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INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

PURPOSE AND PLAN.--This book aims to be a practical guide for the
player of games, whether child or adult, and for the teacher or leader
of games. A wide variety of conditions have been considered, including
schools, playgrounds, gymnasiums, boys' and girls' summer camps, adult
house parties and country clubs, settlement work, children's parties,
and the environment of indoors or out of doors, city or country,
summer or winter, the seashore, the woodland, or the snow. The games
have been collected from many countries and sources, with a view to
securing novel and interesting as well as thoroughly tried and popular
material, ranging from traditional to modern gymnasium and athletic
games. An especial effort has been made to secure games for particular
conditions. Among these may be mentioned very strenuous games for
older boys or men; games for the schoolroom; games for large numbers;
new gymnasium games such as Nine Court Basket Ball and Double Corner
Ball; games which make use of natural material such as stones,
pebbles, shells, trees, flowers, leaves, grasses, holes in the sand or
earth, and diagrams drawn on the ground.

The description, classification, and arrangement of the games have
been made with the steadfast purpose of putting them into the most
workable form, easily understood, with suggestions for getting the
most sport and playing value out of them, and with means of ready
reference to any class of games for use under any of the conditions
mentioned. The series of indexes which accomplish this last-mentioned
purpose make it possible to classify the games in many different ways,
sparing the reader the necessity for hunting through much unrelated
material to find that suited to his conditions. The index for schools
is essentially a graded course of study in games.

The ball games requiring team play have been described according to an
analytic scheme not before used for the class of games given in the
present volume, which makes it possible to locate at a glance
information about the laying out of the ground, the number,
assignment, and duties of players, the object of the game, rules and
points of play, fouls, and score. The various kinds of balls are
described with official specifications. Diagrams for all kinds of
games have been supplied unsparingly, wherever it seemed possible to
make clearer the understandi