Ballgown

“ They don't take a chance slipping anybody a knife and fork.
"Then all you gotta do is clean your cell and keep from scrappin' till they turn you out in the bull-pen. This's the big time, kid. You've come right at it. When we get real wild we play 'How many fingers up?' We got a ball, too—a soft ball to bat with your arm or fist. No wood bat for the bull-pen. Then back to the cell with your bunkies and nothin' to do; by God, nothin' to do, day and night, dark and light. Dark—damn the dark, the way it smells and snores. Damn the dark—"
"Ket!" cried Joan Daisy. ”

“ There should be nothing to distinguish the players from one another, each being dependent on his own memory and alertness to know to whom he is to throw the ball and from whom he is to receive it. The particular success of this game lies in having a very considerable number of balls in play at once. In this form the balls do not have to accumulate at the foot of the lines before being returned to the head, as the last Number One player to receive the ball tosses it directly across to the last Number Two player, who begins at once to zigzag it up the line. ”

“ The player wins a life by pocketing a red ball or forcing it over the table; and loses a life by running his own, the white, ball into a pocket, missing the red balls, or intentionally giving a miss. In this game the baulk is no protection; that is to say, the player can pocket any ball wherever it lies, either within or without the baulk line, and whether the white be in hand or not. This liberty is a great and certain advantage under many circumstances, especially in the hands of a good player. It is not a very uncommon occurrence for an adept to pocket six or eight balls in a single break. ”

“ Queen Anne answers, and then names one of the girls on the opposite side whom she suspects to have the ball, and if she be right in her guess the lines change sides. If she be wrong, the line retires in triumph, the girl who possesses the ball holding it up to show the Queen she is wrong. The children all curtsey when leaving the Queen’s presence. Another girl of the line then takes the ball and the game continues till the right holder of the ball is named. When the Queen tells the line of players to “turn,” they all spin round, coming back to face the Queen, and then stand still again. ”

“ Here, it was limousines; more than one noble chariot—filled with members of the faction who'd helped to rush Vandeman into office over the claims of older members—rolled discredited down the drive.
Yet a ball is the hardest thing in the world to kill; like a lizard, if you break it in two, the head and tail go right on wriggling independently. Also, behind this masked affair at the country club was the business proposition of a lot of blossom festival visitors from all over the state who mustn't be disappointed. ”

“ The balls they use are rather larger than those made use of at tennis, and are formed of a piece of deer-skin; which being moistened to render it supple, is stuffed hard with the hair of the same creature, and sewed with its sinews. The ball-sticks are about three feet long, at the end of which there is fixed a kind of racket, resembling the palm of the hand, and fashioned of thongs cut from a deer-skin. In these they catch the ball, and throw it to a great distance, if they are not prevented by some of the opposite party, who fly to intercept it. ”

“ The other players may leave their places at any time to block the passage of the ball; but this is a dangerous thing to do, for the odd player may at any moment leave his work with the ball and place his stick in one of the vacant holes. It therefore behooves the circle players to leave their holes unguarded only when there is imminent danger of the ball entering the center hole from that side of the ring, or when a good opportunity comes for aggressive play to drive the ball out of the ring, which should also be one of their objects. ”

“ An indifferent spectator, agreed on by the parties, throws up a ball, of the size of a common cricket-ball, midway between the confronted players, and makes his escape. It is the object of the players to seize and convey the ball between their own goals. The rush is therefore very great: as is sometimes the shock of the first onset, to catch the falling ball. He who first can catch or seize it speeds therefore home, pursued by his opponents (thro’ whom he has to make his way) , aided by the jostlings and various assistances of his own sidesmen. ”

“ I answered. “The nearest to that I can name is golf-pool; that takes a cue-ball and one object-ball.”
“No, this is played on a regulation billiard table. Say, Bert, if you saw a man with a cue and just one red ball, shooting earnestly away at the cushions with that one red ball, stopping his shots, trying them over, and sometimes helping them along when they do not go exactly as he desires—”
“I'd say he was practicing the use of English, or testing the cushions or just plain nutty,” I broke in.
Masters nodded almost imperceptibly, but his wide mouth curved in a smile. ”

“ After dinner the ball began, and it was the strangest ball that ever was seen. The trumpeter Gadfly and a number of his relations, besides several Grasshoppers and Bees, were the chief musicians. They wanted a bass very much at first, but the Bull-frog offered his services, although he confessed that he was accustomed to sing alone. Then the gentlemen drew on their gloves, flattened their wings, pulled up their collars, and coiled away their tails; while the ladies tightened their garters, ruffled their feathers, and put out their feelers. ”

“ The meaning of not a few is anything but plain, but one “termination,” if the phrase be permitted, speaks for itself. I allude to the expression “ball,” which is frequent on Exmoor, and much more likely to be derived from visual impression than any long-descended traditions of Baal, to which a late friend of mine, out of regard for the Phœnicians and their hill-altars, was anxious to assign it. Thus we have Cloutsham Ball (famous as the scene of the opening-meet of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds) , Ware Ball, Ricksy Ball, Ferny Ball, and, as a gloss, Round Hill. ”

“ After searching out a clear place, he constructed implements as primitive as they were ingenious, a pitch of mountain turf cleared of boulders, pine twigs for stumps, and cones for bails so insecurely perched that the afternoon breeze put up the best of the bowling. Edward combined the conflicting duties of bats-man and wicket-keeper while his father hurled large cones down the pitch and Nancy, stationed in the slips, invariably fumbled the rare ball Edward lifted in her direction. ”

