Cat is the common street-game of tip-cat at which little boys are in the habit of playing in the crowded thoroughfares of London, much to the hazard of passenger's eyes, the nerves of horses, and glass windows. It now seems to be played at random, with whatever materials chance to come to hand, and without any of the characteristics of a regular game. Formerly the cat was expressly made for the play in the shape of a double cone, and the implement with which it was struck was called the cat-stick. It appears that there was a double game of cat played by eleven of a side and a notcher, with crosswickets; and out of this game is supposed to have sprung the game of Cricket, the name of cross-wicket being, by an easy process, corrupted into cricket. Fortnightly Review, London, 1865.
Bull-pen or Corner Ball
Corner-Ball. This is also an old game kept up by the Pennsylvania Germans— Pennsylvania Dutch,f as they are commonly called. Four players stand on the four angles of a square, and the four adversaries in the centre.
The ball is passed from one to another of the players in the corners, and finally thrown at the central players. For this purpose the following rhyme (which our readers may translate if they can) is used by the boy who aims the ball at the players in the centre. These last, if they can catch the ball, may fling it back. If the player in the corner hits a central player, the latter is out, and vice versa. The last player of the losing party has to stand with his head against a wall till every antagonist has flung the ball at him. Games and songs of American children
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To play "bull-pen" two boys would "choose up," deciding the first choice by flipping a "paddle" (bat), one side of which has been spit on to designate it, the choice being "wet or dry," and two out of three deciding. Or it was sometimes decided by throwing a stick (held in a vertical position) from the hand of one boy to that of another, who caught it; then the first would grasp it just above the hand of the one who held it, the one having the lower grip letting go and taking hold above the hand of the other; thus they alternated to the top, and the one having the last grip had the choice. Sometimes the same method of deciding the first choice was used in the school-room on Friday afternoons when we chose sides for a spelling match; then a pointer, sometimes the stove-poker or broom-handle, occasionally the master's switch was tossed from hand to hand. This was always more dramatic and hence more satisfactory than the tame and colorless method of having the leaders guess at what page of a book the teacher held his finger, an innovation which came later. But to return to the "bull-pen."
After the sides were chosen, the leaders would then "toss up for bases." Bases were marked, usually not more than six in number and never less than four, in form of a hexagon or of a square surrounding space of about four or five rods square; this was the "pen." The side winning the choice would occupy the bases, one player on each; if there were more players than bases a few would wait on the outside till the others were "out." All the other side were "bulls" and occupied the center in a jumping, plunging, jostling, dodging, bellowing group. Those on the bases threw the ball from one to another; if one failed to catch it he was not out, but the ball became "cold"; it must go once around to become "hot," and then it might be thrown across the "pen" in any direction, back and forth between any two players. And now any one catching the ball might hit a "bull"; if the "bull" caught the ball, the baseman was caught out, otherwise he must hit a baseman or he was out. If the basemen "broke up" the other side, the bulls must all go back and begin again; but if the basemen got out first the sides changed places. It is evident that when the basemen were reduced to a number less than the number of bases the "bulls" had the advantof a vacant corner in which to congregate; but at that stage of the game the basemen were allowed to "run the bases," that is, a player catching a "hot" ball might run to an adjoining vacant base near which the bulls were huddled, and throw from there. When the basemen were reduced to one, the last stage of the game was "smuggling." The last baseman choosing a companion, the best marksman in throwng a ball, would retire a little way from the "pen" and returning each would hold his hand under his coat; the "bulls" could only guess which one held the ball; these two would then "run the bases" until the one holding the ball found a good opportunity to hit a "bull." When either one of the two smugglers missed or was "caught out," or was hit, the game turned.
Of course the ball used was not the hard, heavy, regulation baseball of to-day. It was usually made of woolen yarn wound tight around a little ball of rubber and sometimes covered with cloth or leather. The core was sometimes made of strips of cloth with a lead bullet in the center to give it sufficient weight; in any case the balls were homemade, hand-made, boy-made.—"The Western Teacher". 1899.
Can't find Stick-it-to-him.
David