This book is included in the Outdoor Survival - Bio-Regional Environments section.
Prefatory Note to the New Edition
In the belief that a new title will neither mislead the reader nor impair the popularity gained by the earlier editions, it is thought best to issue this latest edition of "The American Boy's Book of Sport" under the title
of "The Outdoor Handy Book.
This seems to fit the volume better than any other arrangement for the place it is designed to occupy between " The American Boy's Handy Book " and " The Jack of All Trades."
FLUSHING, June 10, 1900.
Preface to the First Edition
Although the present book is addressed to the same class of readers, it is neither a substitute for nor a supplement to "The American Boy's Handy Book," from which it will be found to differ in scope and character. "The
American Boy's Book of Sport" is not intended as an encyclopedia of games. The purpose of the book is to deal only with subjects whose novelty or practical character meets the especial need of the up-to-date American boy who demands explicit and intelligent explanations of what is of use to him.
The many years spent as a member of the Board of Education in Flushing, Long Island, and as a teacher of art in New York, have impressed upon the author the importance of early training for children in the use of their hands. It is with the purpose of stimulating this sort of schooling that the author appeals to parents and boys to encourage the home production of kites, boats, and sleds, etc.; for the ingenuity and self-reliance thus developed are valuable qualities in a boy or man.
Moreover, a lack of the proper sort of play unfits a boy for the battle of life, and there is scarcely room to doubt that the most successful men of to-day in business, statesmanship, art, and science are those willing to undergo and capable of enduring the most severe and continued application; and as this power is dependent upon a robust physique and a strong, well-balanced mind, there is no doubt that well-directed boyish sport is the best school for the attainment of such results.
While this work represents many curb-stone interviews
with boys, and years of observation and study of the subjects
that have never lost for the writer the interest they
held for him in his boyhood, it also includes the results of
many carefully conducted personal interviews with experts
in the various sports described, and investigations of obscure
legends, written and unwritten, connected with games
whose origin is older than history itself.
Golf and foot-ball are at the present time engrossing so
much of the attention of our American boys that their
claims have been found too important to be disregarded,
while in the necessary exclusion of material in making a
volume of suitable and convenient size, base-ball, tennis,
and cricket, possessing an extended literature of their own,
have not been described.
In many cases subjects heretofore thought worthy of
little or no attention on the part of authors who write for
boys, are here treated of at length. It would not be difficult,
for instance, to fill a library with good books on
fishing; yet in the numerous boys' books consulted there
appeared to be nothing modern, American, and practical,
or that answered the numerous inquiries the author has
received from his juvenile friends on the subject of still
fishing; and this led him to believe that a popular demand
for enlightenment on this matter necessitated a chapter
on bait.
The novel and interesting developments in kite-making
and kite-flying that have taken place in the last few years
merit, and have obtained, extended description.
The great popularity of "The American Boy's Handy Book," and the favor with which its successive editions
have been received, encourage its author to hope that
"The American Boy's Book of Sport"
will be welcomed
by all the readers of the first book and will make many new
friends.
FLUSHING, LONG ISLAND, N. Y.t
October 15, 1896.
