LACROSSE. 



519 



of stuffed skin, and a bat like a hickory stick 

 with a net of reindeer-hide attached to the 

 curved part of it. The game was used by the 

 Indians not only as a recreation, but also as a 

 training-school in which to strengthen the 

 muscles of their young warriors, and to ac- 

 custom them to close combat. Lacrosse, on 

 its fundamental principle, is similar to the old 

 British sports of "golf" and "hockey," and 

 in one respect to foot-ball, inasmuch as a ball 

 is driven by the contesting sides from one goal 

 to another : the side whose player first throws 

 the ball from his crosse through the opposite 

 goal wins the game, so many won games con- 

 stituting a match. Lacrosse, however, differs 

 from golf and hockey in the fact 

 that the crosse or batting-stick is 

 used not only to propel the ball 

 along the ground, but to carry it, 

 and to throw it from one end of 

 the field to the other; while in 

 the old English games the sticks 

 are used simply to knock the ball. 

 Lacrosse, as now played under the 

 revised code of rules of the Na- 

 tional Lacrosse Associations of 

 Canada and the United States, is 

 a very different game from that 

 formerly played by the Indians. 

 The crosse is different in shape 

 and construction, and the size of 

 the field of play has been greatly 

 curtailed ; while the goals are now 

 distinctly marked out, and a spe- 

 cial code of revised rules affords 

 ample opportunities for skillful 

 THE CROSSE. strategic play, without combina- 

 tion with the rough and brutal 

 features of the original game. For the spec- 

 tator, as well as the player, the interest never 

 ceases from the moment that play is called un- 

 til the ball passes the goal. Under the existing 

 association rules, the field for skillful strategic 

 play in the game is wide, its features being long 

 distance and accurate throwing ; excellence in 

 catching the ball on the " crosse " ; strategy in 

 dodging an opponent while carrying the ball ; 

 pluck in checking the advance of an adversary 

 toward the goal ; skill in picking up the ball 

 while running ; surety in carrying it while on 

 the run, and general pedestrian power in en- 

 durance. The defense of the goal is another 

 feature that calls for remarkable quickness of 

 sight and judgment, combined with dexterity 

 of movement, while attacking a goal offers an 

 ample field for strategic play as well as physic- 

 al courage. 



Lacrosse was adopted by the white residents 

 of Canada nearly forty years ago, but it was 

 not till 1860 that it attained any degree of 

 popularity. The Montreal Club was the first 

 organized. By 1867 enough clubs had sprung 

 into existence to start a national association. 

 To Dr. George W. Beers, of Montreal, first 

 Secretary of the National Lacrosse Association 

 of Canada, the present success of lacrosse is 



largely due. Lacrosse was first played in Great 

 Britain in 1867, when Mr. W. B. Johnson^ of 

 Montreal, took eighteen Indian players, of the 

 Caughnawaga tribe, to England, where they 

 exhibited the game before large assemblages, 

 the result of the visit being the organization 

 of several clubs in England and Scotland, and 

 now lacrosse is a regularly adopted game in 

 the British Isles. The game was introduced 

 into the United States several years afterward 

 through the medium of a club organization 

 by the Mohawk Lacrosse Club of Troy, and 

 the Maple-Leaf of Buffalo. In 1879 the first 

 national association of the United States was 

 organized, with Mr. Herman Oelrichs as its 

 president and J. R. Flannery as its secretary. 



The Game. The game is played by twenty- 

 four contestants, twelve on each side, with 

 two captains (not necessarily players), two um- 

 pires, one at each goal, and a referee. The 

 twelve players occupy the following positions : 

 "Goal-keeper," "point," "cover-point," first, 

 second, and third "defense-fielders," "center," 

 first, second, and third "attack-fielders," and 

 " first home " and " home-fielders." The twen- 



THE GAME. 



ty-four players are each provided with a 

 crosse. The two captains are not allowed to 

 carry a crosse, their official work on the field 

 being simply to " coach " the players. At each 

 end of the field of play stands a goal, which 

 consists of two posts at each, six feet above the 

 ground and six feet apart. 



The field varies in length and width, but the 

 goals must not be nearer to each other than 

 one hundred and twenty-five yards. The ball 

 is made of sponge-rubber, and should weigh 

 not over four ounces nor measure more than 

 eight inches in circumference. The theory of 

 the game is merely that of each side's striv- 

 ing to send the ball through the other's goal, 

 and the side that does this the most times 



