THE OUTDOOR HANDY BOOK For Oround ? ( Field and Forest THE OUTDOOR HANDY BOOK BY D.CJBeard i< New York Charles SeribnerS Sons. ~ 1914 COPYRIGHT, 1896, 1900, BV CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SOWS SPECIAL NOTICE The publishers hereby give warning that the unauthorized printing of any portion of the text of this book, and the reproduction of any of the illustrations or diagrams, are expressly forbidden. PREFATORY NOTE TO THE NEW EDITION IN the belief that a new title will neither mislead the reader nor impair the popularity gained by the earlier editions, it is thought best to issue this latest edition of "The American Boy's Book of Sport" under the title of "The Outdoor Handy Book. This seems to fit the volume better than any other arrangement for the place it is designed to occupy between " The American Boy's Handy Book " and " The Jack of All Trades." FLUSHING, June 10, 1900. 333425 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION ALTHOUGH the present book is addressed to the same class of readers, it is neither a substitute for nor a supple- ment 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 encyclopasdia of games. The purpose of the book is to deal only with subjects whose novelty or practical charac- ter 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 impor- tance 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 scarcely room to doubt Preface vii that the most successful men of to-day in business, states- manship, art, and science are those willing to undergo and capable of enduring the most severe and continued appli- cation ; and as this power is dependent upon a robust phy- sique and a strong, well-balanced mind, there is no doubt that well-directed boyish sport is the best school for the at- tainment of such results. While this work represents many curb-stone interviews with boys, and years of observation and study of the sub- jects 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 ob- scure 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 diffi- cult, for instance, to fill a library with good books on fishing ; yet in the numerous boys' books consulted there appeared to be nothing modern, American, and practical, viii Preface 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. t October 15, 1896. CONTENTS SPRING. CHAPTER I. PACK MARBLES '. 3 Marble Time History of the Game Sakya-Muni and Humphrey Potter How Marbles are Made Marble Names, Marble Terms, and Ex- pressions Games from Bull Ring to Long Ring. CHAPTER II. "FAT" AND OTHER FAMOUS GAMES OF MARBLES 19 The Uncertainties of " Fat," Sometimes Called "Yank " or " Yankey " Stand-up Marbles Follerings Knucks, the Long Ring, and Patter- sonThe Scientific Bull Ring Duck in a Hole, CHAPTER III. TOP TIME 37 Whip Tops Home-made Tops Peg Tops Plug in the Ring Chip Stone Racing Tops. CHAPTER IV. LATEST THINGS IN KITES 46 For Practical Uses Steering Kites Life Savers Men Lifters and Other Novel Forms Kites as Motive Power The Malay Variety. Contents CHAPTER v. PACE MALAY AND OTHER TAILLESS KITES 67 Some Famous Experiments How the Malays and Other Oriental Kites are MadeKites in Tandem Cannibal and Chinese Butterfly Kite*. CHAPTER VI. AERIAL FISH AND DRAGONS 90 Paper Dragons or Fish for Kite-strings A Live Man Kite. CHAPTER VII. HOOPS AND WHEELS 95 The Old and the New Fangled Hoops How to Trundle a Wheel- Sport with Tin-Can Covers. CHAPTER VIII. How TO MAKE THE SUCKER 99 Leather Suckers and Live Suckers Turtle-Fishing with Suckers. CHAPTER IX. UP IN THE AIR ON STILTS 102 How to Make all Kinds Stilt-Walking Shepherds Hand or Arm-Stilts are Best for Beginners Queer Stilts Used in Various Countries. CHAPTER X. BAIT, LIVE AND DEAD 115 Salt-Water Worms that Live on Land Angle-Worms, Hellgramites, Minnows, Crawfish, Grasshoppers, Crickets, Frogs, and " Lampers " How to Catch and How to Keep Them. CHAPTER XI. COMMON-SENSE PRECAUTIONS IN FISHING 145 Why and How Fish are Easily Frightened The Lessons of Nature and f Experience. Lontents xi SUMMER. CHAPTER XII. AQUATIC SPORTS 151 Rowing Clothes How to Make a Bathing-suit How to Avoid Sun- burn Points about Canoeing. CHAPTER XIII. THE LAND-LUBBER'S CHAPTER 156 Common Nautical Terms and Expressions Defined How to Sail a Boat Boat Rigs. CHAPTER XIV. RIGS or ALL KINDS FOR SMALL BOATS 176 How to Distinguish between a Ship, Bark, Brig, and Schooner Merits and Defects of Cat-Boats Advantages of the Sloop Rigs for Canoes Buckeyes and Sharpies. CHAPTER XV. A " ROUGH AND READY " BOAT 187 Just What an Ingenious Boy Must Do to Build It Detailed In- structions as to How to Make the Boat and How to Rig It. CHAPTER XVI. A RAPT THAT WILL SAIL. if 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 XVII. PACK SINGLE SHELLS AND UMBRELLA CANOES 213 How Old Shells can be Turned into Boys' Boats The Cause of Upsets Landing from and Embarking in a Shell What an Umbrella Canoe is and How It is Made. CHAPTER XVIII. HINTS FOR COLLECTORS 222 How to Capture and Preserve Moths and Butterflies A New Cabinet. CHAPTER XIX. HONEY-BEE MESSENGERS 234 How to Send a Cipher Message by the Bee Line The Key Bee Stings and How to Avoid Them. CHAPTER XX. A "Zoo." 239 For the Housetop or the Backyard How to Build a Coop for Animals on the Roof or in the Yard The Way to Provide Homes for Various Kinds of Pets. CHAPTER XXI. CHOOSING UP AND "!T. M 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 Dry?" CHAPTER XXII. COUNTING OUT RHYMES 252 How the Game is Played Various Rhymes An American Version of an Ancient Rhyme Causes of Variations Rhymes of Different Nationalities. Contents xiii CHAPTER XXIII. IN THE WATER 264 How to Swim A Wooden "Swimming Master" Suspension Bridge Chump's Raft, and Tub Races. CHAPTER XXIV. GAMES OF TAG... 279 Origin of this Sport King's X Last Tag Iron Tag Cross Tag Old Bloody Tom Black Man Prisoner's Base and Other Variations. CHAPTER XXV. I SPY 304 With Instructions also How to Play Hunkety and Kick the Wicket. CHAPTER XXVI. LEAP-FROG 310 Teaching the Game to the Esquimaux Foot-an'- Half With First Back and a Leader A Game Requiring Skill Spanish Fly The Danger of Quarrelling Dick's Hat-band. CHAPTER XXVII. VARIOUS SPORTS FOR HOT DAYS 320 "Jack's Alive ! "Spirit Tortoise and Dead Turtles Jack and the Candles Bowlder On, or Duck on a Rock Nine and Ten Pins- Skittles, Ancient and Modern. CHAPTER XXVIII. TIP-CAT . . . i 332 How the Cat is Made English-Cat Country-Cat American-Cat A Game Requiring Skill and Quickness. xiv Contents CHAPTER XXIX. FAGS GAMES OP BALL 336 How Town-Ball is Played One or Two Old-Cat House-Ball Hand Up Bailie Callie Crackabout Over the Barn Stool-Ball Corner- BallBlack Baby Hat-Ball. CHAPTER XXX. MUMBLY PEG, HOP-SCOTCH, AND JACK STONES 350 The Motions of Stick-Knife Universality of the Game of Hop-Scotch As Played in Different Countries Different Games with Jack Stones. 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 Ex- temporized Handle Bar A Rope Tire A Cleaning Rack, and a Bicycle Stand. AUTUMN. CHAPTER XXXII. POINTS ON CAMPING OUT 377 How to Make a Fire in the Woods on a Rainy Day To Get a Light Without Matches The Diamond Hitch, and a Home-made Cinch. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE BOYS' BABY BALLISTA... 39* How to Build this Warlike Engine, and the Fun that can be had With It Blow-guns and Their Use Blow-gun Parachutes The LarUt, How to Make and Throw It Contents xv CHAPTER XXXIV. "TALLY-HO H AND OTHER CRIES 47 The Origin of "Hello" and " Tally-ho" Indian War-whoops and College Yells Boys' Cries. CHAPTER XXXV. INDIAN GAMES ADAPTED FOR BOYS. 419 Squaw, Saddle-bags, or Sky Shinny The Way the Game is Played An Exhilarating Sport Mandan Ring A Fine Game for Autumn or Winter. CHAPTER XXXVI. ON THE FOOT-BALL FIELD 428 The Antiquity of the Game The General Principles of the Game as It is Played by the College Teams at Present. CHAPTER XXXVII. GOLF, HOCKEY, AND SHINNY 443 How to Lay Out Golf Links and Play the Game Explanation of the Terms Used in the Game How Hockey and Shinny are Played. WINTER. CHAPTER XXXVIII. TURTLE HUNTING 45 5 Methods of Capturing "Snappers" and Terrapin Described The Im- plements Necessary and Where to Search. xvi Contents CHAPTER XXXIX. PACK ON THE ICE 460 Plain and Fancy Skating Begin to Learn Young Cutting a Circle The Spread Eagle The Bull Frog- The Grapevine Garland The Danger of *' Follow the Leader." CHAPTER XL. STUNNING MUSK-RATS AND FISH 470 Sport for Boys on Skates when the Ice is Thin and Clear How Cat- fish and " Suckers" arc Stunned and Captured. CHAPTER XLI. SNOW-BALL BATTLE AND SNOW TAG 475 The Rules of Snow-ball Battle How Rome and Carthage is Played in Cuba The Ingenious Game of Snow Tag. CHAPTER XLII. THE " GET-THERE H AND DOUBLE-RUNNERS 47S Instructions as to How to Build these Famous Sleds A Safety Double- Runner. Spring fy^^iijii *,:.-:^&&$ w?$m.^ ;.-.:#*M *^fe$t$8 * v ^;?:i* ?M^ ^:^'.^'^g /'*: .^.;. < < v.-.J*' tMSE ^SI- ?-- : 4'j" ^iir^^wliiPWM :f The Outdoor Handy Book CHAPTER I MARBLES Marble Time History of the Game Sakya-Muni and Humphrey Pot- terHow 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 jew- elled the grass in the mornings and the ground was alter- nately frozen at night and thawed by the morning sun, mar- ble 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 ol 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 Spring 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 fun, 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 for- got that he was ever a boy 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 many estimable, narrow-minded, half-devel- oped people of to-day who think just as Buddha did so long ago, but fortunately for the young people no one now takes them seriously. Sakya-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 boy 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 Marbles could procure. Humphrey was only a boy ; he did not know anything. Not one of the great men who had in- vented 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 con- densed the steam and down came the piston. So that with- out 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, 6 Spring 11 Well, if it were not for one of us, where would all your wonderful inventions be, you 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 mean- ings 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. Marbles 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 ob- jects 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. 8 Spring The Right Spirit. It is not necessary to gamble with marbles, as many sup- pose, 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 tro- phies 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-ball 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 more 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 soft- est and prettiest of knuckle dabsters, but any piece of fur will answer. Some boys wear them fastened to the hand, Marbles 9 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 becom- ing 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- ble Bag. A Marble Bag FIG. 4. Same with Strings Drawn. 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. io Spring 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 inhabit- ing 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 boys 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, lov- ing mother's care or the sweet lady-like tuition of a gov- erness to fit a lad for the battle of life. What we want for a playmate 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 courtesy. 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. Marbles 1 1 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 mov- ing 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 mar- bles. 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 introducing them to 1 2 Spring 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 per- son 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 " Ma- laney's." I do not recollect the real name of the proprie- tor of the little store, but that is the name it went by among the boys. There we bought our butterscotch and bull's- eye 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 some- where, because I know he did not make them himself, and he always had a quantity on hand of " potteries," " plas- ters," "chinas," "crystals," "agates," "alleys," and "com- mies." 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 seb 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 Marbles 13 latter were unknown to the Western boys twenty-five years ago. At the beginning- of this century marbles were some- times 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, Saxony, and the process is prac- tically 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 maybe 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 machinery 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 14 Spring 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 com- pelled by the motion of the machinery to keep up a con- stant 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 boys 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 dif- ferent sections of the country, both of these terms are Marbles 15 used to define marbles of any 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 eyes. They are made in wooden molds and are dried, baked, and painted like any other chinaware. The Bumbo and Peawec. " 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 1 6 Spring 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 generally 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 FlG 'Thumb C " nny S ^oot. He would hold his hand verti- cally, 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 Marbles 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 small- er 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. FlG. 