1855.45

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Unitarians' Christian Register Defends Base Ball on Fast Day

Salience Noteworthy
Tags Newspaper Coverage, Pre-modern Rules
City/State/Country: Boston, United States
Game Base Ball, Foot Ball
Immediacy of Report Contemporary
Holiday Fast Day
Text

The Boston-based Christian Register, "Devoted to Unitarian Christianity," appeared to respond to critics of Fast Day ballplaying in an unsigned article titled "Why Give It Up?"

"A game of ball out-doors on Fast Day will not do those who play so much harm as the game of poker that they will play in-doors tomorrow . . . ."

"Fast Day -- by some collusion of the Governor with the prophets of the weather, is almost always pleasant.  It is apt to be the first day that savors of  Spring. And so, -- even serious men stray into their gardens before sunset, -- look at the peach buds, and show children where the corn is to be, and where the peas. . . . And those who are not serious, -- are hoping to murder one or two robins, or using the dried grass for the first game, so often the last, of base ball or foot ball."last, 

 

 

 

 

Sources

Christian Register, Boston, March 31, 1855

Comment

We do not know the circulation of this 1855 paper beyond Boston.  (We do know that it covered a Worcester MA story at entry 1849.6)

The reference to players playing poker suggests that they were adults.

 

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Query

Was the writer saying, in "so often the last" game, that base ball and/or foot ball was not played much after Fast Day?

Do we know what Boston-area foot ball like in 1855?

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Submitted by Donna Halper
Submission Note Email of 5/3/2020.



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