
FOREST AND STREAM. 

London, and it is this club which at present gives laws to 
the entire cricketing world. Our American ball playing 
community could no more play their game under such a 
badly worded and incomplete code of rules as at present 
governs the game of cricket, than they could be governed 
as a people by an unwritten constitution. Every cricketer 
knows that in an ordinary match at cricket eleven players 
figure on each side, and the eleven who obtain the greater 
number of runs in two innings play, are the victors, and 
yet there is not a written law of the game that requires this 
stated number or innings. Again, when arun is made 
through the failure of the long stop to siop the ball, a ‘‘bye’ 
is scored, and yet not a rulein the code legalizes the scoring 
of such arun. ° In several other respects, too, is the existing 
code remarkably deficient. During the winter season a 
study of the laws of the game, their true intent and mean- 
ing, will be advantageous to our cricketing readers, and 
we therefore shall give a series of articles on the laws of 
cricket during the ensuing three months which we trust 
will be found alike instructive and interesting. 
—William Allison, of Attleboro’, Mass., ran a foot race 
at Washington Park, Providence, R. 1, against George 
Forbes, of Woodstock, Canada, and came in an easy win- 
ner. James Harris, of Woodstock, ran, against John 
Allison, of Fall River. Distance, 65 yards, for a prize of 
$500. Harris won easily by 7 feet. 
—At New Haven, on December 20th, George Farren suc- 
ceeded in accomplishing a most extraordinary feat in pedes- 
trianism. He had to walk to win the wager, 100 miles in 22 
hours, making the circuit of the large room onthe Exchange 
Hall 3,100 times. Mr. Farren is slightly built, weighs 
about 125 pounds. is exceedingly muscular and wiry, and 
about 25 years of age. 
fastest time, also against that of Smith, the English cham- 
pion. 
BILLIARDS. 
—It is more than probable that a match will take place 
between Garnier and Ubassy, before the latter leaves for 
New Orleans. It is a mooted question who is the best 
player. Success tells the tale. 
-—At Chris O’Conner’s billiard room, Union Square, the 
other night, a gentleman amateur made 163 consecutive 
caroms at the four-ball game. At noone time were the 
balls within four inches of each other. This is billiards. 
—H. W. Collender, 788 Broadway, and a friend is pre- 
paring an article for this journal on Billiard Tables; where 
the slate or marble comes from, where the cloth is made, 
and the great scarcity of ivory with such facts as we have 
on hand and the information from Mr. Collender, we trust 
to be able to prepare an interesting paper. 
—Francois Ubassy and Maurice Daly commenced play- 
ing a series of six games fora purse of money at Chris. 
O’Conner’s billiard room on the 22d of Dec. The entire 
match will consist of two thousand points, French game. 
Ubassy appeared to be in good trim, and made several 
shots which elicited loud applause. At one time he was 
120 points ahead of his opponent. After upward of 150 
points had been played Daly made the remarkable run of 
99. He was very successful after this, and his next large 
run of 29 gave him 315 points. Ubassy then ran 7 points 
and made a bad miss. Daly ran 27, and won the game of 
350 by 47 points. The remaining five games of the series 
are to be played at the rooms of Maurice Daly and Chris. 
O’Conner, alternately. The next occurs this evening at 
the saloon of the former. , é 
—We are so crowded this week that we are obliged to 
leave out a report of the gymnastic entertainment .at 
Burnhan’s, Brooklyn. 
University, Va., December 20th, 1873. 
EprtTor Forest AND STREAM:-— 
We have adopted the association rules as being the best 
rough of those mentioned in Chas. W. Alcock’s book of 
foot ball rules. The fifteen played against thirty-five on 
yesterday evening-—the game lasted for over an hour, both 
sides played well, neither gaining any decided advantage 
over the other—it was finally decided a drawn game, as it 
was too dark to continue it any longer. Our game with the 
Englishmen will come off on the 6th of January, 1874. 
J. C. McK. 
| ae ES 

CHALLRNGE TO THE AMERICANS. 
With the above heading, the London Meld takes notice 
of the challenge sent to the Forest AND Srream by Mr. 