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 re- moving 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 1 8 Spring the marble they shoot with between the thumb and the forefinger, wetting it with their mouth to make it slip quickly. The Arabian Way of Shooting. The dark-faced little Arabs have a curious manner of shooting. They place their taw in the hollow between the middle and the forefinger of the left hand, the hand being flat on the ground with the fingers closed. The forefinger of the right hand is then pressed firmly on the end joint ol the middle finger, which pushes the middle finger suddenly aside, and the forefinger slips out with sufficient force to propel the shooter very accurately. There are innumerable games of marbles in vogue in different sections of the country. I have watched the boys play in every State east of the Mississippi River, and be- tween the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Northern Lakes, and will describe the most popular games. CHAPTER II "FAT" AND OTHER FAMOUS GAMES OF MAR- BLES. The Uncertainties of " Fat," Sometimes Called " Yank " or " Yankey " Stand-up Marbles Follerings Knucks, the Long Ring, and Pat- tersonThe Scientific Bull Ring Duck in a Hole, Fat. MAKE a ring that will measure a foot and a half or two feet across the centre. Then draw a straight line through the centre from top to bottom, and another straight line from right to left at right angles to the first through the centre of the ring, thus dividing it into quarters (Fig. 9). Each player lays in a duck, that is, puts a marble in the ring. Where only two play, place one duck on the right and the other on the left hand side of the ring. If four boys play, place a marble at the end of each cross line, and if more boys are in the game put the marbles around the ring, one for each player. Beginning the Game. About ten feet away from the ring scratch a taw or tie line to shoot from. Here the first player places his knuckle dabster, knuckles down and shoots at the marbles. If he is a good marksman and knocks a marble out of the ring he shoots again from the spot where his taw or shooter rests 20 Spring and so continues to shoot until he makes a miss, pocketing all the ducks he knocks out. When he has failed to hit and knock out a marble, his turn is over and he must allow his shooter to lie where V rolled. Number Two's Play. Number two now takes his turn. Knuckling down at the taw line, he shoots as number one did, or if number one's taw is within range, he shoots at that, and if he is fortunate or skilful enough to hit num- ber one's taw, then number one must hand over to num- ber two all the ducks he (num- ber one) has knocked out of the ring. If number two's luck still continues and he is able to hit number one's taw again, then number one is considered " killed," that is, he must put his taw in his pocket and quit playing until another game is started. When number two misses, number three knuckles down FIG. 9. Fat Ring. at the taw line and shoots at the ducks in the ring, or at his opponent's taw, if that marble is within range. TAW LINE. "Fat" and Other Famous Games 21 " Killing." When only two boys are playing if one " kills " the other, of course the killer wins the game, and more ducks are laid in and a new game started. The first man killed is the last to shoot in the next game, and the second man killed is next to the last to shoot, etc. In some sections of the country when three boys are playing the third boy is required al- ways to shoot his taw across the ring, whether he shoots at the other taws or at the ducks. The Uncertainties of "Yank." It will not take a beginner in this game long to learn that his safety lies in keeping his own taw as far as possible away from his neighbors', and when he shoots in their direc- tion he will shoot hard. One player may secure all the ducks but one and then miss, and the next player by strik- ing the first's taw compel him to turn over to him all the ducks he has knocked out. It does not require much wit to see that there is more to be gained by shooting at your neighbor's taw if the neigh- bor has been lucky than there is shooting at the one lone duck in the ring. It sometimes takes good players a half, three quarters, or a full hour to finish one game. Often two or three unlucky players will combine against a lucky one and peg away at the lucky one's taw until he is compelled to give up the ducks he has knocked out. Another way to play this game is to make the player whose taw is hit replace in the ring all the marbles he has previously succeeded in knocking out. Stand-up Marbles. There is no skill required in this game, and the only ex- cuse for its existence is that the rapid growth of our big cities has had the effect of so covering the boys' play-grounds 22 Spring with buildings and other obstructions that the boys are compelled to adopt such games as they can play under the existing conditions. So " Stand-up Megs " has become popular in many places. Make a two-foot ring about six inches from a convenient house or fence. Use a " bum boozer " for a taw and stand at the taw line about six feet from the ring. Hold up your taw and take aim with your right eye, and shoot by hunch- ing at the marbles in the ring. If you miss, pick up your big taw and let the next boy shoot. If any one knocks one or more ducks out, he continues to shoot until he fails. Each boy takes his turn until all the ducks are knocked out of the ring. Another way to play the game is to make a hole in the ground and place a duck for each player in the hole, then standing at the taw mark the players with their " bowlers " or " bumboozers " shoot as already described. If a player's taw or shooter fails to knock out any megs and remains in the hole, then he must put in as many ducks as " are up " before he is allowed to remove his taw. " Follerings," or Followings, is a travelling game, generally played by the boys on their way to school, or often, I am afraid, when they are sent on errands by their mothers. Although this game is a travelling game it is unnecessary to say that it does not lend haste to the traveller. In fact, it must be acknowl- edged that more speed can be made by a boy on an errand if he omits to play the game on his way. The rules of "Follering" are simple. " First " shoots his marble in the direction he wants to travel, and " Second" shoots his marble at the " First's " taw. Thus they shoot each in turn until one boy is lucky enough to hit his oppo- nent's taw. That means a duck for the fortunate one, or " Fat " and Other Famous Games 23 else a point in the game and another shot at his opponent's marble. He continues to shoot until he misses, and so the game goes on. " Everything,'* and " Fen everything ! " are the cries in this game. If one player before he shoots cries " Every- thing " before his opponent can cry " Fen everything," then the shooter may " hist," that is, as already explained, hold his marble up and shoot, or he may remove a brick, can, old shoe, or whatever object accident may place be- tween him and his opponent's marble, or he may take " roundsters," going one side or the other of any object that may be in the way. But he cannot go any nearer the other boy's marble than his first position. If, however, the other player cries " Fen everything ! " first, then the shooter must knuckle down and make the best of it. The Art of Babying. If one player hits his opponent's taw and knocks it into a gully, a hole, or the gutter and his own taw does not fly far away, he shouts " Everything ! " if possible before the other player can say " Fen," and then he commences a series of soft, easy shots, each of which counts just the same as a long, difficult one. With care a good shot can baby away until his opponent shouts himself hoarse with cries of " Fen babying ! Fen everything ! Fen histing ! Fen roundsters ! Knuckle down." To all these cries the player pays no at- tention, but continues to shoot until he carelessly makes a miss. Then the other player has his revenge and babies away, to the great discomfort of his opponent. Follerings starts where the two lads meet and lasts until the school-house or some other objective point is reached. It can be played almost anywhere, and is quite exciting enough to meet the approval of most boys. Spring Knucks. This is a game of give and take. One boy, called "knucks," places a small marble between his knuckles and rests his hand on the ground. The other player knuckles down at the taw line four or five feet away and shoots at the marble between the fingers of his playmate. It is cus- tomary to knuckle down and loft, or shoot through the air, and not bowl along the ground. The taw marble or shooter used is of medium size. Every time the marble in " knucks' " hand is hit it counts one ; every time " knucks' " FIG. la A Game of Knucks. knuckles are hit it gives "knucks" a shot at the first shooter. Suppose that it is agreed that each player should have three shots, and there are two in the game. Number one shoots three times, hits the marble once, and the knuckles twice. Then number one wins one count, and number two, who has been " knucks," takes his three shots, and two shots to pay for the two raps he had on his knuckles. That makes five shots he has at number one. Unless number two is an expert he is going to hit number one's knuckles a number of times in his five shots, but number one grins and bears it, as he knows that the rules of the game will give him satisfaction. There is no " Fat " and Other Famous Games end to this game, and it only stops when both boys agree that their knuckles demand a rest. If one boy is a good player and the other a poor one the good player wins the most points, but the bad player makes the other's knuckles suffer for their skill. The Long Ring. About eight feet beyond the taw line, make a ring composed of two parts of a circle crossing each other at the ends (Fig. n), a fish-shaped ring with its head toward taw line. Draw a straight line through the centre of the long ring to lay the mar- bles on. If only two boys are playing and each lays in a duck, one marble should be at each end of the ring. If more than two play, or if more than one duck apiece is laid in, then they should be placed along the line in the centre of the ring. When number one shoots, if there are only two marbles he generally " sneaks," that is, he bowls, as some call it, or shoots his marble with just sufficient force to cause his taw to roll slowly along and come to a rest as near as possible one of the marbles in the ring. In doing this number one runs the risk of being killed by number two, whose turn it now is to shoot, and if there are only two in the game, and number two kills FlG - " The Lon s number one, this gives the game to. num- ber two, but if there are more in the game it puts number one out, and number two has another shot at the ducks in 26 Spring the ring, and continues to shoot until he misses. Then number three shoots, or if number one is not dead, and only two are playing, number one shoots from the spot where his taw lies. Any player can sneak whenever he thinks he dare r;sk it. Of course a sneak is a shot and he must run the chance of being killed ; but if he is killed he can, when his turn comes around, lay in as many ducks as he did at first, and then placing another duck near the taw line, knuckle down and shoot, hitting the near duck on one side so as to cause his taw or shooter to fly down toward the ring. It often happens that in this way he can make up for what points he lost by being killed. If he makes a miss he leaves his taw where it rests, and the next player takes his turn. Patterson. This game is played like " Fat," previously described, and often goes by that name, but in place of the round ring used in real Fat the Patterson boys use the taw line and the oblong or fish-shaped ring of the Long Ring game. The principal difference between Long Ring and Patterson is that you must hit your opponent's taw twice to kill him, and he cannot come to life again by laying in when his turn comes and shooting at a duck near the taw line. The first time you hit his taw you win all the points he may have made, the second time you strike his taw you put him out of the game and there is one less to fight against ; hence there is not much sneaking in Patterson. Gambling Games. " Sports " among boys may frequently be seen trying to entice other boys to pay a stated number of marbles a shot at a notched and numbered shingle. The " sport " holds the "Fat" and Other Famotis Games 27 shingle with his hand and rests the edge with the notches in it on the ground, while the player shoots from taw at the notch with the biggest number. He seldom goes through, but if he succeeds, the " sport " pays him back as many marbles as are designated by the number over the notch his marble went through. This is a great game for cheating ; a slight movement of the shingle from one side to the other will make the best shot miss, and, like all gambling games, create ill feeling, and frequently the game is only decided by the fists of the players. The Bull Ring. One of the really scientific games is the old-fashioned Bull Ring, which is from four to ten feet in diameter. The ducks are placed a few inches apart on a cross scratched in the middle of the ring. The number of ducks varies ac- cording to how many " a whack," or how many " up " or to " lay in " may be agreed upon. If four or five boys are in the game, " one up " makes a nice pot of ducks to shoot at. If but two boys are playing they sometimes lay in three, four, or even more ducks apiece, according to their wealth. The boy who cries " First " soonest is accorded the first shot, and the others in their order. In case of dispute they " lag " for turn. Each player knuckles down and shoots for the opposite side of the ring, and their turns come in the order of their success ; the nearest first and the most dis- tant last. Of course the object of the game is to knock out all the ducks if possible. Sometimes the first player, by a combi- nation of luck and skill, will " skin the ring " before the others have had a shot. The first player knuckles down and lofts at the ducks in the middle of the ring. If he strikes one properly, his taw should stand or spin in place of 28 Spring the fleeing duck. The duck must reach or pass the line that makes the ring to be out and pocketed by the player, who now shoots from the place where his taw stands. Sometimes his shooter will fly out of the ring, but if the duck is knocked out he continues to shoot, again knuckling down on the ring. In case he misses one shot, number two takes his turn. Whenever a slip is made or a hit fails to knock the duck from the ring and the shooter comes to FIG. 12. A Game in a Bull Ring. rest inside the bull ring, it must remain where it is until the player's turn comes again or until the shooter is knocked out by one of the other players. If the shooter or taw in the ring is knocked out by another player's taw, the owner of the latter is out of the game, or killed, and there is one less to fight against. The player who knocks the taw out not only has another shot, but is entitled to pick one of the ducks from the ring as a reward for his luck. He continues to shoot until he misses. In case two or more ducks are knocked out at one shot, if the player succeeds in crying " Dubs ! " before the others " Fat " and Other Famous Games 29 cry " Fen dubs ! " he is entitled to all he knocks out, other- wise he must replace all but one marble, but continue to shoot until he fails to knock out a duck. If a player is caught " hunching," that is, shoving his fist beyond the ring while shooting, and makes a lucky hit, he must replace the marble and shoot over again. " Histings " and the use of " bowlers" are debarred in the bull ring. Sneaking or Dribbling. Sneaking is allowed ; that is, shooting the taw slowly, so that it will stop in or near the centre. This counts as a turn, and the marble is allowed to rest there until the sneak- er's turn comes round again, in which case, if he has not been killed by some other player, he shoots from the spot occupied by his taw. If a dead man's turn comes around and there are enough ducks in the ring to warrant the risk, the dead man may re-enter by laying in the middle twice as many ducks as the game required at first and placing still another duck near the edge of the ring to carom on. He shoots at the carom duck with the hopes of knocking it out and flying in the centre, where, if he is " any good " he will " skin the ring." Often the dead man is unsuccessful and the game goes on. Duck-in-a-Hole. This game is played with three shallow holes in a line at right angles with a taw line which should be about ten feet distant from the first hole. The holes are three feet apart. The object of each player is to shoot his marble so that it will go in and remain in the first hole. If successful in this he is allowed to place his thumb on the edge of the first hole, and using his hand as a pair of dividers, by a twist of 30 Spring the wrist he describes, that is, traces with the ends of his fin- gers, a curved line on the ground. This is called taking a span, and the player then knuckles down on the span line and shoots for the second hole. Tak- ing another span he shoots for the third, and if successful he now takes a span back toward the middle hole and shoots for that. If he again succeeds he takes a span and shoots for the first hole, and if he fails not in this he is a " duck " and can take two spans from the spot where his marble lies every time he shoots. When he has gone forward and backward twice he is allowed three spans, and when he has gone backward and forward three times he is a " King Duck " and can take four spans. If the first player misses the first hole, player number two shoots. If number two's marble rolls in the first hole and stays there he looks around for the first player's taw, and when he discovers it, if he feels certain he can hit it, he takes a span, knuckles down and cracks away at number one's taw. If he hits it he places his own marble in the sec- ond hole and proceeds to try for the next until he misses. Then the next player tries his luck. When number one's turn comes around again he shoots for the first hole, knuckling down on the spot to which number two knocked his (number one's) taw. King Duck. Each player strives to be King Duck first. Each time one player hits another player's taw the lucky player counts one point, and the one hit loses a point. When one player is King Duck it is hard on the others, because as soon as they miss a hole he is on them. For his four spans from the nearest hole will almost always bring him within short shooting distance of any marble that has "Fat" and Other Famous Games 31 missed a hole, and when he hits that marble he generally manages to hit it hard enough to send it flying. By the time three boys have won the title of King Duck the game is over. At the advent of the second King Duck the first monarch divides with him and gives him one of the end holes to command, and he keeps the other two. When the third man is King the first King assigns him the remaining end hole and retains command of the middle hole, but by this time the boys are ready to stop for a rest Each time a player hits a marble it counts one point, and the game may be for ten points or ten thousand points. Meg-in-a-Hole differs from the preceding game of Duck-in-a-Hole, first, in the fact that there is no taw line. The first player shoots from one end hole at the middle hole. After he suc- ceeds in shooting into the middle hole he is entitled to a span, but he has no more than a span until he is King, having gone backward and forward three times. The King can take one foot (his own foot for a measure) and a span from the first hole, two feet and a span from the second hole, and three feet and a span from the third hole before shooting at any other player's marble that has made a miss. This gives the King great power, and it is hard to escape him. It often happens that the King knocks the other marbles fifteen or more feet away from their holes, and it is no easy matter for the unfortunate player to ap- proach the holes again. If a second player wins the title of King, the first King assigns him the first hole to guard, because there is less shooting for it, for the players only go in it three times, while they go six times in the middle hole. The third hole 32 Spring is next best to the middle, or, as I heard one boy put it, njxt worse to the first hole." If a player misses it and a 1 ing is loafing around, the player does not stand much chance of getting near it again. When all have become Kings the game is over. Meg-on-a-String. This is a game of skill, and at this day finds little favor. The boys seem to prefer the less skilful and ruder games, such as Stand-up marbles, a game I notice the lads playing under the lamp-posts after dark ; and so primitive has the sport become in the great cities, that in place of the beautiful agate for a taw these boys use stones, which they hold up to one eye, then pitch at a group of shamefaced marbles hud- dled together in a hole in the ground. But Meg-on-a-String requires a higher sort of skill to play, and the successful player must be a good shot at fair knuckling-down shooting. In a crack in a friendly fence a small stick is so thrust that its free end is about three feet outside the fence line. From near the end of the stick threads are hung about three inches apart, and on the ends of the threads are small lumps of shoemaker's wax. By pressing the wax against a small alley, commie, crystal, china, plaster, or agate, the marbles will adhere and swing from the ends of the threads. The latter should be so adjusted that the marbles clear the ground by an inch or two. There is no ring in this game, but a taw line is scratched about four feet from the meg stick, and a marble for each player hangs from the stick. It is all knuckling down and lofting in this game, and the swinging marbles are kept in motion, it being against the rules for any boy to shoot at a stationary duck. He is only allowed to wait until the " Fat " and Other Famous Games 33 marbles cease to strike against each other, then he most shoot. When the first player misses, the second player shoots.' -, If the first player's taw is within reach he may shoot at that, and if he hits it then the owner of the unlucky taw is dead and out of the game, and the boy who killed him has another shot at the swinging marbles, or if there are only two players, he wins the game. What Counts. To make a successful hit it is deemed necessary to knock the swinging duck off the string, otherwise the shot does not count. When a player's taw is too near the fence he can cry " Sidings," and move to one side far enough to enable him to shoot with comfort. But if the other boys cry " Fen Sidings " before he cries " Sidings," then the player must make the best of his ill luck and shoot. It is allowable to sneak, that is, to shoot with so little force that your taw will only roll to the spot near the swinging marbles and rest there, but a sneaker always runs the risk of being killed and put out of the game by the next in turn. " Dubs " and " Fen dubs," " Sidings " and " Fen sidings " are all the cries in this game, because the rules of the game are " Fen histings," " Fen clearances," " Fen, fen every- thing," except sidings and dubs, and it is even fen to these if a player shouts the word in time. The reader can readily see that no bad shot at marbles need try this game with any hope of success, but to the real sportsmen among the boys the game will be popular. Old players try to get a position flanking the swinging ducks, as this position has a double advantage. First, if the player misses the first marble, he is liable to hit one of 3 34 Spring the others, and second, as it is necessary to loft and shoot hard in order to knock a marble off the string, if he misses his taw he strikes against the fence and bounds back to practically the same position he shot from, in place of hurtling off ten or twelve feet, or away or back over the taw line. For over two thousand years boys have been playing marbles, and have developed some really scientific games, which much older people might play without loss of dignity. But since the game is confined practically to the youngsters, it behooves them to see to it that the noble and ancient games of marbles are not degraded into shingle gambling boards and pitch rock. Injun, Block, or Square Ring. After reading over the preceding description of mar- ble games to a young Brooklyn friend of mine, he exclaimed, " Well ! You have left out Block. We play Block in Brook- lyn." Now it is . ot the intention of the author to slight Brook- lyn in this book, and a game that they can play there must be adapted to any large city. Block is played with a square ring, if we may be allowed to call a square a ring, and the ring is quartered as it is in Fat, a game to which Block is akin. As in Fat, the marbles are laid in on the intersections of the cross lines, but the taw line is about thirty feet away. This game is sometimes called Injun, a corruption of Ind- ian, probably because the game is a game of extermina- tion. For, in order to win, you must kill all the other players. Hence, you can see that " First " plays at a disad- vantage, there being no one for him to kill ; if he knocks out a duck he must replace it. If a taw stops inside the ring, that is a fatal shot, for he has killed himself and is out " Fat " and Other Famous Games 35 of the game. So when the first player shoots he does not knuckle down, but toes the taw line and tosses his taw for a good position near the ring. For good and sufficient reasons the second player has no desire to get near the first, so he throws his marble with sufficient force to send it through the ring out of reach of First, hoping that his taw may be fortunate enough to knock out a duck on its way. Because if number two knocks out a duck, he can, before re- placing the duck, go back to taw and holding the duck in his left hand shoot his taw with his right so that it will strike on the top or side of the duck and fly off near First's taw, which he may then hit and kill. If number two misses the duck, number three pitches his marble off to one side, and thus the game goes on, each boy doing his best to guard his own taw and to hit and kill his neighbor's taw, knocking TAW LINE. FIG. 13. The Block or Square Ring. out ducks when the opportunity comes for the sake of the privilege of going back to taw and making a flying Spring shot from the duck to the neighborhood of his playmate's marble. At the end of the game the same number of ducks of course remain in the ring that were placed there. If any player misses the duck that he is trying to make a fly shot on he loses his turn, and has the mortifi- cation of seeing his taw roll dangerously near an opponent, where he must allow it to remain and run the chance of being killed. When all but one are killed the survivor is " Big In- jun " and has won the game. A similar game is played in other places with the moon ring (Fig. 14). There are numerous other games played in the cities which are the out- growth of the cramped spaces the boys have for FIG. 14. The Moon Ring. play-grounds, but as they differ in different cities and also in different parts of the same city and are only modifications of the games given here, they will be omitted. TAW LINE. FIG. 15. Top Time in the City. A Game of Plug in the Ring on the Housetop. CHAPTER III TOP TIME Whip Tops Home-made Tops Peg Tops Plug in the Ring Chip Stone Racing Tops. THERE is no doubt about it boys are the most con- servative people in the world. Nations have been born, grown great, and died, leaving only mouldering ruins to tell of their former grandeur, but when those nations were young, boys were whipping tops, and to-day boys are be- laboring their tops with a lash of soiled rags with as much vigor and enthusiasm as if the latter were newly discovered toys. In fact the boys are more enthusiastic than they would be over a new toy. No game or toy is considered re- spectable unless its ancestry is lost in the murky atmos- 38 Spring phere that covers the pre-historic past. Ever since I can remember each season has brought forth some novelty in tops, but the whip-top and the peg-top still hold their own and the novelties are lost and forgotten. In the house, an American boy will occasionally conde- scend to spin a musical top or a whistling or humming top to amuse his little sister, but he never thinks of taking such toys on the play-ground or in the street to spin before his comrades and school-fellows. With all these facts before me I dare not propose a new style of top or suggest a new game, because both would go to the land of useless toys, a land grown-up men spend time and labor to supply with toys which boys will not use and games which boys will not play. I say a land for lack of a better name. No one knows what becomes of all the wonderful inventions for boys that boys do not want unless they go to a place where very bad boys go who are compelled to play these new-fangled games and spin these wonderful tops as a punishment for sins committed in this glorious world, where good boys have the old reliable peg-top and its even more ancient brother, the whip-top. Home-made Tops. As for home-made tops, those made of a spool are the favorites, and are usually made to spin by a twist of the finger and thumb. To make one it is only necessary to whittle a stick to a diameter a trifle greater than the hole in the spool, and hammer it in so that a part of the stick will protrude at both ends. Then whittle off one of the flanges of the spool, and bring the stick at that end to a point for a peg. Cut off all but about an inch of the stick from the other end, and your spool top is finished. Top Time 39 A boy that I had in my studio made a top with an old tin blacking-box and some lead pipe, which he melted and poured into the mould. When it was cool he had a flat leaden disk. But first he took a wooden spool, and cut off one flange and whittled the end to a blunt point. Next he cut a hole in the blacking-box, so that the spool could be forced in, and made to stick there. FIGS. 16, 17 and 18. FIGS. 19 and 20. FIGS, si and 22. CONSTRUCTION OF HOMK-MADB TOPS. FIGS. 16, 17, 18, 19, and 22 show construction of slack-rope dancing top ; x and y, Figs. 20 and 21, show parts of top with double peg. FIG. 22 is a top with a solid peg for spinning on the table. I asked him what sort of top he was making, and he replied, " A slack-rope dancer." This proved to be the case, for he made a peg for the top with a notch in one end, and he spun the top for me on a string for a slack rope. Figs. 16, 17, 18, and 19 show the construction of this ingenious toy. Afterward he made another somewhat similar top with a movable stick and fixed peg, spun it, removed the stick, and inserted pieces of bent wire, which, when the latter 4o Spring were whirled around, looked like glass goblets, vases, and various other objects. The materials are cheap, and the labor light, in making this top. Try it ! Plug in the Ring. The " plugger " is the top you spin, the " bait " is the top or tops you try to strike with your " plugger." A top is "asleep " when it stands perfectly erect and ap- parently motionless while spinning. A " gigler " is a top that goes dancing and hopping about. " A dead top " is one that has ceased to spin ; all bait tops are necessarily dead tops. Boys use as much care in selecting their pegger or plugger as they do in choosing their taw or shooter in marbles. Some prefer a rather long spindle top, others a short, heavy boxwood plugger. All tops should have screw pegs, for these are rarely driven up through the top so as to split them. Besides, the screw top is not so apt to drop out as the common ringed peg. Get a Good String. As a rule, I think, the string sold for top string in New York is too light. A cord half as thick again gives better results. Select for a string a rather heavy cotton cord, about a yard long. At one end fasten a wooden button mould, or, better still, an old bone button. About an inch and a half from the other end tie a hard knot in the string and allow the end to fray out below the knot (see Figure 23). Wet the end of the string and plaster it diagonally up the side of the top. Then wind tightly until the string covers the bottom nearly to the top of the top, leaving enough string Top Time to wrap around the hand. Slip the string between the first and second fingers, so that the button fits on the outside of the hand ; then wind the slack around the hand until the top fits tightly, with the big end grasped by the first fin- ger bending over it. The peg should rest on the outside of the thumb be- tween the first and second joints. To spin the top, raise your hand above and back of your head (see second boy, Fig. 15) ; bring it down forcibly and throw the top six or eight feet in front of you (see third boy, Fig. 15). Don't jerk back. If you have made a proper throw the top will spin " for all it FIG. 23. Winding a Top. is worth." Now for the game : Mark out a bull ring about six feet in diameter and in the centre mark a smaller ring about a foot in diameter. Put as many tops in the centre as there are players, and toss up for first shot or decide your turns in any manner you may agree upon. Many boys play with- out turns, each spinning his top as soon as he can wind it. The first player winds up his plugger with care and grasps it firmly in his hand, then with his left toe on the out- side ring he tries to hit the tops in the centre. If he misses and fails to spin, or if he strikes outside of the centre circle, he must put another top in the middle and await his next turn. If he strikes the tops with the big end of his plugger 42 Spring it counts a miss, and all he knocks out must be replaced ; but if the peg of his plugger strikes a top and sends it out of the little centre ring he pockets the bait top and spins or plugs again. If his plugger strikes in the small ring and spins there, and by knocking against the tops knocks them out, it is called a hit he wins the tops knocked out and has another turn. A good player will sometimes spin his plugger in the small ring and fail to knock out any tops. In this case the player must allow his top to stop spinning before he touches it, and if, when it tires out, or " dies," as the boys call it, it fails to roll out of the ring, he must place another top in the centre. A Great Honor. Good players will often split one of the tops in the middle ring by the force and accuracy with which their plugger's peg strikes the " bait.'