CONTENTS SPRING. CHAPTER I. - MARBLES Marble Time. History of the Game. Sakya-Muni and Humphrey Potter. How Marbles are Made. Marble Names, Marble Terms, and Expressions. Games from Bull Ring to Long Ring. CHAPTER II. - "FAT" AND OTHER FAMOUS GAMES OF MARBLES The Uncertainties of "Fat," Sometimes Called "Yank" or "Yankey." Stand-up Marbles. Follerings. Knucks, the Long Ring, and Patterson. The Scientific Bull Ring. Duck in a Hole. CHAPTER III. - TOP TIME Whip Tops. Home-made Tops. Peg Tops. Plug in the Ring. Chip Stone. Racing Tops. CHAPTER IV. - LATEST THINGS IN KITES For Practical Uses. Steering Kites. Life Savers. Men Lifters and Other Novel Forms. Kites as Motive Power. The Malay Variety. CHAPTER V. - MALAY AND OTHER TAILLESS KITES Some Famous Experiments. How the Malays and Other Oriental Kites are Made. Kites in Tandem. Cannibal and Chinese Butterfly Kites. CHAPTER VI. - AERIAL FISH AND DRAGONS Paper Dragons or Fish for Kite-strings. A Live Man Kite. CHAPTER VII. - HOOPS AND WHEELS The Old and the New Fangled Hoops. How to Trundle a Wheel. Sport with Tin-Can Covers. CHAPTER VIII. - How TO MAKE THE SUCKER Leather Suckers and Live Suckers. Turtle-Fishing with Suckers. CHAPTER IX. - UP IN THE AIR ON STILTS How to Make all Kinds. Stilt-Walking Shepherds. Hand or Arm-Stilts are Best for Beginners. Queer Stilts Used in Various Countries. CHAPTER X. - BAIT, LIVE AND DEAD Salt-Water Worms that Live on Land. Angle-Worms, Hellgramites, Minnows, Crawfish, Grasshoppers, Crickets, Frogs, and "Lampers." How to Catch and How to Keep Them. CHAPTER XI. - COMMON-SENSE PRECAUTIONS IN FISHING Why and How Fish are Easily Frightened. The Lessons of Nature and of Experience. SUMMER. CHAPTER XII. - AQUATIC SPORTS Rowing Clothes. How to Make a Bathing-suit. How to Avoid Sunburn. Points about Canoeing. CHAPTER XIII. - THE LAND-LUBBER'S CHAPTER Common Nautical Terms and Expressions Defined. How to Sail a Boat. Boat Rigs. CHAPTER XIV. - RIGS of ALL KINDS FOR SMALL BOATS How to Distinguish between a Ship, Bark, Brig, and Schooner. Merits and Defects of Cat-Boats. Advantages of the Sloop. Rigs for Canoes. Buckeyes and Sharpies. CHAPTER XV. - A " ROUGH AND READY " BOAT Just What an Ingenious Boy Must Do to Build It. Detailed Instructions as to How to Make the Boat and How to Rig It. CHAPTER XVI. - A RAFT THAT WILL SAIL. And a Home-Made Catamaran. The Raft is Just the Thing for Camp Life. Pleasurable Occupation for a Camping Party Where Wood is Plentiful. You Will Need Axes and Hatchets and a Few Other Civilized Implements. CHAPTER XVII. - SINGLE SHELLS AND UMBRELLA CANOES How Old Shells can be Turned into Boys' Boats. The Cause of Upsets. Landing from and Embarking in a Shell. What an Umbrella Canoe is and How It is Made. CHAPTER XVIII. - HINTS FOR COLLECTORS How to Capture and Preserve Moths and Butterflies. A New Cabinet. CHAPTER XIX. - HONEY-BEE MESSENGERS How to Send a Cipher Message by the Bee Line. The Key. Bee Stings and How to Avoid Them. CHAPTER XX. - A "Zoo." For the Housetop or the Backyard. How to Build a Coop for Animals on the Roof or in the Yard. The Way to Provide Homes for Various Kinds of Pets. CHAPTER XXI. - CHOOSING UP AND "IT" "Which Hand is It in?" "Pick'er Up, Wipe'er Off, and Stone-Holder." " Last One Over." Short Straw. Handy, Dandy, Riderly Ro. "Whole Fist or Four Fingers." "Odd or Even ?" "Wet or Dry?" CHAPTER XXII. - COUNTING OUT RHYMES How the Game