Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1878 — Out-Door Sports. [ARTICLE]

Out-Door Sports.

The season has now arrived when outdoor sports are apropos. The caterpillar has left his den, the mosquito has turned over in bed and uttered a warning shriek, and big green worms are skylarking around on shade trees, and betting on their chances of dropping down behind a man’s coat-collar. An interesting lawn game is played as follows: At the supper-table the wife remarks: “ James, I want $lO to fix up my summer silk. Don’t go away without leaving it. ” James makes no reply, but manages to slip out of the house unseen. He is stealing softly across the lawn to jump over the fence at the corner, when his wife comes rushing out and exclaims: “ James ! James ! see here !” He begins to squint into a cherry-tree and talk about moths. “ You walk back here and hand over that cash, or I’ll send for my mother to come and stay all summer !” According to the rules of the game, he turns and looks at her, and mutters to himself: “That wilts me!” “ The idea of your skulking off like that!” she continues; when he advances, hands out the “X,” and, if he can convince her that he had as soon give her S2O as $lO, he wins the game. Another out door game is played between 10 o’clock in the evening and midnight, in order to avoid the heat of the sun. It is played altogether by married people. Nine o’clock having arrived, and the husband not having reached home, the indignant wife nails down the windows, locks all the doors and goes to bed, feeling as if she could smash her partner in a minute and a half. Along about 11 o’clock Charles Henry begins to play his part in the game. He is suddenly seen under the kitchen window. He seeks to raise it. He fries another and another, but the sash won’t lift. Then he softly tries all the doors, but they are locked. The rules of the game allow him to make some remarks at this juncture, and it generally begins to rain about this moment. As he gets under the shelter of the garden-rake, he muses : “Nice way to treat me, because I found a stranger on the walk with a broken leg, and took him to the hospital. ”

As the rain comes harder, he boldly climbs the front steps and rings the bell. After about ten minutes the door is opened, a hand reaches out and pulls him into the hall, and the game goes on: “ Oh you vile wretch 1” “Jarling, whaz mazzer—whaz iz it, jarling ?” “ Don’t darling me. Here it is almost daylight, and I’ve shivered and trembled, and brought on a nervous fever which may carry me to my grave ! ’ “Jarling, I found a leg on the sidewalk wiz broken man, and— !” This game is always won by the wife. Another, and the last out-door game to be described here, is called “ Waiting for Her Darling.” A woman waits for her husband to spade up a flower-bed. The Eastern question absorbs his whole time. She goes out to wield the spade herself. The game is very brief. She tries to dig in the spade by pressing with both. feet at once, and when she gets up and dashes into the house she realizes that she rolled over three times and barked her nose against the iron vase, and that four carriages were right opposite the house at the time. She may have a speech to deliver when her husband comes to dinner, but the husband wins the game—it is so in the rales. —Detroit Free Press.