going out of the Catacombs are represented as strewing flowers
and singing gay songs. On the other side a group of austere early
Christians are coming in, singing hymns. Between the two a ray of
light comes down through a fissure of the roof and forms a cross. The
religion that is going out, the religion that is coming in--the cross
is between them. How much a clever hand could make of this moment of
time, so replete with interest to all the world!
It would seem as if, with all the suggestions of Easter, that no one
would need anything but a paint-box and a pack of blank cards to
interest them at this season. We should have the World being hatched
out of an egg; the Saxon goddess Eastre; the Legend of the Stork;
the German children searching for the Nest in the garden where the
Easter-hen had laid her egg; the great Sunburst; the Sun dancing on
Easter morning; the games of mediæval England, when the women played
ball at one end of the town and the men at the other, and one fine
couple taking occasion to run away to get married on the sly. The
Easter Egg is full of meat for the artist.
Growing out of these thoughts comes up the great and increasing taste
for symbolism, which finds its highest exponent in church embroidery.
The Catholic Church has ever been a good customer of the decorative art
schools. It needs and consumes or uses much embroidery. But the pious
women of Protestant communion now also deem it a duty and a pleasure
to decorate the altars of their beloved churches with much that is
symbolic and beautiful, and it is a favorite form of Home Amusement to
create an altar-cloth or some draperies which shall engross an hour or
two a day of the time of the best embroideresses in the family.
[Illustration]
The favorite symbols are these: The Cross in its various forms; the
monogram composed of the Greek letters Χ (_Ch_) and Ρ (_R_), the first
two in the name of CHRIST; the Apocalyptic letters Α and Ω (_Alpha_
and _Omega_), often combined into a monogram; and the Greek characters
ΙΗΣ, the first three letters in the name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ (JESUS). This last
symbol is sometimes interpreted thus, in Latin: _J[esus], H[ominum]
S[alvator]_--JESUS, OF MEN THE SAVIOUR.
Less frequent is the Fish, which was often used by the early Christians
as a kind of secret sign of their faith, the reason being that ΙΧΘΥΣ,
the Greek word for “fish,” contains the initials of an article of their
creed, thus: Ι[ησοῦς] Χ[ριστὸς], Θ[εοῦ] Υ[ιὸς], Σ[ωτὴρ]--_Jesus Christ,
God’s Son, the Saviour_.
Besides the foregoing, we have the Ship, indicating the Church, as
typified by Noah’s Ark; the Anchor (always in close connection with
the ship) entwined with a dolphin--emblems of Fortitude, Faith, and
Hope; the Dove, occasionally bearing the olive-branch--the symbol of
Christian Charity and Meekness; the Phœnix and the Peacock--symbols of
Eternity; the Cock of Watchfulness; the Lyre of the Worship of God; the
Palm-branch--the heathen symbol of Victory, but in a Christian sense
that of Victory over Death; the Sheaf; the Bunch of Grapes, with other
Biblical signs and allusions, such as the Hart at the Brook; the Brazen
Serpent; the Ark of the Covenant; the Seven-branched Candlestick; the
Serpent in the Garden of Eden; and, lastly, the Cross, with flowers,
with a Crown, with a dove hovering about it. Many of these decorative
symbols suggest themselves to the contemplative mind, and enter into
the appropriate designs for ecclesiastical embroidery.
This embroidery must be beautifully executed to be worthy of its
mission. The face of Christ has been so exquisitely wrought by some
devout embroideresses that it is like a painting. The work should be
done in a frame, and after considerable study.
And how pleasant a study for a winter evening becomes the universal
subject of symbolism! We learn that the Eagle and the Thunderbolt were
the symbols of Power under pagan mythology, because the attributes of
the highest among the gods. The Rod, with the two serpents, indicated
Commerce, because Mercury, whose insignia they were, was the God
of Traffic. The Club, the emblem of Strength, was the attribute
of Hercules. The Griffin--most useful animal for all decorative
purposes--was sacred to Apollo. The symbol of the Sphinx was taken
from the fable of Œdipus. We are coming back to the Oriental method of
teaching by parables in all our new internal decoration; and for the
illuminator the knowledge is priceless.
