Marbles
Marbles Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Games with Marbles
Stan's and Snops
This is the most simple of all games with marbles. One player first shoots his marble; the second then endeavours to strike or "snop" it, or otherwise to shoot his own within a span of it. If he miss, or do not fire within the span, the first player, from the spot where his marble rests, in like manner, shoots at that of the second; and so on, until a snop or span is made, when the marble snopped or spanned is taken, and the game begun anew, by the winner.
Bost-About
This game differs from the preceding one only in this respect, namely, that the marbles, instead of being shot with the fore-finger and thumb, are pitched, or to use the technical word, bosled by the players.
Holes
The Clarke text prints this passage directly after "Bost-About" with no heading of its own; the heading "Holes" is taken from the second edition's wording of the same game.
Three small holes are dug, about a yard and a half asunder; a line is drawn about two yards from the first hole, from which the players begin the game. Chance decides who shall have the first shoot; the object is to drive the marble into the first hole; if this be done, the player shoots again, at the distance of a span, toward the second. If, however, he miss the hole, the other player begins, and each shoots, alternately, as the other misses. After having shot the marble into a hole, the player is allowed, if his adversary's marble be near, to drive it, with his own, as far as he can, and, if he strike it, to shoot again. The game is won by the player who gets first into the last hole, in the following order: first hole, second, third, second, first, second, third. The loser places his knuckles at the first hole, the winner shoots as near to it as he can from the line, and fires three times, from the place where his marble rests, at the loser's knuckles.
Knock-Out
Two or more may play at this game. He who begins throws a marble gently against a wall, so that it rebounds to a distance not exceeding a yard; a second player throws another marble against the wall, endeavouring to make it rebound, so as to strike or come within a span of the first; if he can do neither, the first player takes up his own marble, and, in turn, strives to snop or span that of the second. The marble that is thus snopped or spanned is won, and the winner begins again. Where only two play, it is best to knock out two or three marbles each, alternately, before they begin to use those on the ground. In this case, a player may win his own marbles, as they are common stock when down, and take up which he pleases, to play with.
The Conqueror
This is a sport which we do not much approve of, although we must confess that, in the days of our youth, we were very fond of it. Strong stone marbles of a moderate size must be used. The game is commenced by one boy laying his taw on a piece of smooth and tolerably hard earth (turf and pavement are both improper), the other player throws his taw at it, as hard as he can, so as to split it, if possible. If he fail to do so, his own taw is thrown at in turn, and thus each player has, alternately, a cast at the taw of the other. A strong marble will frequently break, or conquer, fifty or a hundred others; where this game is much played, a taw that has become a conqueror of a considerable number is very much prized, and the owner will not play it against any but those which have conquered a respectable quantity. "When Greek meets Greek," or when two conquerors are engaged, the number of marbles previously broken by the vanquished is added to those of the victor; thus, if my taw having already split twenty marbles, conquers another that has split twenty, my taw then becomes a conqueror of forty-one, that is, twenty, its previous score; twenty, the vanquished taw's score; and one for the broken taw itself.
In the west of England, the game of "The Conqueror" is also played, with small, hard, variegated shells, which are found in old banks, and from which the snails, their former inhabitants, have disappeared. The shell is held in the fore-finger of the right hand, and its peak pushed vigorously against that of the adversary's; the shell which breaks is, of course, conquered.
Arch-Board
This game, in some parts of England, is called "Nine-holes;" it has various names, and is sometimes played with iron bullets instead of marbles. The marbles are bowled at a board set upright, resembling a bridge, with nine small arches, all of them numbered; if the marble strike against the sides of the arches, it becomes the property of the boy to whom the board belongs; but, if it go through any one of them, the bowler claims a number equal to the number upon the arch it passed through. We have seen the boards, in this game, marked above some of the arches with nihils, in this order: 5, 0, 1, 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, 0. In some places, where there are no nihils on the board, and the numbers go beyond five, the bowler not only loses his marble, if it strike against the sides of the arches, but also gives the board-keeper a marble each time he bowls.
Ring-Taw
The rules of Ring-taw vary in different places; the following are the most general: A circle is drawn, into which each party places as many marbles as may be agreed on. A line, called the offing, is then drawn at some distance, from which each in turn shoots at the ring. Shooting a marble out of the ring entitles the shooter to go on again, and thus the ring may be sometimes cleared by a good player, before his companion or companions have a chance. After the first fire, the players return no more to the offing, but shoot, when their turn comes, from the place where their marbles rested on the last occasion. Every marble struck out of the ring is won by the striking party; but if the taw at any time remain in the ring, the player is not only out, but, if he have previously, in the course of the game, struck out any marbles, he must put them in the ring again. And if one player strike with his taw the taw of another, the player whose taw is so struck is out; and if he have previously shot any marbles out of the circle, he must hand them over to the party by whose taw his has been so struck.
