The fact is, the game requires spe-
cial attention given to the study of its details to learn to manipulate
the balls with the cue skillfully, and this few ladies care to give. The
majority want to learn to carom at once. They might as well desire
to play chess as readily as draughts, or to do the outside roll on
skates the first time they put on a pair of skates. Some people pos-
sess a natural aptitude to excel in the game, while others only arrive
at even a moderate degree of success as players by steady and indus-
trious application. There are the mechanical movements to be
I08 THE hearthstone; ok, life Ar HOME.
learned first, after which come the mental calculations of the forces
governing the varied motions of the ball. The former must be
learned by practical experience ; the knowledge of the latter, or
method of producing the effects, may be borrowed from an expert.
You cannot play billiards until you have learned how to hold your
cue and how to strike the ball with its point accurately. But you
can learn how to " English " a ball by simply seeing another player
do it, and without having the least idea of the cause of the peculiar
effect produced. Until, however, you yourself study out these
causes and learn to base your shots on the mental calculation of the
forces to be employed, you will never become a really expert player.
The quickest way to learn billiards is to get a practical player to in-
itiate you into the right method of holding your cue and directing its
stroke. To do this well requires just the amount of practice necessary
to make the handling of your cue as familiar and easy to you as
striking the keys of a piano after having learned to play music at
sight. When you have learned this, you then begin to study the
forces and to apply your own ideas as experience may suggest.
BATHING AND SWIMMING.
How few ladies there are who know how to bathe properly, and
how lamentable is the fact that so vast a majority of women are ignorant
of the art of swimming ! Yet the one is a valuable essential of a healthy
condition of the system, and the other is of vital importance to every
human being — man or boy, woman or girl — as a means of preserving
life. With all the deference shown by woman to the behests of re-
ligious rules, the one great law of the religious code, " cleanliness is,
akin to godliness," is sadly neglected by a large class of wealthy
women. Not that they neglect their necessary ablutions in their
bath-rooms, but that they are too much afraid of sea-shore or cold
water bathing. Thanks, however, to the very great facilities which
are now afforded at our metropolitan sea-shore resorts, such as Coney
Island, Rockaway, Long Beach, the Hampton beaches on Long
Island, and at Long Branch, Newport and other such noted watering-
SPORTS AND GAMES FOR LADIES. IO9
Page 64
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The fact is, the game requires special attention given to the study of its details to learn to manipulate the balls with the cue skillfully, and this few ladies care to give. The majority want to learn to carom at once. They might as well desire to play chess as readily as draughts, or to do the outside roll on skates the first time they put on a pair of skates. Some people possess a natural aptitude to excel in the game, while others only arrive at even a moderate degree of success as players by steady and industrious application. There are the mechanical movements to be
I08 THE hearthstone; ok, life Ar HOME.
learned first, after which come the mental calculations of the forces governing the varied motions of the ball. The former must be learned by practical experience ; the knowledge of the latter, or method of producing the effects, may be borrowed from an expert. You cannot play billiards until you have learned how to hold your cue and how to strike the ball with its point accurately. But you can learn how to " English " a ball by simply seeing another player do it, and without having the least idea of the cause of the peculiar effect produced. Until, however, you yourself study out these causes and learn to base your shots on the mental calculation of the forces to be employed, you will never become a really expert player. The quickest way to learn billiards is to get a practical player to initiate you into the right method of holding your cue and directing its stroke. To do this well requires just the amount of practice necessary to make the handling of your cue as familiar and easy to you as striking the keys of a piano after having learned to play music at sight. When you have learned this, you then begin to study the forces and to apply your own ideas as experience may suggest.
BATHING AND SWIMMING.
How few ladies there are who know how to bathe properly, and how lamentable is the fact that so vast a majority of women are ignorant of the art of swimming ! Yet the one is a valuable essential of a healthy condition of the system, and the other is of vital importance to every human being — man or boy, woman or girl — as a means of preserving life. With all the deference shown by woman to the behests of religious rules, the one great law of the religious code, " cleanliness is, akin to godliness," is sadly neglected by a large class of wealthy women. Not that they neglect their necessary ablutions in their bath-rooms, but that they are too much afraid of sea-shore or cold water bathing. Thanks, however, to the very great facilities which are now afforded at our metropolitan sea-shore resorts, such as Coney Island, Rockaway, Long Beach, the Hampton beaches on Long Island, and at Long Branch, Newport and other such noted watering-