Sketcher. Curling.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 2021, 20 June 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Sketcher. Curling.

Tip: inllncuce of cluuuto on hporte is as littlo understood n& that of climate on character. Tho notion that pcoplo in the latitudes of extreme froHt havo invonted vigoious amusementa merely to keep warm is a Southern one. If this idea had been the ruling one in onr Northorn country, would the Pilgrim fathers have been bo set againafc dancing ? If excrciso h a mere matter of climate, would it bo true that " whon the sun goes down all Africa dances ?" If over there was a olimatio excuse for dancing pretty much all the year round, surely New England and Scotland offer it. And yet we know that tho excellent inhabitants of Ibefie countries preferred amusements lcs^ graceful than dancing, even when they had to be enlivened with rum and URquebautfh. We can only e&y in a general way that the conquering and successful colonizing raoes, who are accustomed to an aggressive and defensive) warfare against front, take naturally to rough Kporta. We never hear of the students of El Aztaav, in Cairo, playing at football, or taking a dej/rco in rowing. Base-ball, foot-ball, cricket, golf, Bkating, curling, ard the liko vigorous athletics have never been popular in tropic and eemi-tropic countries. Indeed, wifeboating, although occasionally indulged in in mild latitudes, has never been practifled anywhere no successfully as in cold and disagreeable climates. The people* of the South are no more warm-hearted and constant than the people of tho North, but they aro less vigorous in the physical expression oE their feolings, and they enjoy themselves in a different way. The Northerner wanta a sport that brings out his musole and taxes all his powers, and makes him hungry, and thirsty. A game peculiarly adapted to do all these is the Scottish national game of Curling, whioh is a passion with all classes in Scotland, but has never taken root anywhere else, although it has been tried in England and in Canada. The idea that the game was invented to keep Scotchmen from freezing to death is conveyed in a poem written in tho last century beginning : Auld Daddy .Scotland sat ao day Bare legend on a unawy brao, Hi» lirawny arms wi cauld wereblao, Tho wind was snolly blawing ; At icicles hozo at liis inout, Ho rowpd his plaid hia head about, Sino raised to hr-aven a roiipet shout, Auld Albyn's Jovo misca'mg. Cliniiti. O for a cheery, heartsomo garno, To sond through a' the soul a ilamo, Hit bur and umedden in tho framo, And set tho blind a-dinhng ! That may have been the reason of its ancient orgin— for it is a very old game, played by James IV. before 1531, and by Darnley in ir>Gs— but we infer from a large and very entertaining volume on Curling, by James Taylor, D.D. (William Paterson, Edinburgh, 1884), that it has been sustained by hunger as well aa by cold. The doughty game of curling, as we read, is nothing unless it i<< followed by a huge supper of " beef and greens " and whisky toddy. These are essentials of the game, and the praiso of beef and greens and whisky is dwelt on in this volume with an enthusiasm that is givon to nothing else in literature except the Homorio fodder of ambrosia and nectar. We can understand that in older to enjoy beet and greens and whisky it may be necessary to bring one's self to the famine point by curling, but it passes belief that anywhere else than in the land of Scott and haggis could such viands be an inducement to sport. The game is a passion with che Scotch — a passion for which the minister will Bhirk his preparations for the pulpit, the judge desert the bench, the lawyer neglect his client, the blaoksmith quit his forge, the navvy drop his spade, and the laborer let the cupboard of hia wifo and children go empty. The gamo is a passion, but the supper only is worthy of the proan of the poet : " The table is all alive with hot animal food. A stream of rich distilled perfume roaches the roof, at tho lowest measurement of seven feet high. A savory vapor 1 The feast takes all its name and most of itn nature from beef and greens ; the one corned, the other crisp ; the two combined the glory of Martinmas. The beef consists almost entirely of loan fat rather than of fat lean, and the same may be said of that bacon. See I how the beef cuts longwise with the bone, if it be not, indeed, a sort of sappy griutle. Along the edges of each plate, as it falls over from the knife-edge among tho gravy-greens, your mouth waters at the fringe of fat, and you look for the mustard. Of such beef and greens there are four trencher h, eaoh like ft tea-tray, and yet you hope that them is a corps dc rdtervc in the kitchen." And then the whisky, a bumper for each of the twenty-nine toasts 1 Oh, St. John 1 From such a feast even the clergyman curler found it difficult to tear himself away, though it might ha late Saturday night. Dr. Wotherspoon, minister of Beith, in tho last oentury, was supping with his fellow-curlers at Shand's Inn one Saturday night as late as cloven o'clock. The innkeepei'a wife, a douce and pious matron, afraid that the minister's good name might be evil ipoken of, patted his shoulder and whispered in his ear a hint