Price, offering to run English pointers and setters against 
- the same number of American dogs. ‘‘ In consequence of 
some remarks that appeared in an article on English set- 
ters, recently published in an American paper, a challenge 
has been forwarded by Mr. Lloyd Price to New York, of- 
fering to run four English pointers and setters against the 
same number of American dogs. Sir Watkyn Wynn has 
consented to find the ground on his fine Welsh moors, and 
the challengers engage to pay the expenses incurred in sen- 
ding the dogs to this country. We have never heard of 
any American dogs broken highly enough to compete with 
our English celebrities except in the article alluded to; but 
possibly there may be some such as are there described. In 
any case they will have their work cut out, as just now 
a very superior English team might be selected. Mr. Price 
had previously announced his intention never to allow Belle 
to run again; but, for the honor of his country, he would” 
no doubt rescind his resolution. Mr. Macdona had a very 
fine young pointer at Birmingham (not for competition, 
being the property of a judge), which is said to be almost 
as good as Ranger; and if so, these two, with Belle and 
Ginx’s Baby from the Bala kennels, or possibly a still better 
representative, these two kennels might fairly be considered 
as cqual to anything in the three kingdoms. We hope the 
match may be made, and that we may be there to see the 
best team win,” 
Farren has walked against W eston’s. 
Artiaind Brama, 
pee OE Se | 
GOSSIP OF THE WEEK. 

BY T. B, THORPE. 
ate 
HE week just passed has been without atiy especial 
incident. ‘‘The Parricide’ at the Fifth Avenue, 
which was not a parricide, the murder having been com- 
mitted by another man, was evidently put upon the stage 
as a make-shift until Mr. Daly could get something 
better. It isa curious play, and causes a great deal of 
speculation, among those who witness it, what it is all 
about. A series of interesting scenes and tableaux, all 
within. easy reach of the manager, seems to have been 
adopted, and adopted without regard to their relations to 
each other; and then a dialogue is invented to make the 
scenes and tableaux hang together, something like onions 
on a string, but not without the onions’ harmony of pur- 
pose or legitimate connection.- It is a great waste of theat- 
rical resources to put such a ‘‘crude conglomeration” on the 
stage. Are the playwrights to blame, 0° the controlling 
spirit of this handsome little theatre? 
As we are disposed to be critical, we desire to say a word 
regarding that expensive ‘“‘drop curtain.” Red damask, 
however rich, is out of place on this particular occasion. 
The moment it descends it seems to cut the audience off 
from ail sympathy with the stage; in fact, it acts on the 
mind as if a solid wall was intervened, cutting the theatre 
in two parts, and making the auditorium appear small and 
contracted; a most unpleasant sensation, and greatly inter- 
fering with the intellectual comfort of the spectators. The 
other evening, as the damask descended and finally rested 
heavily on the stage, a lady in our hearing restlessly re- 
marked to her friend, ‘‘How smothering hot this theatre 
will be in summer.” As for drop curtains, no improve- 
ment can be suggested over the old style of a charming 
landscape, made up of avenues of rich buildings, and 
deeply retreating valleys and mountains. If well done, 
the cool colors help to relieve the eye after the gas-lit scenes 
of the play. Then the long lines of perspective open up 
the stage and impress the observer with ‘“‘roominess,” which 
is a pleasant idea when one is crowded in narrow seats and 
compelled to look over high reaching and plume capped 
bonnets. People who remember the drop curtain at Bur- 
ton’s Chambers street theatre will recall] the pleasure it af- 
forded when for the moment it shut out the actors and 
scenery. It was a great piece of scenic painting, repre- 
senting a Greek poet reciting his verses toa classic group 
of Athenians—soldiers and maids. Running back was the 
sweep of a harbor, the shores of which were indented with 
bays and enlivened with craft; hish mountains reaching 
heavenward, their tops here and thcre charmingly lost in 
fleecy clouds. One could study and reflect, and find food 
for pleasant conversation while looking upon this most fas- 
cinating dream; but a damask curtain instead, suggests 
nothing but heat, glare, and expense without taste. In 
August next, if that fiery red cloud maintains itself, when 
it descends on a hot, summer roasted, gas-lit tormented au- 
dience, its members will be made to feel that the fiery fur- 
nace of Nebuchadnezzar, built for the roasting of Shad- 
rach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, was, by comparison, a kind 
of Arctic freezer. 