is Played. Various Rhymes. An American Version of an Ancient Rhyme. Causes of Variations. Rhymes of Different Nationalities. CHAPTER XXIII. - IN THE WATER How to Swim. A Wooden "Swimming Master" Suspension Bridge Chump's Raft, and Tub Races. CHAPTER XXIV. - GAMES OF TAG Origin of this Sport King's X Last Tag Iron Tag Cross Tag Old Bloody Tom Black Man Prisoner's Base and Other Variations. CHAPTER XXV. - I SPY With Instructions also How to Play Hunkety and Kick the Wicket. CHAPTER XXVI. - LEAP-FROG Teaching the Game to the Esquimaux. Foot-an'- Half. With First Back and a Leader. A Game Requiring Skill. Spanish Fly. The Danger of Quarrelling. Dick's Hat-band. CHAPTER XXVII. - VARIOUS SPORTS FOR HOT DAYS "Jack's Alive!" Spirit Tortoise and Dead Turtles. Jack and the Candles. Bowlder On, or Duck on a Rock. Nine and Ten Pins. Skittles, Ancient and Modern. CHAPTER XXVIII. - TIP-CAT How the Cat is Made. English-Cat. Country-Cat. American-Cat. A Game Requiring Skill and Quickness. CHAPTER XXIX. - GAMES OF BALL How Town-Ball is Played. One or Two Old-Cat. House-Ball. Hand Up. Bailie Callie. Crackabout. Over the Barn. Stool- Ball. Corner-Ball. Black Baby. Hat-Ball. CHAPTER XXX. - MUMBLY PEG, HOP-SCOTCH, AND JACK STONES The Motions of Stick-Knife. Universality of the Game of Hop-Scotch. As Played in Different Countries. Different Games with Jack Stones. CHAPTER XXXI. - PRACTICAL HINTS FOR BICYCLISTS Regarding Baggage and how to Carry It. A Photographer's Outfit on a Wheel. A Collector's Box. How to Deal with Punctures. An Extemporized Handle Bar. A Rope Tire. A Cleaning Rack, and a Bicycle Stand. AUTUMN. CHAPTER XXXII. - POINTS ON CAMPING OUT How to Make a Fire in the Woods on a Rainy Day. To Get a Light Without Matches. The Diamond Hitch, and a Home- made Cinch. CHAPTER XXXIII. - THE BOYS' BABY BALLISTA How to Build this Warlike Engine, and the Fun that can be had With It. Blow-guns and Their. Use Blow-gun Parachutes. The Lariat, How to Make and Throw It CHAPTER XXXIV. - "TALLY-HO" AND OTHER CRIES The Origin of "Hello" and "Tally-ho." Indian War-whoops and College Yells. Boys' Cries. CHAPTER XXXV. - INDIAN GAMES ADAPTED FOR BOYS. Squaw, Saddle-bags, or Sky Shinny. The Way the Game is Played. An Exhilarating Sport. Mandan Ring. A Fine Game for Autumn or Winter. CHAPTER XXXVI. - ON THE FOOT-BALL FIELD The Antiquity of the Game. The General Principles of the Game as It is Played by the College Teams at Present. CHAPTER XXXVII. - GOLF, HOCKEY, AND SHINNY How to Lay Out Golf Links and Play the Game. Explanation of the Terms Used in the Game. How Hockey and Shinny are Played. WINTER. CHAPTER XXXVIII. - TURTLE HUNTING Methods of Capturing "Snappers" and Terrapin Described. The Implements Necessary and Where to Search. CHAPTER XXXIX. - ON THE ICE Plain and Fancy Skating. Begin to Learn Young. Cutting a Circle. The Spread Eagle. The Bull Frog. The Grapevine Garland. The Danger of "Follow the Leader." CHAPTER XL. - STUNNING MUSK-RATS AND FISH Sport for Boys on Skates when the Ice is Thin and Clear. How Catfish and " Suckers" are Stunned and Captured. CHAPTER XLI. - SNOW-BALL BATTLE AND SNOW TAG The Rules of Snow-ball Battle. How Rome and Carthage is Played in Cuba. The Ingenious Game of Snow Tag. CHAPTER XLII. - THE "GET-THERE" AND DOUBLE-RUNNERS Instructions as to How to Build these Famous Sleds. A Safety Double-Runner.
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