We mount up from these simpler emblems to a consideration of the
myths of Niobe, of Cupid and Psyche, of Orpheus captivating the wild
beasts of the forest by the sound of his lyre, in which was supposed
to lurk an analogy of the history of our Lord. Then we come down to
the materialism of the ancients, by which a river is symbolized by
a river-god; a city, by a goddess with a mural crown; night, by a
female figure with a torch and a star-bespangled robe; heaven, by
a male figure throwing a veil in an arched form over his head. All
these reflections, born of study and leading to it, are brought in
by the practical application now made in embroidery, painting, and
wall-decorations; and it would be well if, among the Home Amusements,
these graver studies went hand in hand with the pleasant duties of
embroidery and illuminating cards and books.
Ole Bull says that he arrived at his wonderful effects upon the violin
less by manual practice than by meditation. It would be well to _think_
much over the subject of art. He _practiced_ less and _thought_ more,
it is said, than other violinists. No occupation conduces more to
quiet and pleasant thought than that of embroidery. We want realism;
but we also want idealism. There is no sort of doubt that Art, once
admitted as a friend of the family, becomes the greatest instigator
of all sorts of Home Amusements, whether peeping out through the
paint-box, the needle, the embroidering-frame, the etching tool, or
the turpentine-bottle and the mineral paints which are to decorate the
plaque. Art is a sprite whose acquaintance should be cultivated.
IX.
ETCHING.
“Good etching is the poetry of drawing, written down rapidly in
short-hand.” No doubt many a very orderly mamma, who has had a son or
daughter afflicted with a mania for etching, as so many young people
are now, has a vision of bath-tubs misappropriated to mixtures of
what looked very unlike clear water for cleansing purposes, and which
turned out to have plates of copper inside waiting for a bite of acid.
Such mammas will blame us for calling this a Home Amusement; they call
it--it is to be feared--“a Nuisance.” And yet what form of Art is
so near the highest forms of poetry? The etcher is next door to his
subject and his public. He has but the ink and himself between that
cloud-shadow and them.
Etching is defined by some writers as the stenography of artistic
thought; a system of short-hand writing. Given a copper plate, an
etching-needle, and the proper knowledge--easily learned--of the action
of the acid, and etching can be done at home as well as crochet or
embroidery; and as only the simplest lines and the simplest curves are
admissible, the question of merit narrows itself to one of intelligent
combination. The best etching is that which combines the maximum of
speed with the maximum of expressional clearness; so that the landscape
may be written on a “monument less perishable than brass,” while the
thought is fresh and vivid. An artist can see in the short-hand of an
etching the glory of a sunset amid its clouds.
Highly-elaborated drawings can also be reproduced by etchings as in
no other way, as we have learned by consulting the Magazines and Art
Periodicals of the day; and although a great etcher must have a genius
for it, many without genius can learn the art. An etching is not a
skeleton of a picture, but a _résumé_. Samuel Palmer, Frederic Taylor,
and Hook, in England; Jules Jacquemart, Flameny, Rajou, Boilvin, Le
Rat, Hédouin, Greux, Courtey, Laguillermie, and others, in France, have
taught us what a beautiful _résumé_ it is, not to speak of our own
gifted interpreters. The original etchers can produce strong sentiment
concerning life and nature; and although there is at first discouraging
uncertainty about results, yet there is a great chance of success.
And the capriciousness of the thing is one of its charms, as it is,
like poetic expression, dependable upon personal thought and feeling.
It is like the success which attends upon a happy hit in poetry when
one makes a good etching, yet a certain amount of mechanical exactitude
can always be acquired. Let the boys and girls of a large family be
taught etching, and some one will turn out a clever and, perhaps, a
first-rate etcher.