* This is considered a great honor, but, of course, it ruins the bait top. You cannot play Plug in the Ring until you learn to hold and throw a top as described above. The baby man- ner of spinning by jerking back the string is never ac- curate and has not enough force to split a pea. Neither must you hold your top like a girl, with the greater part under the forefinger and the peg sticking into the ball of the thumb. I have frequently seen this game played " for keeps," but the bait was composed of toothless, battered wrecks of tops that had no other value than as trophies of victory. The proper game is to use the bait you win as marks or scores, and after the game is finished return them to their proper owners. The object of the game is not to win tops, but to derive pleasure from a test of skill. Top Time 43 Chip Stone. In the gravel-pit or somewhere along the river, creek, lake, or sea-shore may be found disk-shaped stones called " skippers " or " sailors," because the boys can make them sail through the air or skip over the surface of the water. These stones are used for counters in the game of Chip Stone. The pure white or semi-transparent skippers, about the size of an old-fashioned copper cent, are the kind se- lected. A bull ring about five feet in diameter is made on the ground, or two taw lines about five feet apart are drawn on the sidewalk, and each boy, as in marbles, " lays in " a counter. If the game is on the sidewalk the skippers are placed in a row between the two taw lines. If in a bull ring the stones are placed in a small circle in the centre of the ring. In turn each player spins his top and plugs at the skippers in the ring or between the taw lines ; if his top fails to spin he "lays in " another skipper. If his top " dies," that is, stops spinning inside the ring, he " lays in " another stone. But if his top spins as it should he takes it up on a little wooden shovel and drops it so that the peg hits the edge of a counter; he con- tinues to scoop up and drop the top so long as it will spin, or until it has knocked a counter over the taw line or outside the ring, in which case, as in marbles, he has another turn. Chip Stone is really a game of marbles in which sailors or skippers are used for ducks and tops are used for taws. Of course each boy takes great pride in his collection of trophies, each of which he considers as a medal won by his *upn STICKS FOR CANNIBAL KITE. You can make the kite as large as you choose, but in this description we will suppose that the frame is to be only about four feet from tip to tip of the wings. First select a good strong piece of wood of any kind, a little over four feet long, for a stretcher or measuring stick, and mark off on it, from the centre both ways, forty-nine inches divided thus : Five and one-half inches, six and one- half inches, six and one-half inches again, then six inches. (See Fig. 48.) Now make seven kite sticks, one for the spine or middle stick, ten and one-half inches long (Fig. 49) ; two more, each nine inches long ; two, each seven inches long, and two short ones four and one-half inches in length (Fig. 50). Make all these sticks a trifle longer than the length given, to allow for slight errors in bending the bows 5 82 Spring and for protruding ends. Next select the best piece of wood you have for the bow, and trim it so that it will bend easily and evenly into the required form. Make the bow five feet long. At the exact middle of the bow, lash the longest upright stick or spine (Fig. 51). Use strong waxed thread FIG. 51. Cannibal Kite Sticks in Position. and tie in square knots. (See Fig. 122, Chapter XIII.) Seven and one-half inches from the top of the spine make a mark, and at the mark bind the spine to the stretcher (Fig. SO- Now bend the bow until the two ends cross the stretcher at the two extreme points marked on it, fasten the bow in this position and bind the ends of the other sticks to the bow in their proper order, as marked out FlG. 52. Cannibal Kite. Bow Bent on the measure stick, five and one-half inches from the end marks for the two short sticks. The next ribs are each six and one-half inches from the short ones, and the longest ribs six and one-half inches from the last, and six inches from the middle stick or spine (Fig. 52). Make an- other bow of good spruce wood a trifle shorter than the Malay and Other Tailless Kites 83 first, and lash the middle of this last bow to the middle stick or spine at a point six and one-half inches below the first bow. At a point six and one-quarter inches below the first bow make the lower bow fast to the two longest ribs. At a point five and one-half inches below the top bow make the lower one fast to the next pair of ribs. (See Fig. 53.) FIG. 53. Cannibal Kite. Reverse bow bent and fastened in place. Use the greatest of care during this process, and see that you keep the ribs and spine at exact right angles with the temporary stretcher or measure-stick. At a distance of three and a quarter inches below the top bow, bind the bottom bow to the two shorter ribs. Then bring the ends up slightly to a point on the top bow about three inches be- yond the juncture of the short rib and the bow, lash it FIG. 54. Cannibal Kite. First bottom bow in place. securely in place and then cut off the protruding ends. Make two more bow sticks, each about half the thickness and half the length of the first one described, and with your strong waxed thread bind the two ends crossed on the bot- tom end of the spine stick. Then firmly bind the ends of the first pair of ribs in place, and bind the bottom bows to 8 4 Spring the remaining ribs at points nine, seven, and four and one- half inches respectively below the top bow, and to the top bow at the point four and one-half inches below where the FIG. 55. Cannibal Kite. Frame Completed. latter crossed the temporary stretcher. Cut off the prrv trading ends, and the temporary stretcher may now be removed, and your frame will have the form of Fig. 55. Kite Covering. Of course it is admitted that silk is the ideal covering for a kite, but silk costs money, and that is an article usually absent from the museum concealed in a boy's pocket. But for big kites common silesia, such as is used in dress linings, is an excellent substitute. We will suppose, however, this to be a paper kite. How to Cover the Cannibal. Spread your paper smoothly on the floor. Lay your frame on the paper and hold it in place by some paper- weights, books, or other handy weights. With a sharp pair of shears cut the paper into the form of the frame, leaving just sufficient margin to turn over and paste. About every six inches make a cut from the outer edge to the frame. When this is done, you can begin past- ing, using good flour paste and pasting one section at a time, pressing each down with a towel until it adheres firmly. Malay and Other Tailless Kites 85 The Belly Band. Attach each end of a piece of string, about six inches long, to the bow each side of the spine. Fasten another string to this, and connect it with the spine where the mid- dle bow crosses. This string should be between eight and nine inches long. Attach the kite string to the bellyband at a point about three inches from the top loop (Fig. 56). FIG. 56. The Great Cannibal Kite. These are approximate figures for a kite of the dimen. sions described, but each kite varies so that the flier must by experiment find the proper manner of adjusting the string of the belly-band. Mr. W. C. Bixby after some difficulty procured one of these kites from some natives and gave a short description of it in Harpers Young People of April 15, 1884. His kite had a spread of thirteen feet and a height of thirty-four and one-half inches. 86 Spring For a fair-weather kite for tandem teams the " cannibal " should excel the short, dumpy Eddy or the Holland kite. Possibly it will never be a favorite in the East, where strong winds blow, but it should fly beautifully in the central parts of this country. A Chinese Butterfly Kite. The Aeronautical Annual, published in Boston by W. B. Clarke, is really a kite-flier's magazine and it is edited by an enthusiastic kite-flier, Mr. James Means. When this gen- tleman was attending the Centennial Exhibition at Philadel- phia, he saw in the Chinese exhibit a tailless butterfly kite which he has since flown with great success. The form of this butterfly kite so nearly approaches that of the Wing and Wing that there is scarcely room for doubt that with longer booms the latter kite will also fly without a tail, which will add immeasurably to its popularity. Mr. Means has had great success with double kites, that is, two or three kites one above the other with one spine, boom, or middle stick to answer for all. Mr. C. H. Lanson, of Portland, Me., uses two Malay kites with only one back- bone. It would be well for all boys who enter into this sport to make experiments in this line. Ther^ can be scarcely a doubt that a double Cannibal kite would be a grand flier. Messrs. William H. Pickering, Albert A. Merrill, and James Means, the Executive Committee of the Boston Aeronautical Society, offer five prizes for kite-fliers to compete for. Here is a chance for some bright American boy, some youthful Ben Franklin, to distinguish himself. The writer is unable to state what the prizes are, but the real value of such a prize lies in the glory of winning it, Malay and Other Tailless Kites 87 and there is no good reaso^why a boy should not win any or all of them. The McAdie-Hammon California Barrel Kite. From the latest reports from the Pacific it would appear that our Far West does not intend to be left behind in kite building and they are now flying a paper barrel with a bow- sprit in place of a belly-band, the description of which I must quote from the San Francisco Chronicle. " For some months past W. H. Hammon and A. G. Mc- Adie, of the United States Weather Bureau, have been ex- perimenting with a great variety of sizes and shapes in kites, in the hope of finding one that will safely carry an aluminum thermograph to a height of 1,000 feet, so that the instrument may record, and, when returned to earth, inform them of the condition of the atmosphere far above the house tops. From some such observations they would be able to foretell many of the pranks of the weather, but their service in this line would be of most value to shipping, as the fact that a fog was coming in could be ascertained so long before its arrival as to give ample time for warning every ship in the bay of the danger which threatened mov- ing vessels. " On Tuesday Hammon and McAdie tried a queerly shaped apparatus, which rose into the air with such a re- markable willingness as to highly elate its inventors. In appearance the new kite bears a close resemblance to a paper barrel, with bowsprit projecting from one end. Its form is cylindrical. It is about four feet long and two feet in diameter. It is made up of four very light hoops, and braced together with thin strips of wood. The twelve-inch space between the pair of hoops at either end is covered with a collar of paper, and the string by which 88 Spring the kite is held is attached to a stick which passes diago nally through the inside of the cylinder from end to end, projecting from that end nearest the operator. The ar- rangement is something of a modification of the Australian kite, invented by Professor Hargrave, but a wonderful im- provement over his apparatus, as shown by Tuesday's test. Hammon and McAdie worked on their new kite for some weeks before giving it a trial, and as they have met with many disappointments expected little else when they hoisted their paper barrel. The trial took place in the ten-acre lot just north of the German Hospital, and there were fifty or sixty boys of the neighborhood on hand to guy the invent- ors had their latest device proved a fizzle. McAdie held the odd-looking object, and Hammon walked off with the string tied to the bowsprit in his hand. He looked ahead of him to see that there were no boys over which to stumble and cried out : "< All right, McAdie!' " McAdie let go the kite, Hammon ran and the new. fangled kite soared up into the air, not so gracefully, but with less apparent effort than a sea-gull shows as it flits across the waters of the bay. For a few minutes Hammon had all he could do to let out string, but McAdie, who was at leisure after the hoisting, gazed at the object of their labor with a delighted smile and yelled, * Eureka!' while the small boys cheered the artificial bird on its upward flight " In the air the body of the kite maintains a horizontal position, and the bowsprit attachment, of course, points downward. Although at Tuesday's trial the new kite did not rise to as high an altitude as have some of the Malay or flat kites which the weather men have experimented with, it carried the string which held it to an angle much nearer a perpendicular than any of the others have. This Malay and Other Tailless Kites 89 tendency of the new kite to stand more nearly over its anchor, when in the air, leads to the belief that ultimately it will be an easy matter to send the kite up 1,000 feet. " McAdie recently informed the Chief of the Weather Bureau at Washington, Willis Moore, that he would sur- prise him some day by sending him in a report of the at. mospherical conditions existing 1,000 feet above San Fran- cisco. He and Hammon propose that the San Francisco Bureau shall be the first to officially record such observa- tions." CHAPTER VI AERIAL FISH AND DRAGONS WHEN a gang of kites is sent up tandem, each kite helps to lift the string and prevent it from sagging. Conse- quently not only flags but all manner of queer things can be attached to the main kite-string. Paper streamers of bright colors and large pa- per Japanese fish and dragons weigh very little, and will make a display most won- derful to behold. The author attached a Japanese fish about five feet long to the string of an old-fashioned hexagonal kite, the latter was about three feet high. With the aid of a good wind the kite kept that great fish flapping up aloft all day. Paper Dragon or Fish for Kite Strings. With a pencil mark out a pattern on a piece of wrapping paper, and after you have secured the shape you desire, cut it out with the scissors. Take some red or yellow tissue paper and cut it according to the brown-paper pattern. You will see by the diagrams (Figs. 57 and 58) that the mouth should be very large. This is because a hoop is pasted in FlGS. 57, 58. Paper Dragon and Paper Fish. Aerial Fish and Dragons the mouth to admit the breeze which is to inflate the dragon or fish. After cutting out two tissue-paper dragons, ac- cording to your pattern (Figs. 59 and 60), paste the edges together, except at the mouth (Fig. 61), which must be left open. When the paste is perfectly dry take the scissors and cut slits of about half an inch long all around the mouth opening (Fig. 64). For the hoop use any light elastic wood that you can bend into a circular form. Make a hoop of this material the exact size of the mouth opening of the FIG. 59. One-half of Paper Skin. FIG. 60. The Other Half with Flaps for Pasting. FIG. 61. Showing the Two Halves Partly Pasted. dragon or fish (Fig. 63), and then paste it in by folding the parts divided by the slits over the hoop as in Fig. 65, and allow it to dry. When it is dry attach strings to the hoop from opposite sides and let the loops form a sort of belly-band (Figs. 57, 58 and 65). The fish will then be ready to be attached to the kite- string, and when it is aloft it will swell out like a balloon and look very comical in the air. (Fig. 46, Chap. IV.) If a heavy black line is painted on each side of the head to represent the mouth, and two big black circles to represent the eyes, it will add greatly to the effect. (Figs. 57 and 58 show how to paint the dragon and fish.) 9 2 Spring Pennants Can be made by simply cutting a triangle from colored tis- sue paper and pasting the edges together, as described with the fish. A hoop must also be fastened in at the larger Fio. 6. The Paper. Fio. 63. The Hoop. FIG. 64. Hoop in Place. FIG, 65. Finished Pen- nant. 