Increase-Pound
This is superior to any other game with marbles. It differs from "Ring-taw" in the following particulars: If, previously to any marble or shot being struck out of the ring or pound, the taw of one of the players be struck by the taw of another (except that of his partner), or in case he shoot his taw within the pound, in either case, he puts a shot in the ring, and before either of the others play, shoots from the offing and continues in the game; but if the first of these events occur after one or more shots have been struck out of the pound, if he have previously, during that game, obtained any shots himself, he hands them over to the party who has struck him, and also puts a shot in as before, previously to his shooting from the offing; but if he have previously obtained no shots during the game, he is put out of the game entirely, or "killed," by his taw being so struck; and again, if after a shot or shots have been struck out of the pound, his taw get within it (on the line is nothing), he puts his shots, if he have obtained any, with an additional one, into the pound, and shoots from the offing; but if he have not obtained a shot or shots after his taw so remains within the ring, "or gets fat," as it is called, he is "killed," and stands out for the remainder of the game. When there is only one marble left in the ring, the taw may then remain inside it, without being "fat" at this game. The players seldom put more than one marble each in the ring at first.
The Pyramid
A small circle is drawn on the ground, within which one player builds a pyramid, by placing three marbles triangularly, and a fourth in the centre, on the top of them. Any other player may then shoot at the pyramid, at an agreed distance, by giving, for each time of shooting, to the one who keeps the pyramid, a marble. If the shooter strike the pyramid with his taw, as many of the marbles composing the pyramid as may be driven out of the circle belong to the shooter, and the pyramid is constantly to be kept up complete by its owner. This is a good in-door game; variety and additional interest may be given to it, by each player taking the office of pyramid-keeper, at stated intervals.
The Clarke text has no die variant for the Pyramid. The second edition's addition is given in the final section.
Additional Passages from a Second Edition
The passages below are from a second edition of the same book (Google Books scan), in the "Games with Marbles" section that opens that edition. They are not in the Clarke text above and are included here so that the section is complete across both editions.
Ways of Shooting a Marble
There are three ways of shooting a marble. 1. Trolling, which consists in projecting the marble so that it rolls along the ground until it strikes the marble at which it is aimed; 2. Hoisting, where the marble is shot from, at or above the level of the knee, while the party stands; and, Knuckling down, where the player shoots with the middle knuckle of his forefinger touching the ground, but makes his marble describe a curve in the air on its way to the ring. A boy has to be a good player, a "dabster," as they say, to knuckle down well.
To shoot a marble properly, it must be held between the tip of the fore-finger and the first joint of the thumb, resting on the bend of the second finger, and propelled forward by suddenly forcing up the thumb-nail. Some boys place it between the bend of the first finger and the thumb joint. This is called "shooting cunnethumb," and not only subjects those who do it to the ridicule of their associates, but tires the thumb very much.
The Pyramid, or Shoot the Die
If a die is placed on the top of the pyramid, the striker is paid the number of the die that is uppermost.
Hints on Taw-Shooting
Do not aim directly at the marble, because you are always apt to use a little too much strength, and then the taw flies over the marble, and misses it altogether. Aim at the ground about a quarter of an inch in front of the marble, and then you will seldom miss. Even if you should strike the ground half an inch short, no harm will be done, the taw being sure to touch the top of the marble as it leaps from the ground; and, if you should shoot a little too low, your taw will alight plump on the marble, and drive it to a distance. If you can possibly avoid it, do not let your taw roll towards the marble which you mean to strike, because any impediment or obstacle will be sure to turn it aside.
It is worth every boy's while to practise taw-shooting, if only for five or ten minutes a day. He will soon gain an amount of precision and confidence which will thoroughly repay him for the trouble which he has taken. It must be borne in mind that the reputation of being a certain shot at marbles is most useful. Your adversaries will be afraid of you. They will not dare to take any liberties with the game. They will keep themselves at a respectful distance from your taw for fear of being killed; and so you may frighten them away from the ring, and pick out all the marbles at your pleasure.
Transcription Notes
- Running headers and page numbers (for example "10 MINOR SPORTS", "MINOR SPORTS. 11") are omitted. The games are otherwise in the order printed.
- Corrections to OCR errors in the Clarke text, checked against the second edition's page images where the same wording appears there, or against the obvious sense of the sentence where it does not: "STAN'S AND SNOI'S" to "Stan's and Snops"; "J" after "marbles" to a full stop; "st-cond" to "second"; "viitiiin" to "within"; "forc-fingur" to "fore-finger"; "\nimer" to "winner"; "wiiat" to "what"; "ail" to "all"; "tlie" to "the"; "plaver" to "player"; "stiong" to "strong"; "vannuished" to "vanquished"; "ARCII-BOARD" to "Arch-Board"; "RINO-TAW" to "Ring-Taw"; "whicn" to "which"; "ai" to "at"; "pUice" to "place"; "stx-uck" to "struck"; "hat various names" to "has various names"; "beyona" to "beyond"; "It the shooter" to "If the shooter"; "intei&t" to "interest".
- The heading "Bost-About" is kept as the Clarke OCR prints it (BOST-ABOOT); it was not checked against a page image of that edition.
- Where the two editions differ in wording, the Clarke text is used for the body and the second edition's wording appears only in the final section.
- Passages in the final section are transcribed from the second edition's page images and are not a complete collation of its text.