It is quite too unfortunate that our young girls in the country do not
take more to sketching from Nature, and to water-color. To sit at one’s
window, and, with a “few telling touches,” to give the trees in the
near foreground or the distant reach of the river, is the every-day
amusement of many an English lady. Our first efforts must be labored,
of course; we must patiently observe and copy what we see; but then
comes the attainment of ease, and our Home Amusements are infinitely
enriched. It is best to study at first in single tint until one gets
accustomed to form, and then to try varied colors.
The mastery of the three primary colors--yellow, red, and blue--is the
Alpha and Omega of painting. As force of color is only to be obtained
by opposing one of these singly to all the others combined, they are
consequently all present whenever opposition occurs; and no picture
is perfectly pleasing without the presence of all three, even though
they may be subdued to the most solemn and sober undertones. Try the
effect of mixing the various colors, and preserve the mixtures you find
most useful. But this is an art which must be learned, and for the
elucidation of which we have no space here.
X.
LAWN TENNIS.
And now we come to what, perhaps, our readers may imagine we might have
come to before--the out-of-door Games and Amusements which radiate from
Home.
Lawn Tennis is so preëminently the game of the present moment that we
must give it a central place in our volume.
It has great antiquity, of course. What fashionable game has not? Did
not Agrippina play at croquet, and Cleopatra institute “Les Graces”? We
know that Diana started archery, for isn’t she always drawn with a bow?
And yet she died an old maid.
The Greeks styled court tennis as “_Sphairistike_,” and the Romans
called it _Pila_. It was the fashionable pastime of French and English
kings. Charles V, of France, and Henry V, VII, and VIII, of England,
were all good tennis players. Who does not remember the insult which
the French king put upon royal Harry?
“Tennis balls! My lord?”
It has been justly described as one of the most ancient games in
Christendom. It became in England the exclusive sport of the wealthy,
owing to the expense of erecting and maintaining covered courts; for in
early days we learn that it was always played within doors. Indeed, the
history of France is full of it. The unhappy Charles IX gave the order
for the massacre of St. Bartholomew from a tennis court. The French
Revolution was born in one.
But to Major Walter Wingfield do we owe Lawn Tennis. This officer,
of the First Dragoon Guards, attempted, unsuccessfully, in 1874, to
procure a patent for a new game. He had taken the net out of doors,
and no longer did four walls encompass the players. A little pamphlet
is in existence now which fully establishes the claim of this officer
to the rightful title of inventor of lawn tennis. It is called “The
Major’s Game of Lawn Tennis; dedicated to the party assembled at
Nautelywdjin, December, 1873, by W. C. W.,” and is illustrated with
an elaborate pictorial diagram, containing a sketch of a lawn tennis
court, erected in a pretty garden. The only difference appreciable to
a modern player in the appearance of the court is that on one side it
is divided into two squares, and that on the other the server stands in
a diamond-shaped space. With slight exceptions, the game remains as it
did when Major Wingfield invented it.
Now, in 1881, as in the days of Henry III, of England (about 1222), it
is a favorite with people of superior rank, well befitting the tastes
of the nobility, in the performance of which they could exercise a
commendable zeal, as also their whole physique; that is to say, it is
the fashion. The name undoubtedly comes from Tennois, in the French
district of Champagne, where balls are manufactured, and where, it is
claimed, the game was first introduced.
A lawn, well clipped and evenly rolled, is the first requirement. The
courts should be laid rectangularly. The game should be gotten up with
reference to the wind, the net being set at right angles with it. Thus
will be avoided the tendency of air currents to carry the balls off or
beyond the bounds; and the play will be then against or with the wind.
In either case its influence can be more accurately calculated.
