Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/42

LAWN. scattered evenly over lliu surface and thinly covered with a fine-toothed iron rake, followed by an iron roller. To avoid covering the seed too deeply, the land is sometimes rolled without the
 * >revious use of the rake.

Small grass-plats are often covered with trans- jilanted turf instead of beginning with the seed. When the grass has grown several inches high, mowing with the lawn-mower is l)eguii and re- I>cated at short intervals. Trenuent mowing and rolling improves the turf. During dry sum- mers, when there is danger of exi«>sing the roots to the drjing action of the hot sun, too frequent mowing is injurious. The lawn should be rolled at least once each sjjring when the weather is moist, for the purpose of compacting the turf. To keep up the fertility of pcrmanint lawns, laml plaster, nitrate of soda, ami hardwood ashes are applied as toj) dressings in the spring or a dress- ing of fine compost is applied in the fall. Con- sult I'liiltd Slates Drixirtincnt of Agriculture yciir-Hool:, 1807 (Washington, 18!)8).

LAWN TENNIS. A modern game resem- bling in some respects the ancient game of ten- nis (q.v. ), which in its earliest form seems to have been played in the open air. The new sport originated almost simultaneously in England ami America. Jlajor Winglield reduced it to a definite form in England in 1874, giving it the hopelessly classical name of 'sphairistike.' Un- der the auspices of the -Marylebone Club, rules were formulated the following year for what was then definitely known as lawn tennis. The 'hour-glass' court was retained, with the net five feet high at the posts and four feet in the cen- tre, and the senicc lines 25 feet from the net, with covered balls 2i> inches in diameter and IM: ounces in weight. Before 187G the earliest form of court was replaced by a rectangular one, 2G yards long by!l yards wide, the net be- ing lowered to .3 feet .3 inches and then to 3 feet in the centre, and the service-line brought 4 feet nearer tile net. In 187!), when volleying was in- troduced by the Renshaw brothers, the service- line was brought one foot nearer the centre, and the height of the net raised again to 3 feet d inches, making the advantages of the different styles of play more cipial. In 1887 the (Eng- lish) National T.awn Tennis .ssopiation w.is formed. Erom that time on it has been the gov- erning body for England and the neighboring countries, into which the game has spread. The courts of all countries have the same dimensions; the following is the oiVicial description of the American court: The cojirt is 78 feet long and 27 feet wide. It is divided across the middle by a net, the ends of whidi are attached to two posts, standing 3 feet outside of the court on either side. The height of the net is 3 feet G inches at the posts, and 3 feet in the midille. Half-way between the side-lines, and parallel with them, is drawn the half-court line, divid- ing the space on each side of the net into two equal parts, the right and left courts. On each side of the net. at a distance of 21 feet from it. and parallel with it. are drawn the service- lines. Two kinds of game are played: 'singles,' i.e. one person against another: or 'doubles,' two partners on each side. The choice of sides of the court and the right to serve first are de- cided by toss. The players stand on opposite sides of the net, the player who first ilelivers the ball being called the server, and the other the striker out. At the end of the first game the striker out becomes the server, and so on alter- nately. The server delivers the ball or service from the right to the left courts. It must drop between the service-line, half-court line, and side-line of the court, diagonally opposite to that from which it was served. The .system of scor- ing is framed on a basis of fifteen for each strok,e won; but the third stroke is called forty instead of forty-five. If both players win three strokes, the score is called 'deuce' instead of forty all. The winner of the ne.t stroke scores 'advantage,' and if he also gets the following stroke, he wins the game; if the stroke falls to the opposite side, the score goes back to 'deuce.' Similarly the player who first .scores six games wins the set, unless both should have won five, when a player nmst win t«o consecutive games to score the set. If he fails to do this, the score is once more called 'games all,' and the same conditions jirevail as before. The players change sides at the end of every set. All championship matches have since 1880 been determined by the winning of three sets out of five; but since 1SU7 the English system of handicapping occasionally has been employed, but without the use of differential tables. Brielly, a player is benefited by giving or owing strokes or giving bisques. A bisque is one point which can be taken by the receiver of the odds at any time in the set, except after a service is delivered or by the server after a fault. The game was played in America within a year of its adoption in England— at Nahant, near Boston. The next year a court was laid out at Xewport, K. 1., which has been the Ameri- can head(|uarters of the game ever since, although it has grown to such an e.xtent that, in addition to national cliaiiipionships, there are yearly held 2U championship contests by single States or gioui>s of States. The first open championship was held on the grounds of the Staten Island Cricket Club in 1880. The next year the United States Xati<mal Lawn Tennis Association was formed, and rules adopted which have, however, been modified and altered from time to time, and since then the national championships have always been played at Newport, K, I. English players have frequently taken part in them, with marked success at first, which gradually dimin- ished as the American play developed along na- tional lines. These may be summed up under these lieads: ( 1 ) The screw service whereby the ball is made to curve in its downward llight (like the 'out-drop' of a modern baseball |)iteher) imparting a double and most baffling motion; (2) the practice of volleying from a jjosilion so close to the net that these .strokes can kill the ball; (3) the development of file 'stop volley,' whereby the ball is simply stopped with a loosely held racket and falls over the net 'dead'; (4) the development of 'lobbing' to a wonderful extent, lobbing very high with a slight <ut that gives the ball a back twist. The American Association has recently modified one of the two important differences between the rules of play in England and America by limiting the rests to which play- ers were entitled between sets, to one rest after the third set. and no more. The other difTerence, the foot-fault rule, remains.

LAWRENCE, A eity and the county-seat of Douglas County, Kan., 40 miles west by south of Kansas City; on both sides of the Kansas River, and on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and