ROUMANIA 



5091 



ROUND TOWERS 



the marble. Stakes are then placed. When 

 the wheel begins to stop and it is seen that the 

 marble or ball will soon fall into a number he 

 calls "Rien ne va plus," after which no more 

 stakes can be placed. The croupier announces 

 the number, the color, whether odd or even 

 or manque or passe, and pays the winners, and 

 with his miniature rake gathers in the money 

 lost by bettors. Then the game begins over 

 again, with the cry, "Faites votre jeu." 



ROUMANIA, ruma'nia, the former spelling 

 of the word Rr MANIA (which see). 



ROUND'ERS, an old English game now little 

 played, from which modern baseball was de- 

 rived. It can be played by two sides, or teams, 

 of any number of players. A bat and a ball are 

 used, but the bat is smaller than the baseball 

 bat, and the ball is soft, in order not to in- 

 jure players at whom it is thrown. An or- 

 dinary tennis ball may be used. The rules 

 are not very definite, and there is no science 

 in the game. The bases or goals are four, 

 similarly placed to those in baseball, but not so 

 far apart ; the distance is optional, and de- 

 pends on the players. The fielders take their 

 places apparently without much arrangement 

 or thought, and the batsman stands ready to 

 hit the ball, which is thrown gently to him; 

 he endeavors to hit it so far that he may make 

 a round, or home run, from which fact the 

 game derives its name. 



A batter is out if he misses the ball three 

 times; if, while running, the ball thrown by an 

 opposing player hits him; if when he hits the 

 ball a fielder catches it on the first bounce 

 from the ground. If the ball is caught by a 

 player, on the fly, it is an inning, or "all out," 

 and the other side earns the right to bat. 



ROUND 'HE ADS, the name which was first 

 applied in derision to the members of the 

 Cromwell faction, or Parliamentary party, in 

 England at the outbreak of the Civil War in 

 1642, because they insisted on having their 

 hair cut close to their heads. Their oppo- 

 nents, the Cavaliers, or Royalists, followers of 

 King Charles I, wore long, flowing curls. The 

 Roundheads developed into the great political 

 parties later known as Whigs and Liberals, as 

 opposed to the Cavaliers, Tories and Conserva- 

 See COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLA 



ROUND TABLE, in the legends of 

 Arthur, a famous table made by the wizard 

 Merlin, about, wlm -h tin knights of Arthur 

 took their seats, and from which they were 

 named. One seat, the Siege Perilous, was re- 

 served for the man who should be worth > 



seek and find the Holy Grail, and was finally 

 awarded to Galahad. The Knights of the 

 Round Table had a large part in the literature 

 of medieval chivalry, and many modern writers 

 have made them the subjects of prose and of 



KING ARTHUR'S ROUND TABLE 

 Preserved In the castle at Winchester, England. 

 This is the table at which sat 



"that fair Order of the Table Round. 

 A glorious company, the flower of men. 

 To serve as models for the mighty world. 

 And be the fair beginning of a time." 

 Arthur had it made round that it might have 

 neither head nor foot, and that he might sit 

 among his knights a man among equals. The 

 painting, in soft rose and green shades, from 

 which the above drawing was made, was painted 

 in the days of one of the early kings of England. 



verse tales. Of these the most famous are 

 Tennyson's Idylls of the King. In the Idylls is 

 told the story of the Round Table from the 

 days of its founding, when 



Arthur and his knighthood for a space 

 Were all one will. 



to those unhappy days when Bedivere, "tii>t 

 made and latest left of all the knights," cried 

 out that 



Now the whole Round Table Is dissolved. 



Which was an image of the mighty world. 

 Consult Brooks' Story of King Arthur and the 

 Knights of the Round Table; Frost's Knights of 

 the Round Table. 



ROUND TOWERS, an interesting form of 

 medieval Christian architecture. These towers 

 are tall stone structures, tapering from a circu- 

 I n base to a cone-shaped roof. They are di- 

 \ i'ii 1 1 into stories with wooden or stone floors, 

 and ladders serve as staircases. In most cases 

 is one small window for each story and 

 four windows just below the roof. Ireland has 