The lines of boundary and division should be indicated upon the
greensward by means of whitewash, carefully laid on with brush and
string. The larger or double court should be seventy-eight feet
long by a width of thirty-six feet, inside measure; and the smaller
or single-handed court seventy-eight by twenty-seven feet, inside
measurement. As in the old game of tennis, so in this, the court is
divided across the middle and at right angles to its greatest length
by a net, so stretched and fastened to and by two posts, standing
three feet outside of the side lines, that the height of the net at
each post for the double-handed or larger court is four feet, and in
the middle over the half-court line three feet six inches; and for the
single-handed or smaller court four feet nine inches at the posts, and
three feet in the middle over the half-court line. These divisions are
termed courts, and are subdivided into half-courts by a line midway
between the side lines, and running parallel with the greatest length,
which is known as the half-court line. The four resulting half-courts
are respectively divided by a line on each side of the net, parallel
to and twenty-two feet from it. These two lines, called service lines,
it may be observed, will then be seventeen feet inside of the lines of
boundary for the short sides, known as base lines.
The implements comprise net, posts, cordage, balls, and rackets.
The net should be taut, the posts straight, the ball hollow, of
India-rubber, covered with white cloth; in size, two inches and a half;
weight, two ounces. The racket is made with a frame of elastic wood,
with a webbing nicely wrought of catgut. The large-sized rackets made
at Philadelphia and in London are the best.
The players don a costume of flannel for the purpose, wearing shoes of
canvas with corrugated rubber soles, without heels. Indeed, a chapter
might be written on lawn-tennis dresses, aprons, and other fancies. But
these--so they are loose and easy, and not long or cumbrous--may be
left to the fancy of the individual.
The choice of sides and the right of serving are left to the chance of
toss, with the proviso that if the winner of the toss choose the right
to serve, the other player shall have the choice of sides, or _vice
versa_.
There are double-handed, three-handed, and four-handed games, each
having some variations. In the double-handed game the players stand on
opposite sides of the net. The player who first delivers the ball is
called the server, and the other the striker-out. The first game having
been played, these interchange; the server becomes the striker-out,
and the striker-out the server; and so alternately in subsequent games
of the set. The server usually announces the intention to serve by
the interrogation “Ready?” If answered affirmatively, the service is
made, the server standing with one foot outside the base line, and from
any part of the base line of the right and left counts alternately,
beginning with the right.
The ball so served is required to drop within the service line,
half-court line, and side line of the court which is diagonally
opposite to that from which it was served, where the service from the
base line must fall to be a service. If the ball served drops on or
beyond the service line, if it drops in the net, if it drops out of the
court, or on any of the lines which bound it, or if it drops in the
wrong court, or, if in attempting to serve, the server fails to strike
the ball, it is a “fault.” A fault can not be taken, but the ball must
be served the second time from the same court from which the fault was
served.
Though the service is made if the striker-out is not ready, the service
shall be repeated, unless an attempt is made to return the service
on the part of the striker-out; which action shall be construed to
be equivalent to having been ready. No service is allowed to be
“volleyed”; that is, the striker-out is not allowed to return a service
while the ball is “on the fly,” or before a “bounce.” If such a return
of service is made, it counts a stroke for the server.
To properly return a service, and have the ball in play, the ball is to
be played back over the net or between the posts before it has touched
the ground a second time, or while on the “first bounce,” and is
subject to no bounds other than the side and base lines of the court.
After the ball is in play, it may be struck while “on the fly,” but
policy would dictate a bounce to determine whether or not it has been
played beyond the boundaries of the court. A ball served, or in play,
may touch the net, and be a good service or return. If it touches the
top cord it is termed a “let,” a “life,” or a “net” ball, and need not
be played if it drops just inside the net, on the striker-out side,
but must be served again. Should it fall on the service side, or in
the wrong court on the striker-out side, or out of bounds, it counts a
“fault.” If, however, it falls so as to be a good return, in any stage
of the game other than service, it must be played as a good ball. In
play, if the striker-out volleys the service, or the ball in play,
or fails to return the service or the ball in play, or returns the
service or the ball in play so that it drops untouched by the server,
on or outside of any of the lines which bound the court, or if the
striker-out otherwise loses a stroke, as we will find presently, when
we consider the conditions common to both server and striker-out, the
server wins a stroke.
In the handling of the racket the greatest dexterity may be attained
by careful study and practice. The twist ball is a feature of the game
which good players utilize to the greatest advantage. The uncertainty
of its bounces is calculated to outwit the most adroit.