about his publio duty, the next day being the Lord's day. He replied aloud, " A minister who could not shake a sermon out of his coat alcove is a silly cuif." The late J)r. Adamson, of CuptrFife, colleague to Dr. Campbell, father of the Lord- Chancellor, at a similar late Saturday night supper, was about to depart, alleging that he must prepare for the Sunday nervice. For two previous Sundays he had been holding forth on Judas Isoariot, and a member of hia congregation who sat at the table detained him with, " Sit down, dootor, sit down ; there's nao need for ye to gang awa; just gie Judas another wallep in the tow." Curling, which the Drawer would commend to its ice-bound readers with an abatement of the intoxicating greens, has been somewhat modified in the course of three centuries, and is now usually played as may bo briefly described. Hard, smooth ice is the field. To this the curlers repair, four on a side, each provided with trumpets to steady the person in the aot of playing, a broom to sweep the ice, and two curling stones. Tho stonoa are granite, spherical in form, finely polished on the under aide, and furnished with a handle for throwing on the upper. Tho weight of eaoh itone is from thirty-three to forty pounds or more. A suitable space on the ice is cleared oft. A portion forty-two yards in length by ten yards broad ia marked off ; at each end, thirty-eight yards apart, are cut marks called tees or witters. This portion of the ice is tho rink, and with circles described round each tee as a centre to guide the eye in estimating the positions of the stones when played, with one line drawn across the middle, and one seven yards before each tee, it is oomplete and ready for playing. The line in the middle of tho rink marks the place where sweeping may begin — that is, olearing the way before a sliding stone ; the line bofore each tee are the hog scores, which must b9 passed by tho running stone ; if not, it is removed from the rink as a hog, and held as uieless for tbo round. Four players form a bide, headed by a skip, or director of bis side. Tho principle of the game is simple. The atones of either party played from one tco to the other, and found at the conclusion of the round to be nearest tho tee, count as shots. The side that first scores twenty-one shots is victorious. A player on one Bido ia followed alternately by a player on tho other, until all the eight playen have oast their alonea. The object ia to place a stone near and in front of the tee, and then to guard it by othera from being knocked out of ita placo. And here is where the skill of tho game cornea in. The excitement attending tho game and tho exaltation of a triumph in it can bo appreciated only by those familiar with it. In tho course of timo a great many aneodotes have gathered about the game, and stories are repeated illustrating its fascination, its development of the virtuoa, and ita superior attraction over anything clue in life, oxoept beef, greens, and whiskey. It is said that the preaenoe of the minister and gentlemen in the game restrains profanity. A player who could not entirely control bis in-

dignation at a stupid comrade, and did not like to inform him before the minister whrro he was going, exclaimed, " IL's a puid thing ye're giun where there'll be nac ice." An cnthu»iastio Kilmarnock curler, absorbed in tlic game from day to day during fiwombiQ weather, expressed his camr»at hope that hi'i wife, who WH9 ill, " wadnu d°a till th n ro oc.ui 1 a thaw, for otherwise ho wadrm bo ablo to attend her burial." A couplo of farm gcrvantrf hbw the minister goirg to the curliiiß pond. One of them cnticvad him, and said that inatcad of curling every day lio ought to bo making ccrmonf and visiting tho folk. But the other defended him, and thought ho should take every chance he could get at hurling the Btone. "If I were a minister, and there was ony man in tho pariph wadna tak 1 at least one day's quid curling every winter, I can tell you what it is, lads, I toad keep him back at th* Sacrament." The Eev. Adam VVadderstone, minister in Bathgate, was an excellent man and curler, who died in 1780. Late one Saturday night one of his elders received a challenge from the people of Shotts to the curlers of Bathgate to meet them early Monday morning ; and after tossing about half the nipht at a losa how to convey the pleasing newa to the minister, he determined to tell him before ho ontered the pulpit. When Mr. Wadderstone came into the session house, the elder said to him in a low tone, " Sir, I've something to tell ye : there's to be a parish play with the Shotts folk the morn, at — " "Whist, man, whist," wa3 the rejoinder. " Oh, fie sbamo, John 1 fie shame 1 Mao speaking to-day about, warldly rocreations." But the ruling passion proved too otrong for the worthy clergyman's scruples of conscience, for just as he was about to entrr thi inner door of the church he suddenly wheeled round and returned to the elder, who was now standing at the plate in tho lobby, and whispered in his car, " Butwhan's the hour, John ? I'll bo sure and be there." Let us all sing. That music dear to a curler's car, And enjoyed by him alone — Tho raeiry clink of tho curling rink And tho boom of tho roaring etonc. — Harper's Monthly.