—Wallack’s Theatre has made itself memorable by the 
presentation of several of the old English comedies, which 
give way fora new play, ‘‘adopted from the French” by 
Mr. Boucicault, entitled ‘‘A Man of Honor.” We dislike 
to part with really legitimate plays, which are given at this 
theatre better than they can be elsewhere presented, for 
imitations of any kind; but we suppose managers know 
their business, and they are right to present what the peo- 
ple apparently want. 
—The Union Square is crowded nightly to witness ‘‘Led 
Astray.” It is useless for the press to be moral beyond 
public demand. So far, ail newspaper censure cast upon 
theatrical representations, the ultimate effect of which is 
to familiarize the popular mind with amorous intrigue, has 
had no other effect than to ‘‘fill the houses.”’ 
—The Olympic, after several weeks’ preparation, has 
produced an entertainment especially for the holidays, 
founded upon one of Mr. Dicken’s most popular Christmas 
stories, entitled ‘‘Gabriel Grub.” We have every reason to 
believe that it will be popular, and receive a liberal patron- 
age, especially from the young folks. In this piece the fa- 
mous Majiltons perform their startling antics, supposed to 
be peculiar to goblins, and they certainly make a feature of 
unusual excellence. 
—On Saturday night the Charity Amateur Dramatic As- 
sociation, under the management of Mrs. ‘Sheridan Shook, 
gave “The Hunchback” and an entertaining farce entitled 
“A Quiet Family,” at the Academy of Music, for the ben- 
efit of the Virginius sufferers. The idea of an amateur 
dramatic performance, or any other dramatic performance 
being a success at the great building known as the Acad- 
emy of Music, is almost preposterous. The great genius 
of Salvini never was able to warm up the stage, entirely 
fill the house, nor command an enthusiastic audience. The 
actors are so far from the spectators that they cannot be 
heard with any pleasure, if heard at all. With all these 
disadvantages, the Amateurs had really full seats, and 
proved themselves competent to command attention. The 
principle parts were admirably sustained by Messrs. Bird 
Cordova, and Harry Leslie, and Mrs. Shook, Mrs. Good- 
year, and Mrs. King. These amateur performances this 
winter appear tobe most frequent dwell sustained, 
edt} 
CINTINNATES, December 20, 1878. 
ROBINSON'S OPERA HOUSE, 
—The sevond week of Miss Leclereq, notwithstanding 
the change of prices, has been unsuccessful. ‘‘Fate” does 
not take very well here. Aside from Miss Leclercq, no 
particular merit was noticed on the part of any of the com 
pany. She will be succeeded by Robert McWade next 
week as Rip Van Winkle. 
WOOD'S THEATRE, 
—Mr. John Collins, the comedian, has been at this place 
all the week, playing to paying houses. Monday, Tuesday, 
Wednesday, and Thursday, ‘‘Colleen Bawn.” The rest of 
the week was taken up by ‘‘Rory O’More.” 
MOZART HALL. 
—The Sheridan and Mack Combination, in connectiore 
with Sharpley’s Minstrels, have made a success of the va- 
riety business. 
PIKE'S OPERA HOUSE. 
—The old San Francisco Minstrels, with Backus at their 
head, have drawn the largest houses of the week. W.I. 

MERCENARY TROOPS. 