Since, under certain conditions of failure on the part of the
striker-out, the advantage in count of a stroke comes to the server,
so, too, the striker-out reaps a harvest if the server serves two
consecutive faults, or if the server fails to return the ball in play,
or if the server returns the ball in play so that it drops untouched
by the striker-out on or outside any of the lines which bound the
court, or if the server loses a stroke under conditions common to both
server and striker-out, in any of which cases the striker-out wins a
stroke. There are conditions under which each player loses a stroke:
If the service-ball, or ball in play, touches the player, or anything
worn or carried by him, except the racket in the act of striking; or
if the player strikes or touches the service-ball, or ball in play,
with the racket more than once; or if in returning the service-ball, or
ball in play, the player touches the net with any part of the body, or
with the racket, or with anything that is worn or carried; or if the
ball touches either of the posts; so if the player strikes the ball
before it has passed the net, or if the service-ball, or ball in play,
drops or falls upon a ball lying in either of the players’ courts.
So much for the conditions under which the players, either server or
striker-out, win or lose a stroke.
As for scoring, there are two systems, each of which has its adherents.
Both should be understood, and the more thoroughly the player
understands both, the more at ease will he be in any company with whom
he may be playing.
The first plan is this: The first stroke won counts for the player,
winning a score of fifteen; the second stroke won by the same player
counts for that player an additional score of fifteen, making a total
of thirty; the third stroke won counts for him an additional ten,
making the score forty. Unless there is a tie of forty, the fourth
stroke won by that player entitles him to score game. If, however,
both players have won three strokes, the score is called _deuce_, and
so on until at the score of deuce either player wins two consecutive
strokes, when the game is scored for that player. Six games constitute
a “set,” and the player who first wins them wins the set, unless in
case both players win five games, when the score is called “games-all,”
and the next game won by either player is scored advantage game for
that player. If the same player wins the next game he wins the set. If
he loses the next game, the score is again called “games-all”; and so
on until at the score of games-all either player wins two consecutive
games, when he wins the set. An exception to this is where an agreement
is entered into not to play advantage sets, but to decide the set by
one game after arriving at the score of games-all. In this mode of
scoring both the server and the striker-out are entitled to count,
while in the “alternative method” it is different.
An alternative method of scoring is as follows, in which the
term “hand-in” is substituted for “server,” and “hand-out” for
“striker-out.” In this system the hand-in alone is able to score. If he
loses a stroke he becomes hand-out, and his opponent becomes hand-in,
and serves his turn. Fifteen points won constitutes the game. If both
players have won fourteen points, the game is set to three, and the
score called “love-all.” The hand-in continues to serve, and the player
who first scores three points wins the game. If he or his partner loses
a stroke, the other side shall be hand-in. During the remainder of the
game, when the first hand-in has been put out, his partner shall serve,
beginning from the court from which the last service was not delivered,
and when both partners have been put out, then the other side shall be
hand-in.
The _hand-in_ shall deliver the service in accordance with the
restrictions mentioned for the server, and the opponents shall receive
the service alternately, each keeping the court which he originally
occupied. In all subsequent strokes the ball may be returned by either
partner on each side. The privilege of being hand-in two or more
successive times may be given.
What has been said of double-handed games applies equally well to the
three-handed and four-handed games, except that in the three-handed
game the single player shall serve in every alternate game; in the
four-handed game the pair who have the right to serve in the first game
may decide which partner shall do so, and the opposing pair may decide
similarly for the second game. The partner of the player who served in
the first game shall serve in the third, and the partner of the player
who served in the second game shall serve in the fourth, and so on. In
the same order, in all the subsequent games of a set or series of sets,
the players shall take the service alternately throughout each game.
No player shall receive or return a service delivered to his partner;
and the order of service and of striking-out once arranged, shall not
be altered; nor shall the strikers-out change courts to receive the
service before the end of the set. The players change sides at the
end of every set. When a series of sets is played, the player who was
server in the last game of one set shall be striker-out in the first
game of the next.