'Hoop BASTED IN AHP *W- BAND ATTACH* D PENNANTS. end and a belly-band arranged as described in the case of the fish. (See Figs. 62, 63, 64 and 65.) Comical Figures. Not only reptiles and beasts, but men and women can be made in the same manner and with little difficulty. Use Aerial Fish and Dragons 93 pink paper for the hands and face of the men and women and put the hoop in the top of their heads, as shown in the accompanying diagrams of dragon and fish. A good tandem team of five or six kites will support quite a number of these queer devices and will reward your trouble with no end of fun. You need not fear that your work will be unappreciated, for when the passers- by see fish, alligators, and men and women bobbing around in the sky they not only will stop and look, but will linger and look again and again ; and as the pay of all who appear before the public is public applause you will be well paid. A Live-Man Kite. In the " American Boy's Handy Book," there is described a man kite, but since then a real live-man kite has appeared in the person of Mr. Otto Lilienthal of Berlin. His kite consists of two wooden frames covered with cotton twill, or in other words, two cloth-covered kites one above the other. These kites are capable of being folded up when not in use. Mr. Lilienthal jumps off of high places and then by means of his kite sails a long distance. From a hill a hundred feet high he can sail like a flying squirrel about seven hundred feet. See illustration from a photo- graph of a live-man kite in Chapter IV. If Mr. Lilienthal would build himself a number of big Cannibal kites and send up a tandem of them, he might take his wings with him and go up with the kites five or six hundred feet. From such a perch he could easily soar nearly a mile! Or since his wings are really kites, he might, if he is brave enough, and no one doubts his cour- age, fasten a string to himself and go up like any other kite as far as he could, and then cast loose the string and sail down. But seriously, the wonderful advancement in 94 Spring kites and flying machines is so rapid that there is reason to believe that some such feat as suggested will actually be performed before what has been written here can go through the printer's hands and come out in the form of a book. Do not try to forestall these experiments. Give the gentlemen already in the field a chance first, and then the author of this book will not feel that he is responsible to parents for the broken heads or limbs of his boy readers. CHAPTER VII HOOPS AND WHEELS The Old and the New Fangled Hoops How to Trundle a Wheel Sport with Tin-Can Covers. SEVERAL years ago an effort was made to make wire or iron hoops popular. They were neatly made, and propelled by an iron hook, which kept the hoop upright and pushed it along in place of being propelled by a succession of blows, as in the old-fashioned primitive barrel hoop. But the very points that the manufacturers thought would rec- ommend these toys to the small boys, eventually caused their downfall and the substitution for them of a wooden hoop, much neater than the clumsy barrel hoop, and bet- ter adapted to the boy's ideas than the metal one. Like the former, it is propelled by means of a short stick, with which the boy belabors his toy. This has re- tained its popularity for the last twenty-five years. Various attempts have been made to improve on it by adding bells and metal jinglers of odd shapes, producing what was ex- pected to be pleasant and popular noises ; but no boy out of kilts will sacrifice the dignity of his knickerbockers by causing them to chase after such a baby rattle. So these elaborate affairs are relegated to the little girls and kilted boys, while the sturdy legs of the real small boy run tire- lessly after the old wooden hoop. Spring A Reminiscence. The greatest triumph of my hoop-time days was when my parents bought some sugar hogsheads, which were cut up for kindling - wood. I secured the largest of the hoops, which stood some distance above my head, a;id from one of the staves of the hogshead made myself a beautiful club to hammer my giant with. Then I sallied forth, and FIG. 66. Hoop-time. when I bore down on a street full of my play-mates rolling this giant hoop in front of me, all the metal store-hoops and wooden barrel hoops ceased rolling, while the boys stood respectfully aside to let me pass. It was a great triumph, and was talked about long afterward as the lads gathered on the sidewalk to play Jack and the Candles in the dusk of a summer evening. There was one freckled-face boy who tried to mar my triumph by securing a big cart wheel, but he only caused a laugh, because he could not manage his heavy-spoked and hubbed hoop, which insisted upon Hoops and Wheels 97 going its own gait and taking its own direction, in spite of the severest clubbing, to the great alarm of passing pedes- trians. But small Wheels are very popular during hoop-time, and make an interest- ing toy, requiring more skill to guide than the ordinary hoop. To trundle a wheel the boy uses a long stick, one end of which he places under the hub, and with which he both pushes and guides the wheel in a very interesting and skilful manner, as he runs after it. Tin-Can Cover. Generally it is the top of a big, old fashioned blacking- box that is used for this pur- pose. First, the boy finds the centre of the box-lid, after a manner known to himself, but not recorded in any work on geometry. Next, he places the lid on a board, and, with an old rusty nail for a puncher, and half of a brick or a cobble-stone for a hammer, he drives the nail through the centre of the tin. From the mysterious depths of his pocket he produces about a yard of top-cord, and, putting one end of the string in his mouth, he brings the ravelled end to a point, which he threads through the hole in the box-cover. At the other end he makes a big, round hard-knot, and pulls the string through until the knot rests against the cover. This accomplished, he starts to run, and, by the exercise 7 FIG. 67. Trundling a Wheel Spring of his art, he causes the tin to trundle on the side-walk along side of him. There are no very new things in hoops, and if any man should attempt to bring his scientific experience and knowledge to bear upon the subject, and invent a new toy in that line, he would find it a difficult operation when he attempted to per- suade the conservative small boy to adopt his in- vention. What a boy uses, it seems, must be what has been tried for centuries by FIG. 68. Racing with the Tin Wheel. his predecessors and proved faithful, and any change in form must be the gradual and almost imperceptible growth of natural evolution, caused by the change of surroundings or, as their parents would say, environments. CHAPTER VIII HOW TO MAKE THE SUCKER Leather Suckers and Live Suckers Turtle-Fishing with Suckers. A PIECE of sole-leather, three or four inches square, is the first thing necessary in order to make a sucker. A sharp knife is the next thing, and a bright boy who can use the knife without cutting his fingers is the third. Let the boy trim the corners of the leather until the edges are circular in form, or, as he would say, round. Lay the leather on a flat surface, and pare or bevel off the edge until it is thin enough to be called a paper edge. Now the boy may bore a small hole through the centre of the sucker, just large enough to force the end of a good strong top-string through. Near the end of the top-string, which has just been pushed through the leather, tie a good hard-knot, and make it big enough to prevent the possi- bility of its slipping back through the leather. It is now only necessary to pull the string through the leather until the knot fits against the under part of the sucker, and to cut off the superfluous string beyond the knot. How to Use the Sucker. Soak the leather in water until it is very soft and " flabby." Find a loose brick, place the sucker on top of the brick, and, with one foot, press it as flat as possible. Then slowly and carefully try to lift the sucker by the 100 Spring FIG. 69. FIG. 70. FIG. 71. FIG. 72. FIGS. 69, 70, 71, 72. How to Make a Sucker. string. Air is heavy, as your school-books will tell you, and it will press so hard all around the leather, that, if your sucker is a good one, you may lift the brick before the sucker will loosen its hold. There is a fish in the Atlantic Ocean that the author has seen and sketched from life, which has an arrange- ment on top of its head made on the same prin- ciple. Fishermen call it the "shark -sucker," although its proper name is the remora. When the remora wants to travel fast, and is too lazy to do so by his own exertions, he steals up to some terrible old shark and noiselessly and gently flattens his sucker on the shark's belly or side, and there he sticks fast. The shark may be a terrible man-eater or, worse than that for the marine How to Make the Sucker ior world, a voracious fish-eater, but it matters little to the remora, he is safer sticking to the shark's body than any- where else, and does not need to even wag his tail, but goes tearing through the water as fast as the shark can swim. A Live Sucker for Turtles. This remora has been used, according to some French writers, to catch turtles. A line having been fastened to a rubber ring around the remora's tail, the fish is allowed to swim off, and when he sees a turtle he sticks fast to him, and the fisherman pulls both in. So it may be that to the remora belongs the honor of suggesting the boy's sucker. CHAPTER IX UP IN THE AIR ON STILTS How to Make all Kinds Stilt-Walking Shepherds Hand or Arm-Stilts are Best for Beginners Queer Stilts Used in Various Countries. THE other day a magician appeared to me. Instead of a peaked cap he wore a derby hat, and, in place of the long black gown, his garb was the ordinary suit of a New York man. There was nothing mysterious in his manner, but, with a smiling face, he looked into my studio and said : " The boys want a new book, and put in something on stilts." Tom's Wooden Legs. I believe in magic. Let me try it on myself and see if I can bring back a scene of my youth in Kentucky. Ab-ra-ca-dab-ra Stilts ! Who is that pale-faced, curly haired boy straddling over the blue-grass lawn on long, wooden legs ? Why, it's my old playfellow, Tom ! Hello, Tom ! Where did you get those stilts? But what a foolish question! I might know what the answer would be : " Made 'em." It took me all one Saturday to finish a pair of wooden legs like Tom's. I begged a pair of Aunt Annie's clothes- poles for the sticks, and sawed them off the proper length, then, with my jack-knife, I shaped the handles and smoothed them with a piece of sand-paper. Next I took a sound piece of two-inch pine board, and marked with a piece of soft Up in the Air on Stilts 103 brick the outline of one block. With a hand-saw I soon cut this out, and, placing it on the remains of the two-inch plank, outlined a duplicate block. After this the blocks were smoothed off with my knife. Hand Stilts. I then heated a small piece of iron and bored holes for the nails and screws, and fas- tened the blocks on to the sticks. We called these " hand - stilts," because the sticks are just long enough above the block to reach the hands of the walker. (See Fig. 730 In those days there were only a few of us who had money in our pockets, but that is about the only thing that was not there bits of string, mar- bles, tops, leather slings, with old nails as " hummers " to throw from them, jack-knives, occasionally one with a whole blade, " rubber" buttons for finger-rings, in all stages of manufacture, with sand-paper, buckskin and pumice-stone for polishing them, " lucky FIG. 73. Tom's Wooden Legs. 104 Spring stones " from the head of a fish, to make us certain winners at marbles; two or three buck-eyes for ballast, fish-lines, hooks and sinkers, and an apple or two for lunch between meals. These were some of the things that were always in our pockets. In the twilight, af- ter tea, Tom and I sauntered out on our hand - stilts to visit some boys on the next street. I am afraid our visit was not alto- gether prompted by friendship ; we knew that those boys did not dare use straps over their feet for fear of a fall, and that the sticks of their stilts were awkward and long, poking up from behind their shoulders, and for reasons of timidity the blocks were set low. So we wandered over to) show off and let those " girl boys " (Fig. 75) just see what reck- less, wild fellows we were. FIG. 74. FIG. 75. Up in the Air on Stilts 105 A Short-Lived Triumph. As we approached, the boys on the next street lined up against a brick wall, and stood watching us swagger by, but our triumph was short-lived, for, as we neared the corner, we met Dick, another playmate, and he was not walking on the side-walk, but striding over the uneveh limestone-paved street, with his hands carelessly thrust into his pockets, and his mouth puckered up, whistling, " Way Down South in Dixie." Was he on stilts ? Of course he was ; but he not only had straps over his feet, but straps on his legs, and the sticks only came to the knee, leaving the hands free. He could not even see us until we hailed him with " Hello, Dick ! " Then he only stopped whistling long enough to say, " Hello, fellows," and continued on his way. We watched him disappear down the street and nothing was said until he strode out of sight. Then Tom remarked: "Ain't Dick stuck up? Poo! we can make stilts like his ; that's nothing ! " " I'll bet we can," I replied, to which Tom nodded his head by way of assent, and, as a smile spread over his face, said : " Well, I don't care ; we can lick salt off of those fellows* heads, anyhow," referring to the " girl boys," and to the fact that our stilt-blocks were enough higher than theirs to render this feat possible. The Japs Use Stilts. No one knows when stilts were first introduced by mankind, nor for what purpose they were invented. I never heard of an American Indian walking on them, but away off in Japan the little shaven-headed boys walk on io6 Spring bamboo stilts of quaint design (Fig. 77). The blocks are mortised on to the