x ——— 
H# system of hiring foreigners to defend a country 
reached its climax in Italy. Every petty prince, every 
sovereign count, every marquis holding under the emperor, 
had his mercenaries. The free republics made a bargain 
with some well known captain of Condottieri to do their 
fighting for them fora certain annual sum. The profes- 
sional soldiers thus enlisted had no desire to kill or be 
killed, and grew to look on bloodshed as an unfortunate ac- 
cident which now and then attended an encounter of two 
bodies of heavy-armed cavalry. It was not until the French 
and their Swiss auxiliaries were confronted by the Span- 
iards and German spearmen, who disputed with them the 
spoils of Italy, that Cisalpine warfare became a gory real- 
ity. Even after the decay of feudalism, compulsory mili- 
tary service, in Teutonic countries, at any rate, remained 
the rule, but only for the defence of the realm. In Eng- 
land, for instance, that ‘tking’s press,” which Sir John Fal- 
staff so abused for his private profit, was a mere muster of 
militia against rebels or foreign raiders. The disorderly 
rabble that the queen’s proclamation called into the field 
when the Spanish Armada coasted our shores was a sample 
of the militia of the period, and was divided, on paper at ~ 
least, into two armies of great numerical strength. Lord 
Macaulay’s speculations as to the probable result of a con- 
test between this unwieldy mob, without discipline, provi- 
sions or Officers, and the trained veterans under the skilful 
guidance of Parma, are moderate enough, and we can 
hardly wonder that no prince of the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth century was fond of relying ona force which the 
néessities of the age had outgrown. 
The palmy days of professional soldiering may be said, 
roughly speaking, to have been contemporaneous with the 
reigns of Tudor and Stuart. For then, abroad and at home, 
the fighting man was regarded as a skilled artisan, whose 
value in the labor market ruled high. Cromwell’s splendid 
army was maintained on the same footing, as to pay, which 
James the First had fixed for the remuneration of his small. 
force engaged in the reconquest of Ulster. Ata time when 
the daily wages of a cloth weaver, or of a ploughman, sel- 
dom exceeded sixpence, it isevident that the soldier’s eight- 
pence, with the contingent advantages incidental to mili- 
tary arrangements, raised its recipient to a higher level of 
comfort than the average. Louvois, the thriftily disposed 
minister of sordid, splendid Louis the Fourteenth, first es- 
tablished the custom of relying on armies that were, in- 
deed, of great numerical strength, but systematically ill 
paid and ill fed. Hogarth’s grim caricature, in which the 
starvelling French sentinel guards the gates ef Calais, was 
not such avery great exaggeration of the trath.-—All the 
Year Round. 


—< 9 
Genuine Scorcn Horcs-Porcu.—An English pape 
gives the recipe of an ‘“‘unsurpassable hotch-potch,” ob- 
tained from a cook in Oban, Scotland. Itis as follows:— 
Take the best part of a neck of mutton, cut it small, bones 
and all, and boil it until thoroughly well done, or until the 
meat separates from the bones. Then remove the bones 
and put ina quantity of green peas and broad beans at dis- 
cretion, not to make the hotch-potch too thick; add a flavor 
of onions and parsley, together with a fair proportion of 
carrots, turnips, and kale or other cabbage, taking care to 
make the combination thick enough, but not so thick as to 
deprive it of the character of a soup and convert it into a 
pottage and boil the whole for eight or nine hours. If you 
boil it for twelve, or even twenty hours, it will be none the 
worse, but all the better. If there be any left, boil it up 
again on the next day and it will be better than on the 
first. The writer adds that there is a winter as well asa 
summer hotch-potch, the absence of peas and beans and 
the substitution of such other vegetables, potatoes alone 
excepted, as may be got, forming the difference between 
the two. 
oo 
Tur Lost Dog.—Did the reader ever see a lost’dog in a 
great city? Not adog recently lost, full of wild anxiety 
and restless pain and bewilderment, but one who had given 
up the search for a master in despair, and had become con- 
sciously a vagabond? If so, he has seen an animal that 
has lost his self-respect, travelling in the gutters, slinking 
along by fences, making acquaintance with dirty boys, be- 
coming a thorough coward, and losing every admirable 
characteristic of adog. A cat isa cat even in vagabond- 
age; but a dog that doeg not belong to somebody is as hope- 
less a specimen of demoralization as can be found in the 
superior race among which he has sought in vain for his 
master. We know him at first sight, and he knows thet 
we know him. The loss of his place in the world, and 
the loss of his object of loyalty, personal and official, have 
taken the significance out of his life and the spirit out of 
him. He has become a dog of leisure. 
, ——————<___—_ 
Novice To THE BENEVOLENT.—A gold tooth-pick can be 
hardly regarded as a suitable Holiday present for a starving 
man, 
<= 
—Why is Christmas like the bulk of the world’s popula- 
tion? Because it is the great-Mass of the peop'e, 
