VOL. L. 
2166. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 1 , i89i. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$ 3.00 PER YEAR. 
LAWN TENNIS; THE FARMER’S GAME. 
Quit Work and Play. 
Make home happy; all work means all worry; liven up 
and live longer; all play the game! 
HE evergreen question “ How to keep the boys on 
the farm,” is easily answered in a general way: 
'* Make the farm attractive to the young folks.” 
How are we to do that f This question is not so readily 
answered. Farmers of wealth onght to be able to answer 
it without an effort. If money has not the power to make 
the farm attractive, it has not the power to make any 
home or occupation whatever attractive. Farming, more 
than any other business or profession, possesses the natural 
conditions and facilities to induce happiness. Nature is 
on the farmer’s side. She has given him all that she has 
to give. He is to do the rest. But to do the rest f That 
There is no such thing—it is a physical impossibility—as a 
happy home where every member is made to feel that he 
mu t work constantly. No matter how earnest, indus¬ 
trious, persevering the father or mother, son or daughter 
may be, he cannot give himself up to incessant labor for a 
term of years without in a greater or less degree impairing 
both his capacity for work and his capacity for enjoying 
its results. We would break up the monotony of farm 
life—a monotony due mainly, if not wholly, to everlasting 
work. Judicious work in which we are heartily interested 
is in reality play. It becomes work only when overdone— 
the same as play itself would become a drudgery if forced 
upon us. 
How to minglo rest and recreation with necessary labor 
in the right proportion is a question for each individual to 
determine for himself. Some may wisely work longer and 
harder than others; while others would really do more 
suggestive of courtesy between the players, so provocative 
of polite consideration; no game that is a better school In 
which to drill one-self in the exercise of patient control 
and a sense of justice to all. 
Rural friends, we would, if any words we could utter 
were potent enough to effect it, have a tennis court a part 
of every farm home, or, in the absence of a farm, in every 
garden home, if only the garden were large enough for the 
lawn and flowers as well. We would have the parents 
and the girls and boys play a game of an hour or so every 
plea G ant evening, even though the farm work were neg¬ 
lected. Such neglect is merely in the seeming. It is in 
truth a contribution to health and happiness through so 
many blows at the monotony of farm life and the never- 
ceasing drudgery that drives the boys from the farm and 
renders the farm home a dull, dreary asylum for the 
parents in their later life. 
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LAWN TENNIS-THE FARMER’S GAME. READY? PLAY. Fig. 201. 
Is the problem. Capital in money or capital in toll is in¬ 
dispensable. The poor farmer’s work is never done. Let 
him work from sunrise till dark with all his heart and 
strength—hundreds of things crowd upon his mind as 
wearily he seeks his nightly rest again to start upon the 
old routine at sunrise. 
It matters little how energetic, how determined to suc¬ 
ceed, how patient, how philosophical the poor farmer may 
be, such a life of incessant labor is wearisome. The mind 
sympathizes with the body and as the seasons come and go, 
the enthusiasm of earlier days is dulled. Too often final 
success is gained not until the faculty of appreciating and 
enjoying success is weakened or lost. 
The writer of this note from a long and near relationship 
with farmers, has often felt that no matter how poor the 
farmer is; no matter what the demands of a numerous 
family upon him, he cannot afford to work, even during 
the most pressing season, without making a liberal allow¬ 
ance for recreation. Recreation is the moderator that makes 
diligent work wholesome, effective, enjoyable. It makes 
the vigorous, well-rounded man that has time to consider 
that he has children and a wife and home to love, and that 
the love, he feels for them will be reciprocated in full. 
effective service in the long run if they devoted a full half 
of their working hours to rest or recreation—just the same 
as different individuals require different kinds and quanti¬ 
ties of food. 
Up to within a few years ago, there were few if any out¬ 
door games well suited to the farmer’s family—games in 
which every member could take an active enthusiastic 
part. Lawn tennis has changed that. It is the farmer’s 
game—of all games. It may be enjoyed by all. The wife 
and husband may play together; the sons and daughters 
may play together or with their parents. The game may 
be made a link of union and friendliness, too, with their 
neighbors, to the social—yes, and the physical and intel¬ 
lectual—advantage of all. It is not a game of chance. It 
is not a game that necessitates violent exertion. One may 
exert himself more or less as he may feel inclined to do or 
the necessity of so doing, or according to the formldability 
of his opponents. It is a progressive game, and perfection, 
how long or assiduously soever may be the practice, can 
never be attained. As a result, all are inspired to an ever 
increasing earnest, innocent rivalry; for the game of tennis 
offers no suggestion or the shadow of a suggestion that is 
other than wholesome. Indeed there Is no other game so 
If we seem to write with undue confidence and enthu¬ 
siasm of lawn tennis as the farmer’s game, it Is because 
we would fain teach others what, during the past three 
years, we have ourselves been taught. We would hasten 
the popularization of a game refining In all its tendencies 
and in many ways conducive to promote sociability, health 
and happiness. 
The Cost of a Tennis Outfit. 
This may be much or little according to the purse or In¬ 
clination of the party or parties, while, practically , the 
less cost may give all the enjoyment of the greater. The 
entire area, according to the best authorities, should be a 
parallelogram measuring 78 feet by 36. The inner court 
as marked by plaster, lime or tape, as preferred, should be 
27 feat by 42. Midway, or 21 feet from the inner court 
line and 39 feet from the outer court line, a net is stretched 
across the court, viz., 36 feet. This may be the simplest 
contrivance, such as wire netting fastened to posts ; or a 
strip of muslin strengthened by a strong cord running 
through the tops would answer just as well as the costliest 
nets of the stores. This netting or wire or muslin should 
be 3>£ feet high at the ends where it is secured to the posts 
and three feet In the middle, though the actual width of 
