to the ball without straining the muscles of the arm and shoulder and developing the whole body evenly. The swing of the arm stralghtens the muscles of the neck and shoulder and develops the chest. The stooping motion necessary to drive the ball forward smoothly and evenly devel- ops not only the muscles of the legs, but of the hips and walst and back as well. Thus it will be seen that bowling is the very best form of exercise imaginable, for besides developing every muscle in the body, it produces a fascinating mental exhilaration as well. Every strike con- tains the most thrilling possibilities of eager anticipation. Will {t knock down all ten pins? WIIl it stay on the alley? ‘Will it roll into the gutter? Will it bowl over just the middle pins and leave the two outside ones standing? Will it be a strike or a sparer Even the expert i never absolutely sure of his delivery. Imagine, therefore, what a t game It 1 to the woman who is nd her skiil There is excitemen i there’s life and force and animation the merry whiry he ball and the ttle and crash of the pins. The fascina- tion of the sport,is truly irrdsistible. As to the health and strength giving properties of bowling, I can quote my own experience as an excellent example. When I first began to bowl I was thin and weak, almost puny. Though far above average height, I welighed less than 120 pounds. Now I weigh close to 150 pounds and have four times as much strength and vitality, and, best of all, my nerves are under com- plgte control. Moreover, not the least sttractive fea- ture of the sport is the possidility of beating the men at their own game, which fixmy women of the South de quite hand- . ——een . COINAGE OF CENTS. OU would think that & large office would take in Mn: stamp windows mere pennies than it pays out, but the contrary is the case,” said a clerk in the Washington sty office, “I often have to change silver for pen- nles in the afterncem with the newwboys ‘Wwho sell papers on the front steps of the Postoffice Department bullding, and we are always ready to accommodate the boys when théy offer their nickels and dimes. In this way the pennles the peo- ple pay for papers are at once thrown into the mighty stream of circulation, as I often pay out over three hundred pennies in a day,more than I take in. In fact, w at all times keep a reserve stock of the little copper coin. “Yes, I know that many pecple suppose We recelve pennies largely in excess of what we pay out, the idea originating, no doubt, because those who hand in pennies for stamps may suppose that a majority of sales are thus paid for. I have sold a single penny postage stamp, & 2-cent stamp, & penny newspaper Wrapper or & single postal card and recetved a $20 bill to change. In short, a stamp window of a postoffice is really a place for chang! bills of ail denominations, and silver coins, especially on the department days, when the large bills drop in here like dry leaves in the fall.” A Treasury official sald there was a big demand for pennies from all over the country, but thers was no scarcity of the coin. “During the last calendar year,” he said, “we put into circulation about 70,500,000 es, and the average yearly output is ing with August, Philadelphta, which is the re pennies are coined, w em out by the millions to lemand for all and holi creased our 3 , and we now f purpose, as we ses with which we coin s for copper coins. in strips by the avor- one press ean strike off nute, or we can turn out and a half hours about trade. cilities for _ coi have ten do not use t sold sappear they go, d whe like pins—no one but ‘they go, as it is remembered ave coined in all 10,600,000,000 The old white eagle pennies, present growth of small hav ., are redeemed when in and made into nickel plec: , by the way, are more copper than as they are made of an alloy of cent ¢ 1 per cent nickel. 1 th before the com- town the penn mall boy all over one Washington boy having dropped into pennies. which few ni 75 per ¢ N « 1 pennies to go into a savi The railroad com- panies and orporations and firms who receive in quantities turn them in t v in bags-subject to count, a > redeemed in currency. There are numbers of pennies all over in the bahks of the chil- dren with n temporarily from receive t like to pennies in_ck do ot like to c pocket, often. have ‘to go out of their way and to mugl secure them when needed.”—Washington Star.