1847.13

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"Boy's Treasury" Describes Rounders, Feeder, Stoolball, Etc.

Salience Noteworthy
Game Rounders, Stoolball
Age of Players Juvenile
Text

The Boy's Treasury, published in New York, contains descriptions of feeder [p. 25], Rounders [p. 26], Ball Stock [p. 27], Stool-Ball [p. 28], Northern Spell [p. 33] and Trap, Bat, and Ball [p 33]. The cat games and barn ball and town ball are not listed. In feeder, the ball is served from a distance of two yards, and the thrower  is the only member of the "out" team. There is a three-strike rule and a dropped-third rule. The Rounders description says "a smooth round stick is preferred by many boys to a bat for striking the ball." Ball Stock is said to be "very similar to rounders." In stool ball, "the ball must be struck by the hand, and not with a bat."

The rules given for rounders are fairly detailed, and include the restriction that, in at least one circumstance, a fielder must stay "the length of a horse and cart" away from baserunners when trying to plug them out on the basepaths.  For feeder and rounders, a batter is out if not able to hit the ball in three "offers."

Feeder appears to follow most rounders playing rules, but takes a scrub form (when any player is out he, he becomes the new feeder) and not a team form; perhaps feeder was played when too few players were available to form two teams.

 

Sources

The Boy's Treasury of Sports, Pastimes, and Recreations (Clark, Austin and Company, New York, 1850), fourth edition.  The first edition appeared in 1847, and appears to have identical test for rounders and feeder.

Warning

Rounders and Feeder texts are cloned from 1841.1, as is 1843.3

Comment

It seems peculiar that rounders and ball stock are seen as similar; it is not clear that ball stock was a baserunning.

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Query

We have scant evidence that rouunders was played extensively in the US; could this book be derivative of an English pubication?

 

:Apparently so: the copy on Google Books says "Third American Edition," and the Preface is intensely redolent of English patriotism (" the noble and truly English game of CRICKET... ARCHERY once the pride of England")  Whicklin (talk) 04:08, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

 

 

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