sticks and bound in place by withes. The blocks project backward, instead of sideways, and the little Japs hold on by their big toes (Fig. 76), allowing the stick to pass, like a sandal -band, be- tween their great and their smaller toes. I would not rec- ommend this style for American boys, as I hardly think the wearing of heavy shoes is a proper preparation of the foot for such uses. Tattooed Stilt- Walkers. FIGS. 76 and 77. The Little Japs' Odd Stilts. The first travel- lers who visited the Marquesas Islands found them peopled with a magnificent race, of which every member was an athlete ; an artistic race whose beautiful clothes lasted until death put an end to the wearer, for their costume was the skin with which the Creator covered their bodies but which the islanders had beautifully deco- rated with tattooing, from the crowns of their heads to the Up in the Air on Stilts 107 tips of their toes. One of the chiefs, when measured, was found to stand six feet eight inches in his bare feet. They were great stilt-walkers, and went through per- formances which would excite the envy of any modern acrobat. They ran races, jumped and danced on their FIG. 78. Stilt Walkers, Marquesas Islanders. beautifully made and superbly decorated stilts, and thought it great fun to trip each other up. In place of straps the block of the Marquesas stilt curves over so as to hold the foot. They used hand-stilts like those of the Western boys (Fig. 78). Anti-Gadabouts. At the close of the sixteenth century it was the style in Southern Europe for the women to wear, under their dresses, stilts which, they claimed, gave them height and io8 Spring FIG. 79. -Sixteenth Century Anti-Gadabouts. dignity of bearing- ; but it is hinted that their fathers and husbands intro- duced the style so as to make it diffi- cult for them to walk, and cause them to stay at home, just as the Chinese of to-day keep up the style of cramping and de- forming their wom- en's feet to prevent them gadding about. These anti- gad- abouts of the six- teenth century are all too heavy and clumsy for Ameri- can boys, but a modification of the French shepherd's stilts are the very reverse, and might be properly called " gadabouts." Shepherds on Stilts. The French shep- herds, perched on Up in the Air on Stilts 109 FIG. 80. Shepherds on Stilts. their long wooden sticks, look like ungainly storks, but they can spy a sheep when a man on the ground would be unable to detect him, and they can wade a stream dry shod, or, rather, with dry feet, for I believe they wear no shoes. In fact, Dick's stilts, strapped on his sturdy legs (Figs. 74 and 81), are only a modification of these shepherd's wooden legs, and, if we give Dick the shepherd's long cane or pole, and shorten the dis- tance to the ground, we have a pair of gadabouts, which, though requiring some skill to use, will not be danger- ous, and Will admit FIG. Si.-Dick's Leg Stilts with Straps. no Spring of the free use of the hands. Gadabouts are sometimes used in Brooklyn, but I have never seen them in New York. Best for the Boys. The long-armed, strapless stilts of the "girl boys" are first-rate for beginners. The hand-stilts are good all-round walkers, and the gadabouts are the best for the sturdy American boys, because they require skill in their manu- facture and use. They develop just those qualities of ingenuity and pluck that have made us the nation we are. Remember that you boys of to-day are the men of to-morrow, and it is to you that we must leave this great country to success or to ruin, according to the faculties you develop now while you are yet boys. Trick Stilt- Walking. While I was a member of the gymnasium at Cincinnati, the youngsters were intensely interested in a group of professionals, who practised there during the winter months. They were mostly circus men, quite gentlemanly sort of men, not at all what people generally suppose circus men to be. One bald-headed man, of particularly dignified and austere looks and manners, was in the summer time a painted clown of the saw-dust ring. At a certain hour each day, as regular as a clock, this bald-headed man appeared, and strapped a pair of long stilts to his legs, while we looked on with awe at the dreadful proceeding. Then he began his practice. He did not walk, skip, hop or jump. He had but one object in view, but one ambition, and that was to do the inebriate act, although he was a man who never used ardent spirits. So, for an hour or more each day, he hung on to a rope suspended from the* ceiling, and Up in the Air on Stilts in swayed his body around, as we have all seen the clown do at the circus, when he comes in arid pretends to become intoxicated while walking on stilts, All winter the bald- headed man practised this one act, and the Spring birds had begun to appear before he dared, without keeping a firm hold of the rope, to do " the drop," as he called the peculiar limp stagger that he had practised all winter. Since then, when I attend a circus, and the ridiculous clown appears in the ring, and does his part in the clown's peculiar off-hand manner, I forget to laugh, for I am lost in wonder, thinking of the constant study, application, and hard work that he must have gone through, in order that we may think him a funny old fool. This incident is re- lated to show what practice it takes to acquire skill in difficult feats. Few boys are willing to devote so much time and thought to learn anything, and certainly not to learn one trick on stilts. Skating on Stilts. Alfred Moe skates on stilts, doing the inside and out- side edges with ease and grace. He cuts a figure 8, and all the various other figures well known to skaters. Moe began his public career as a roller-skater, and claims to have opened the first roller-skating rinks in this country and in England. He evolved the idea of stilt-skating in 1868, and gave his first performance in St. Louis. From my observation of the clown, I am satisfied that the stilt-skater must have done some hard work practicing before he dared appear in public. Such things are novel- ties, but not suitable to the ordinary boy, who, if he be- comes expert enough to run, jump, hop, and skip on his wooden legs, has acquired all the skill that is necessary to enjoy the fun of stilt-walking. 112 Spring Ocuya, or Giant Dance. If you will look on your map of Africa, just below the equator and between longitude 11 and 12 east, you will see where the mer- ry black Aponos dwell, a very honest, irresponsible, light- headed set of sav- ages. For several months each year this tribe does noth- ing but dance, sing, and drink palm wine. When the wine season is over they settle down to ordinary pursuits, and would find no place in this book if it were not for the fact that one of their weird dances is per- formed on stilts. This entertain- ment is called the Ocuya, or Giant Dance. Ocuya is made of wicker- work, with a big wooden head and wooden arms. Mon- FIG. 82. Ocuya, the Aponos' Dance, Africa. key skins furnish the Up in the Air on Stilts head-dress, and a long skirt of grass- cloth hides the stilt- walker. It is un- necessary to add that the native must be a skilful stilt- walker to take the part of Ocuya. New Woman on Stilts. According to the newspapers, walk- ing on stilts is the very latest fashion- able amusement of the " new woman " in London. If there is any truth in this statement, it is safe to say that it will not be long before you boys will be called upon to make stilts for your sis- ters. There can be little doubt that the time is coming when a book written for boys will be the only one girls will read, or, rather, every 8 FIG. 83. (From an old engraving made in X779-) 114 Spring book will be written for young people, and will be ad- dressed to both boys and girls. Just why girls should not walk on stilts or engage in any similar sport no one yet has given a satisfactory answer. Twenty-five years ago the boys used to make stilts with very low blocks for their sisters, and the girls seldom would use them, but insisted upon using their brothers' high-blocked stilts. Tomato-Can Stilts. In the cities, where wood is scarce, it is quite pathetic to see the boys tramping around on old tomato-cans for stilts. The tomato-cans have strings tied to them in place of poles, and these strings are held by the hands. Lath-Stilts. One bright boy, on Fourth Avenue, New York City, has a pair of stilts made of old laths, from the ruins of some dismantled house. Three laths nailed together form each stilt pole, and the blocks are made of a graduated lot of pieces of lath nailed together. Now, if a small boy in the tenement-house district can make himself a good, serviceable pair of stilts out of some old laths, there can be no doubt that the boys who read this book will be able to find material and tools to build themselves beautiful gadabouts. CHAPTER X BAIT, LIVE AND DEAD Salt-Water Worms that Live on Land Angle-Worms, Hellgramites, Minnows, Crawfish, Grasshoppers, Crickets, Frogs, and "Lamp- ers" How to Catch and How to Keep Them. ALL modern naturalists will tell you how long, long ago an adventurous marine worm, little by little, accus- tomed himself to living out of water, until at length he was able to sustain life on land, so long as there was moisture enough to keep his body moist. His descendants throve in their new home, and multiplied and spread all over the face of the earth, and to-day they may be called land animals, although they still breathe as a leech does, and are still dependent upon water in the form of moisture to support life. In a dry atmosphere and dry earth they die. All day long these busy worms eat their way through the earth, and grow fat on the food on which they live. With no eyes, they know light from darkness ; without noses, they can smell out food buried in the earth ; without ears, they hear the approach of an enemy, and every ring and invisible bristle on their slimy bodies is keenly sensitive to the slightest touch. After a rain in June how the robins laugh to see the angle-worms enjoying the wet grass of the lawns ! But, if Mr. Robin expects to catch many, he must be prepared for work, for at the sound of the bird's light foot-fall the ii6 Spring angle-worm quickly disappears in his hole. Often the robin secures a piece of the retreating tail, but that is a matter of little importance to the worm, for there are plenty of tails where that came from, and he grows himself another. If you take an earth-worm in your hand and smooth him with your fingers from his tail to his head, you will distinctly feel the invisible bristles, four pair of which grow at each ring of his body. Now, if you stroke the worm from his head to his tail, no resistance will be felt ; he is as slippery as an eel. The reason for this is that the bristles point backward, and thus enable him to crawl. For they keep his tail fixed while he is stretching his head forward, and then he holds on with hooked bristles on the forward end of his body while pulling his tail up. By repeating this operation the worm manages to crawl on the surface or below ground. The Work which Angle-Worms Do. Painstaking scientific men have made careful calcula- tions, and claim that an acre of ordinary land suitable for worms contains fifty-three thousand angle worms ! If bait is ever scarce, it is because the worms in a long-continued drought or during very cold weather burrow deeply into the ground, sometimes to the distance of eight feet, which is too long a distance to dig for bait. It takes very little imagination on the part of the reader to consider that fifty-three thousand worms, all busy tak- ing earth from below and piling it above ground, can do a great deal in a few thousand years. To our common, despised earth-worm, Mr. Darwin says we are indebted for the preservation of many noble statues and works of art. For, when the priceless art treasures of Bait, Live and Dead 117 an older civilization were left to decay amid the ruins of the ancient cities, the earth-worms went silently to work to bury them, which, in course of time, they accomplished, thus protecting the statues and carvings from the ruinous action of the elements, and from vandal human hands. Without the assistance which angle-worms render, by preparing the soil to receive the seeds, many plants would become extinct. We reward the creature by impaling his wriggling body on hooks, and by using him as bait for fish. Digging for worms is always laborious work, and all fisher- men should know How to Collect Angle-Worms at night, when they are above ground, and you need no spade and laborious digging to catch them. If there has been a warm shower, the conditions for a big harvest of worms is perfect. Take a lantern and a pail or a box and sally forth. If you step softly, and hold your lantern close to the ground, you will see hundreds of worms in the wet grasc, in the open foot-path and by the road-side great fat fellows called night-crawlers, that will make any hungry fish's mouth water. Last summer I saw a mysterious light moving over my front lawn, and when I investigated its origin, I discovered a boy with a pail and a lantern, catching worms. When he saw a worm, he would snatch it as quickly as any robin. But that is not the best manner to capture them. When you see a worm lying on the ground, you will discover, if you look carefully, that it has one end of its slippery body hidden in its burrow, but what you cannot see is that the stiff bristles are firmly hooked in the soil in the hole. At a moment's notice the worm can draw itself out of sight, by simply contracting its muscles. If you will gently place Ji8 Spring your finger on the end of the earth-worm's body at the burrow, you will frighten this end of his body, so to speak, and cause it to let go its hold. But as soon as the worm, in its endeavor to escape from the enemy at home, does this, it is helpless, and you may pick it up and put it in your pail, which will soon be filled with good bait. Different Varieties. There are many varieties of angle-worms known to the fisherman. Whether they are varieties recognized by the scientist or not, is of no importance here, but we all know that some worms are strong, lusty, dark in color, and will live some time on the hook ; while others are weak, flabby, light in color, and soon die on the hook. Mr. J. Harrington Keene, in Harper s Young People for July 23, 1889, describes worms, which he calls the garden-worm, the brandling, a manure-heap-worm, the cockspur, with golden spots on its tail, the marsh-worm, to be found in boggy places, and the flag-worm, found at the roots of the sweet flag.