“ To use the bolas, grasp this big knot and one of the bolas, and then after whirling the free bola or bolas about the head to give them speed, hurl the whole outfit at any target handy. If the novice does not crack his skull in his earlier efforts to master the bolas, they quickly become an effective weapon with a range of twenty yards. After considerable practice a healthy man can achieve a range of thirty yards, while fifty or sixty yards may be covered by the man of exceptional skill. The gauchos tell of ranges up to 100 yards, with a two-ball outfit made of iron. ”

“ This also is played by two players, and in the same way, except that a stone is substituted for the hole, and the bowler’s object is to strike the stone with the ball. Sometimes it is played with three players, then running is allowed. When the ball is hit the batter tries to run to the “stance” and back, the bowler or the third player then tries to hit the “stance” with the ball while the batter is away making the run. If the third player can catch the ball before it touches the ground he tries to hit the stone with it, thus sending the batter out.—Keith (Rev. Dr. Gregor) . ”

“ If they succeed in this attempt, the player who does so is entitled to throw the ball with all his might towards his antagonists. If he kep it in the first bound which it makes off the ground, called a stot, he is allowed to haunch, that is, to throw the ball by bringing his hand with a sweep past his thigh, to which he gives a stroke as his hand passes, and discharging the ball at the moment when the stroke is given. ”

“ Divide the remaining balls equally among the players, or give an equal number of balls to each player. If four play, it is more interesting to form sides, the two players on one side taking the dark balls, and the other two the light ones. Blue and black are considered dark—red and yellow, light. The players, retiring to some part of the room more or less distant from the white ball, now bowl the colored balls, which they hold, at the white one, by turns. Each player bowls one ball at a time, the play passing around the company as many times as there are colored balls for each player. ”

“ To play tosses, and ground balls, and hops, and every variety of loose bowling, by the rigid rules of straight and upright play, is a principle, the neglect of which has often given the old hands a laugh at the young ones. Often have I been amused to see the wonder and disappointment occasioned, when some noted member of a University Eleven, or the Marylebone Club, from whom all expected of course the most tremendous hitting "off mere underhand bowling," has been easily disposed of, by a toss or a ground ball, yclept a "sneak." ”

“ In the first place, the hazard itself is rendered more difficult, and repeated 321failures will compel a learner to take pains to strike his own ball in the centre. And, in the second place, the run of ball 1, after impact with ball 2, will be checked or accelerated, as the case may be, to an extent which may lead to disaster. Young pool players, when playing from baulk on a ball at the top of the table with their player in hand, frequently experience the mortification of seeing their ball, after an unsuccessful shot, come back into baulk a helpless prey to the next player. ”

“ The ball must be struck and not pushed—a push never being allowable under any circumstances; and the blow must be given with the face—never with the side—of the mallet head.
[A ball can never get into such a position on a croquet-ground that it cannot be struck in some direction, and if it is in a bad position it is either the fault or the misfortune of the player owning the ball—which he is not to be allowed to rectify by a push, for that would sometimes be rewarding bad play.]
3. Whenever the mallet hits the ball, if it moves it however slightly, it must be considered a stroke. ”

“ The wooden substitute for a ball, as in Cat and Dog, before described, evidently implied a hitting, and not a stopping game.
The Wicket, as we collect from a MS. furnished by an old friend to the late William Ward, Esq., was, in the early days of the Hambledon Club, one foot high and two feet wide, consisting of two stumps only, with one stump laid across. Thus, straight balls passed between, and, what we now call, well pitched balls would of course rise over. Where, then, was the encouragement to block, when fortune would so often usurp the place of science? ”

“ For instance, the moment he had aligned his mallet, and bent down for the second time to pick up his spectacles, she shifted the position of the ball at which he had taken his aim, and if possible, put the wire of a hoop between him and it, or if that was not feasible, merely kicked it a foot or two away, for she had observed that on rising again for the second time he paid no more attention to where the object ball was but devoted his mind to hitting in the direction in which he had laid his mallet. He hit his own ball extremely true. ”

“ It is a lost ball. Every ball that goes into that tall grass is gone forever. I have never known any one to recover a ball that fell in that tall grass.”
Then he stepped proudly to the sand-box and made another tee.
“Hand me a ball,” he said, “and I will show you the proper way to hit it.”
I gave him a ball and he placed it carefully on the tee. Then he grasped his driver in both hands, snuggled the head of it up to the ball lovingly, drew back the club and struck the ball. I was not quick enough to see the ball go, but Millington was. ”

“ The experienced one has learned that usually, when all is not well with him at billiards, the fault is with himself or in his stroke. A less skillful performer will blame the balls when a sagging floor has thrown the table out of level, the table when a ball needs either truing or a holiday, the chalk or the leather when he is wildly throwing his whole body at the ball, and the cushion when diminished speed is really due to the influence of a protracted spell of damp weather upon cloth or ivory. ”

“ Such a ball is far better for all play in which the player is to be hit than those sold in the stores nowadays. I have described the manufacture of the old-fashioned home-made ball, because there are some boys, especially in the towns, who have lost the art of making yarn balls.
When Jack had finished his ball, he let60 it dry, while he ate his breakfast and did his chores. Then he sallied out and found Bob Holliday, and showed him the result of his work. Bob squeezed it, felt its weight, bounced it against a wall, tossed it high in the air, caught it, and then bounced it on the ground. ”

“ Foul strokes are regulated by the rules of ordinary pool, but after a miss the striker’s ball is left where it stops and is not removed from the table. A life is lost by playing with or at the wrong ball, or out of turn; if any one plays at the black out of turn, he has to pay all round. The black ball is never taken up, and no coloured ball can be taken up (except during the first round) if it interferes with the striker. Baulk, as in all winning hazard games, affords no protection. If the black ball is holed, it must be spotted at once ”