* Fish will bite at all of these worms, but for large fish I have found the night-crawlers and the marsh or mud-worm, the most tempting. Since writing the last sentence I tried a big night-crawler with success upon a sly old trout which has resisted the tempting bait of anglers for years. After you have collected your bait the next thing to know is How to Keep Angle-Worms Healthy and Well. Put them in any sort of clean tin box. Place the cover of the box on a piece of soft plank, and with a hammer * In Isaac Walton's " Complete Angler," he speaks of the garden- worm as the "lob- worm," and then enumerates the other varieties as the red-worm of the manure-heaps, and the brandling or yellow- worm, ringed with red, of manure- heaps and tan-heaps. His description of these worms seems to correspond to th varieties enumerated by Mr. J. Harrington Keene. Bait, Live and Dead 119 and nail, make a number of holes in the cover to admit air. Gather some fresh moss, and cover your angle-worms with it. Put in plenty of moss, and no earth, except that which naturally adheres to the moss. The moss should be moist but not wet. Leave enough space between the top of the moss and the cover to form an air-chamber. In this box your bait not only will not die, but will grow stronger and better day by day. When you wish a fresh bait, pull out the wad of moss, and you will find the worms hanging from the bottom like so many bits of string. Keep the box in some damp, cool place, where it will be sheltered from the rain and sun. I have often heard that if you tap on the ground the worms will come out of their holes. This is probably an ancient legend without truth. Some old Long Islanders, however, assert that the worms will think the noise to be rain, and hasten above ground to prevent being washed out and drowned. How to Bring the Worms Out of their Holes. A writer in La Nature makes the statement that the earth-worms can be quickly forced to come above ground, by pouring a solution of blue vitriol (cupric sulphate) on the ground. Ten grammes of blue vitriol to a quart of water is given as the proper mixture. Ordinary soap-suds is good for the same purpose, and, if the water is pretty warm, it acts all the quicker. There is little danger of scalding the bait, for the water cools very rapidly when dashed on the ground. I have frequently noticed the earth-worms crawling around where the laundresses have emptied their tubs. Cold, fresh water will doubtless have the same effect, though possibly the worms will take more time in making their appearance upon the surface. I2O Spring In a publication of the Lakeside Library, called " Fish and Fishing," the following directions are given for pre- serving worms for bait : " Procure some fresh mutton suet, cut it fine, and boil it in a quart of water till dissolved ; then dip into this two or three large pieces of coarse, new wrapper, large enough to supply each variety of worms, which should not be mixed together. When these are cold, put them into separate FIGS. 84, 85, and 86. The Young and Adult Corydalus. earthern jars, with some damp earth and the worms which are to be kept, and tie over all a piece of open, coarse muslin." Hellgramftes, Bogerts, Hojack, Dobsons, or Clippers. The first one of these frightful, black, squirming creat- ures that I ever remember of seeing, inspired me with a terror it has taken years to overcome. I was bathing in a pool in the little muddy stream of Bank-lick, near Coving- ton, Ky. I had advanced far enough in the art of swim- ming only to be able, with safety, to swim across the pool. Bait, Live and Dead 121 While I was about half way across on one of these trips, a sudden pinch on my back announced the fact that I had been attacked by some native of the stream. I looked over my shoulder in alarm, and there I saw what was to me then an unknown animal. It was about as long as my finger, black as could be, and apparently with as many legs as a centipede. It had fastened its pincers in my back, and hung on until I reached the opposite shore, where one of my companions picked it off, to my great relief. Since then I learned that this was only a good black bass bait which had so terrified me, and that, although it can pinch quite sharply, it is a harmless insect. Another Adventure. The next adventure I had with a hellgramite was at Niagara Falls. It was when the old tower still stood upon a rock on the brink of the cataract, but a large sign marked warned all visitors off the bridge leading to the tower. Boy-like, I traversed the bridge to the point where the sign barred farther progress, and here I leaned upon the barrier and watched the green water tumble over the falls. And as I watched I saw a living thing on a rock upon the very brink of Niagara. It was in the act of crawl- ing out of its old skin. There was no doubt in my mind that what I saw was an insect, but it was such an insect as I had never before encountered. Gradually it shook out its beautiful lace-like wings, and then I climbed over the danger sign, threw myself flat on the rock, reached over the edge, picked the insect from its giddy perch, transferred it 1 22 Spring to my hat, put my hat on, and hastened to the hotel to examine my prize. It looked like a sort of comical dragon-fly, with very long pincers, which opened and closed in a most threaten- ing manner, but I knew the thing could do no harm, because it was still soft, like a soft-shell crab. This was a large male corydalus in its perfect form. It was a full- grown hellgramite, and the first adult insect of its kind I had ever seen. Fishing for Hojacks with a Net. From the foregoing it may be seen that this bait passes part of its life in the water and part in the air and on land. With the perfect insect we have little to do, but the ugly black babies we need for perch and bass, and we must catch them with a small dip-net made of mosquito-netting. Wading up stream, and coming to a flat stone, place the net on the down-stream side of the stone, and then lift up the stone. The bait that are underneath will float into the net. Some, however, may be glued to the stone by their sticky tails, and these must be picked off and placed in your pail or box. Along the edge of the stream in the wet sand or gravel, under the stones, is also a lurking-place for bogerts. The Time when Bogerts are Best. About the ist of June, when the young corydalus feels that it is about to change into a lace-winged insect, it scrambles out of the water and crawls rapidly about in search of a suitable dressing-room, where it may change its clothes. The under surface of an old board, stone, or log, or even the undersides of the shingles of a house, not too far from the water, are the places chosen. At this time the Bait, Live arid Dead 123 insects are best suited to the purposes of the fishermen, being exceedingly tough and hard to kill. One bait fre- quently serves to catch several fish. At this stage the hell- gramitcs are called crawlers. Within a rude earthen cell the crawler remains in a sort of mummy-like condition until about the ist of July, when it bursts forth from its shell (pupa) a perfect-winged in* sect. The female has short pincers and the male fero- cious-looking long ones. Both sexes, however, are per- fectly harmless. How to Keep Dobsons or Clippers Alive. Select a good wooden box, about two feet by a foot at the base and six inches or a foot high. Bore holes in the lid of the box to admit air. Cover the bottom of the box with dry gravel, and dump in your dobsons, clippers, bogerts, or hellgramites, as the larva or young corydalus is variously called, according to the part of the country you happen to be in. Keep the box in a dark, cool place. I have kept hellgramites in a box of this description for thirty days without losing a single insect, all of them being apparently tougher and livelier at the end of a month than they were when first placed in the box. Mr. J. Harrington Keene, in Harper s Young People, says that hellgramites can be kept alive in a can in which some water has been placed and damp moss added, but I doubt if the bait will live as long and be as strong and healthy kept in this way as they are when kept dry. White Grub-Worms. These are the young or larvae of beetles, and may be found by digging in rich soil or in old rotten logs and stumps. They make good bait for trout, bass, perch, cat- 124 Spring fish, and sunfish. Keep them in the Tianner described for keeping the earth, angle, or garden worm. Gentles, or Young Blue-Bottle Flies are not pleasant creatures to look upon, or pleasant to capture, or pleasant to handle But there is no accounting for tastes. It is evident that fish do not look upon the white carrion-eating baby-fly in the same light that we do, FIG. 87. The White Grub. for they are very fond of gentles ; and from quaint old Walton down to the present time this little grub has been, and still is, used for bait. The beautiful, dainty, red spotted trout, in his cool spring-water stream, is passionately fond of the larvae of the blue-bottle fly. If you are camping out or living near your fishing-grounds, take any old offal and put it in an old can, bucket, or other deep vessel in a shady out-of-the-way place, where mink or other small animals will not disturb it. Wandering blue-bottle flies will soon discover the tempt- ing display and deposit their eggs in it, and in a few Bait, Live and Dead 125 days there will be plenty of bait. When they are full grown carefully remove them by gently knocking the larvae with a stick on a piece of birch bark or paper. How to Keep the Trout Bait. Place them in a box of sand or bran. Here they will soon cleanse themselves and become of a milk-white hue, losing all their disgusting features. Keep them in a damp, cool place to stop them from maturing, or going into the chrysalis state, preparatory to becoming blue-bottle flies. Katydids are very difficult to obtain in quantity sufficient for use as bait, on account of their habits of living in trees. Once, when I was fishing among the Thousand Islands, in the St. Lawrence River, 1 became weary of trolling for big muskallonge that would not bite, and made the guide put me ashore upon a little rocky island, covered with small shrubbery and stunted trees. These I found to be full of great, green, handsome katydids. I soon filled my hand- kerchief with them, and in less than one hour's time caught a good string of fish of assorted kinds, but principally fine bass. Among other things, I caught the largest fresh-water eel I have ever seen; but as I was dressed in summer- resort fishing clothes, and feared the effects of eel slime on my trousers, I cut the eel loose, allowing him to depart in peace with my hook in his mouth. Black Crickets. These are good bait for almost all kinds of game fish, and are killing bait for bass and trout. Frequently, when 1 26 Spring bass will not notice a live minnow, crawfish, hellgramite, or frog, he will eagerly snap at a black cricket. There is but one way to catch this bait, so far as I know, and that is to seek it under the loose stones and chips, where crickets delight to hide. I have had the best luck in open, sunny spots, hilltops, and pathways. Mr. Keene, in his interesting notes on bait in Harper s Young People, advises his readers to look for crickets in a cool, damp place ; but he evidently found them, as I have, under chips FIG. 88. Crickets. and stones. Mr. Keene caught one hundred and twenty- lour trout in one stream with black crickets. Handle your crickets with care, not for fear that they might hurt you, but because they are easily injured, and their usefulness is thus impaired. After you have col- lected a sufficient quantity for your purpose, hasten to place them in some roomy receptacle, the bottom of which is plentifully supplied with damp gravel and small chips for hiding-places. Otherwise they will eat each other. Grasshoppers are another good bait. Often a fish will take hold of a grasshopper when nothing else will tempt him to bite, Bait, Live and Dead 127 Every boy knows where and how to catch these long- legged insects, but to keep them alive for any great length of time is more difficult. FIG. 89. The Grasshopper. How to Make a Grasshopper Box. Take an old cigar box, make a square hole about two by three inches in the lid ; cover the hole with a piece of wire netting. Make another hole just large enough to admit a finger. Make a sliding door of a small paddle-shaped piece of wood, fastened with a screw at one end in such a manner as to allow the other end to slide over the hole (Fig. 90). tfalf fill' the box with green "Lampers." This is the fisherman's name for what is generally known as the lamprey eel, and what is generally known as lamprey eel is no eel at all. In spite of all this, the " lampers " are great bait for bass. Near Binghamton, last summer, with a good lamprey for bait, I caught a bass weighing four pounds, two ounces, and my friend, Mr. James Johnson, FIG. 90. A, the sliding door ; B, the grass- hopper hole ; C, the air window pro- tected by wire netting. 1 28 Spring caught several weighing over three pounds, while Mr. Johnson's wife landed a six-pounder ! These fish were all weighed, measured, and recorded with their outlines in Mr. John- son's book, kept for that purpose. I say this because any one who has fished for black bass knows that a FiG. 9 i.-The"Lam P er." three-pound fish can send a thrill down the spine of even old fisher. men, and that the " four-pounders " are generally the fish caught around the camp-fire, and not the real live fish of the streams. Habits of the Lamprey. Last summer's experience compels me to speak of the lamprey with the greatest respect. If the fish are pas- sionately fond of the lamprey, the lamprey is also passion- ately fond of fish, especially of shad, as may be seen from the following interesting account, which appeared in the New York Sun about the time I was making my first trial with them for bait. " The lamprey leaves the ocean in great numbers in March, proceeds to the head of tide-water in the rivers, and there actually lies in wait among the rocks for the shad that will soon be pushing their way up stream to spawn. The lamprey follows the shad on this interesting journey, fastening itself to the delicate fish by its mouth, which is simply an armed sucking disc with extraordinary adhesive power. The lamprey is always found fastened at the orifice from which the shad drops her eggs, and from which it sucks the roe, at the same time rasping the tender flesh of the fish with its sharp-toothed tongue, drawing blood from the shad to wash down the raped roe into its maw. The shad having by June become of little profit to the lamprey, the latter sets about attending to its own family affairs. " The female lamprey builds her nest in a swift current, making an excavation sometimes two feet deep. She frequently removes as much as a Bait, Live and Dead 129 wheelbarrow load of stones in preparing her nest. She has such strength that she caii haul up from the bottom stones weighing five pounds or more. Gluing her mouth to a stone, she works backward, drawing the stone after her. John G. Sawyer, of Sawmill Rift, once speared a lamprey in the Delaware as she was in the act of hauling up a stone in this way, and so firmly attached was she to the stone that it was lifted into the boat with her, she being pulled out of the water by the tail. " The male lamprey hovers about the spot while his mate is building the nest, watching her tugging away at the stones, but never offering any aid. AS soon as the big nest is ready the female lamprey deposits her eggs in it, and swims away and dies. I can remember when the shores of the upper Delaware were lined, during the month of June, with dead lampreys and dead shad. As soon as hatched the young lampreys go ashore and bury themselves in the sand, where they are found by eager fishermen, who seek them for bait for other fish. " Properly cooked, the lamprey is good. There isn't a bone nor a suspicion of a bone in it. Place a lamprey in the sun and keep it there, and it will melt like so much butter, the only evidence that it ever existed being a grease-spot. A peculiarity of the lamprey's flesh is that, although it will melt away in the sun, it becomes tough when put in the frying-pan over a fire, and becomes tougher and tougher the longer it is fried. The only way it can be cooked so as to be fit for the table is by stewing it" How to Catch Lampreys. This is downright hard work, and anyone who digs his own lampreys earns all the fun he derives from their use as bait. With a spade in hand he wades in the water above his knees, and digs the soft sand and mud from the bottom, quickly throwing the contents of the shovel on the bank, where a companion looks it over for young lampreys. It takes a strong man to lift one of the shovels full of water and mud clear of the water. To buy lampreys is expen- sive, for no man we could find would dig them for less than four cents apiece, and some charged ten cents apiece for them. 9 130 Spring How to Keep Lampreys. Put them in the ice-chest in a pail of aquatic grass and ice, or, where it is possible, make a long, wooden box, and cover the bottom with clean sand. Set the box where the water from a spring can run through holes bored in the sides near the top for that purpose. Other holes in the opposite sides near the top allow the overflow water to run off. Have a good cover for your box, and wire netting over the air- and water-holes, or you will discover that some land animals are almost as fond of your expensive bait as the bass are. This box is also an excellent contrivance for keeping bull-heads and other minnows alive. The wire netting over the holes keeps out the garter and other snakes that need only a hint to avail themselves of the opportunity of feeding on your bull-heads. Lampreys are expensive to buy, to keep, and to handle. When taken out of the box to use, put them in a pail with grass and some big pieces of ice, and cover the whole up well with something to protect it from the sun. When you take a bait out you will find him so numb that it is not difficult to bait him. After he is once overboard, the warm water thaws him out so that he becomes exceedingly lively and tempting to the fish. Frogs are highly esteemed as bait by many fishermen, and there is no doubt that some fish are fond of them, and that most fish will bite at them at times. Wall-eyed pike, or Jack salmon, as these fish are called in Ohio, pickerel, bass, and large perch are caught with half-grown and not infre- quently with full-grown frogs. Bait, Live and Dead How to Bait a Live Frog. Some fishermen put the hook through the frog's lips, some through the web of one foot, some through the skin of the leg at the thigh, and others through the skin of the back. For my part, a live frog is a very unpleasant bait. Its human-like form and its desperate struggles to free itself by grasping the hook with its queer little hands, are too suggestive of suffering. To those who wish to use this bait, however, it will be a comfort to know that it is claimed that the frog is really FIG. 92. Frogs. less sensitive to pain than many other baits. As a rule, you should put a heavy sinker on your line when using a live frog, and frequently lift him out of the water, so that he may have a chance to breathe. At times, under certain conditions, it is an excellent plan to remove all sinkers and allow the frog to swim at will until he is gobbled up by some big fish which has been quietly resting under an old log or the lily-pads, watching for some foolish creature to swim by his ambush. How to Catch Frogs. One way is to walk alongside of the stream or pond and drive the frogs into the water. They will not go far, but 132 Spring make great pretensions of doing so, and kick up the mud so as to deceive and blind you as to their real hiding-place. A few moments' waiting, however, will allow the mud to settle, and then, near the shore, you will see a suspicious lump of mud, and you need not doubt that the frog has doubled on his track to mislead you. It may be that from this lump of mud two bulging eyes appear. At any rate quietly slip your hand in the water, and with a quick motion grasp the lump, and you will have the frog. Some boys acquire great skill in catching live animals. When I was a small chap I watched with interest the movements of a cat while in pursuit of birds, and dis- covered that its plan of action was simply this: slow, deliberate movement, with frequent and long pauses when- ever the prey showed signs of alarm, no violent motion until the game was within reach ; then a sudden stroke with a curved paw and extended nails seldom failed to grapple or hook the victim. Long I pondered over this, and then began a series of experiments, and could soon proudly boast of the capture with bare hands of a gray squirrel, several pigeons, a cage full of gold-finches, turtles and frogs by the gross not little, half-grown frogs, but great yellow-throated, green- backed, full-grown bull-frogs. Once I crept up upon a big Virginia horned owl, and could undoubtedly have caught him, but I was a little chap, ?nd when I looked at his great hooked talons my heart failed me, and I simply pushed him off his perch and fled as the astonished owl silently flew away. Since then I have seen a Virginia horned owl sink his talons through a heavy cowhide shoe. In such parts of the country where the streams have muddy margins and over-hanging banks, the boys walk along Bait, Live and Dead 133 the bank, and when they see a frog squatting in the mud below, throw a piece of wood at it and bury the frog in the mud, where it is easily captured. Red Flannel Frog-bait. A full-grown frog will bite at almost any object that moves near it, except a snake. In some experiments I made with two frogs they both showed great alarm when a little baby garter-snake was put in the same aquarium with them. Yet one of these frogs afterward swallowed his mate, and attempted the same feat with my young alligator. Taking advantage of this desire of the frog to put himself outside of everything that moves, the boys bait their hooks with bits of red flannel, and dance the gaudy cloth in front of the frog's nose until he grabs it, and the hook grabs him. Three Hooks knitted together like a grapple, and fastened to a short line on a long pole, will enable the boy to catch frogs a long way from shore, among the lily-pads. The hook will not alarm the frog in the least, and a sudden jerk of the line when the hooks are under the frog will never fail to bring him kicking through the air safely ashore. Any sort of small live creature can be caught with these grapple hooks. How to Keep Frogs. Put them in a covered vessel of any kind that will hold water, but do not make the common mistake of filling or half filling the vessel with water, or you will drown all your frogs. Put a lot of gravel, mud, moss, or sand in the bottom of your frog-bucket, and add only enough water to saturate thoroughly the material at the bottom of your bucket. Use a perforated tin or wooden cover that will 134 Spring admit plenty of air, or a cover made of wire netting, or an old piece of mosquito netting, or any other cloth with open meshes that will admit plenty of air. In such a home the frogs will retain their health and vigor for any length of time. I have kept them for over a year alive and apparently happy. It is not necessary to feed them more than once in three weeks, so you need have no fear of starving them ; as it is, you will seldom want to keep them longer than a week. /Live Minnows. This bait, on the whole, is more satisfactory than any other live bait. It is more easily obtained than lampreys, FIG. 93. Live Bait. is not as disagreeable to handle as insects and worms, and either suffers less, or at least appears to suffer less, than the frogs. Possibly a hook may hurt a minnow as badly as it does a frog, but the little fish has not the power of showing his discomfort or suffering so graphically. Besides all this, if you bait a minnow through the lips it can cause no more pain than cutting your own finger-nail. To me the minnow is the king of live bait. When, as a child, I used to visit my grandmother in Northern Ohio, I was delighted to find the little brooks full of small fish, with bright red stripes on their sides. These are the Bait, Live and Dead 135 famous " painted " minnow, and form excellent bait for the big black bass of Lake Erie. How to Catch Minnows. Where the bait is in small streams, the best thing to use is a rectangular net, with corks on the top edge and sinkers on the bottom, the net attached to two poles, one at each end. A home-made minnow net is described in the " Ameri- can Boy's Handy Book." Take off your shoes and stock- ings and wade in the brook, one boy at each pole ; slant the tops of the hand-pole down stream, being careful to keep the lower edge of the net on the bottom. Now move up stream, carefully plodding your way along so as not to foul your net on snags and stones in the bottom. When you think you have gone far enough, bring one end of the net quickly but carefully around to the shore where the other end is. Slide the bottom of the net up to the dry land and lift it all out of water. One haul should be enough to fill your minnow-bucket. How to make a minnow-bucket is also described in the "American Boy's Handy Book;" but, since the introduc- tion of cheap wire netting in the market, any boy who calls himself an American should be able To Construct a Serviceable Minnow-bucket by taking an ordinary tin pail and making a wire-netting cylinder that will fit loosely inside the tin pail, then cut a circular piece of netting for the bottom, and fasten it there with copper wire. A lid can be made of the same material as the cylinder and hinged on with wire, so that it may be opened and closed at will, or secured with a staple and pin. The object of the open work inside the pail is to make it easy to change the water without losing the bait ; or the 136 Spring wire pail may be hung to the boat side in such a manner that the water will flow through it and keep the bait alive. How to Catch Minnows in Ponds, Lakes, or Deep Streams. Where the water is deep, minnows have the habit of congregating in great schools, and may be best captured with dip-nets, either by sinking them and waiting until the bait gathers over them, or by sinking the nets and then coaxing the bait over the traps by means of a handful of bread or cracker crumbs. A favorite, but slow, method in Pike County, Penn., is to fish for the minnows among the lily-pads with a small hook and piece of thread attached to a switch, and baited with a wee bit of an angle-worm, fish, or fresh-water mussel. How to Keep Minnows Alive. Keep them in a box similar to the one described for lamprey eels, or in a wooden box perforated with small holes and sunk in shallow water, or in a box made of wire netting and sunk in shallow water. Always be careful to fasten the box securely, because mink and coons have a disagreeable way of robbing minnow-boxes that are care- lessly fastened and what they leave the water-snakes devour. I have more than once lost more than a pailful of minnows in one night in what appeared to be a most mysterious manner, until the imprint of little hand-like feet in the muddy banks near my box gave me a clew to the robber. In transporting minnows by rail or wagon they will live in a crowded bucket, because the agitation of the water keeps it fresh, but as soon as a long stop is made they will all die, unless the water is frequently changed. Bait, Live and Dead 137 Crawfish may be caught by a net in streams with muddy, grass- grown bottom, or by digging in the banks, or by lifting up the stones in shallow water. In lakes or ponds look for crawfish in the bottom, sand, or mud at the mouths of in- flowing brooks or springs. It is a fact not generally known that there are no crawfish on Long Island. How to Keep Crawfish Alive. Keep them in boxes or pails with damp moss, gravel, or aquatic plants. Put in only enough water to saturate the plants. Do not flood them. Keep in a cool, damp place. Miscellaneous Bait. Butterflies, moths, caterpillars, bumble-bees, May-flies, caddis-flies (Fig. 94, E), blue-bottle flies, and meal-worms, all FIG. 94. The Caddis. make good bait at times. The last-named are to be found around old flour-mills, and with little trouble may be reared at home in musty meal. r Looking-glass Bait. A fish is not a vain animal, but he is a very jealous eature, and looks with suspicion upon all his kind. A 138 Spring L pet fish will not tolerate the introduction of a stranger in the aquarium, and, like a dog or a chicken, if a fish sees a companion secure a piece of food, that is the piece of food the first fish wants. So, I am inclined to place some cre- dence in the story of the Petit Journal, to the effect that a Mr. William R. Lamb, of East Greenwich, R. I., has taken advantage of the jealous disposi- tion of the fish. By fastening a mirror to his line below the hook, he deceives the fish that may come smelling around his bait. Immediately upon approaching the bait, the fish discov- ers his reflection in ^^ ~^> " ^ the glass, and hastily FIG. 95. The Envious Fish. snaps at the hook, so as to get it before his rival can do so. According to one authority Mr. Lamb is an Englishman, but according to an- other he is an old fisherman of Greenwich, R. I. It matters little where the inventor hails from -, here is his contrivance : Bait, Live and Dead 139 Take a small rod with a ring in the middle and one at each end, and fasten a line to each ring. About six or eight inches above the rod bring the lines together, and tie them in such a manner that the two side lines are exactly equal, and form what your geometry would call an isosceles triangle, with the middle line running through the centre. If possible, procure a circular or oval mirror, about a foot and a half in diameter, and fasten it by a ring in the frame to the cross-rod. Attach your fish-line to the points where the three lines meet, and fasten a short line with hook attached to the ring at one end of the cross-rod in such a manner that the bait will hang in front of the glass. (Fig. 95-) Mr. Lamb claims that this scheme has proved successful, and there appears to be no reason why it should not. Still, when the novelty is worn off, it seems probable that a fish on the end of a clean line would feel better to the fisherman than one attached to a line hampered with a great, flat looking-glass. Bottom Bait Bran and Bread. The buffalo-fish of the Western rivers, the German carp, lately introduced in many of our lakes and ponds, goldfish, and many other small fish, are fond of bread or dough, but these articles are difficult to manage, for the water washes them off the hook. I have seen fishermen on the Ohio River mix corn-meal with cotton, or roll it into balls, and tie them up in bits of mosquito netting, and bait their hook with these balls. Another method is to soak some bread until it is thor- oughly saturated, then squeeze the water out and knead it with bran and meal until it becomes tough, like putty. 140 Spring Dead Bait Meat. Salt pork, cut in small chunks, bits of fresh meat, and the refuse of fish already caught, form tempting bait for eels, cat-fish, and other bottom fish. How to Pick Up a Live Eel. To pick up a live eel, grasp its throat between your hooked first and second finger, the rest of your fist being doubled up. (See Fig. 96.) If there is a dry, sandy, or dusty spot near at hand, toss the eel into it, and again pick him up. This time, on account of the dust or sand, you will find it much less difficult to hold him. 9 How to Skin Him. After picking him up, throw him down on the ground with all your force. This will stun the animal, and you may now take a sharp knife and make a circular cut below the first or pectoral fins (Fig. 97). Then, with the finger- nails, peel the skin back until you can get a good hold of it with your hands, which you have previously covered with dust. Now take hold of the head with one hand, and strip the skin back with the other hand as shown in the third position (Fig. 98). Eel-tail Bait. When you have skinned the eel to a point about three or four inches above the tail, cut the tail off with a sharp knife, but leave it adhering to the skin. Turn back the skin still further, and cut off the turned-over portion of the skin about half way down. A sharp pair of scissors will be best for this purpose. Now take your fish-hook and run it through the flesh Bait, Live and Dead 141 FIG. 96. FIG. 97. FIG. 98. FIG. 99. FIG. xoo. FIG, xox. tt.t_ JACK.- THE L<*MT USED roRNifrrtT.SpEARlN