Part 11

To "rush" a ball is to roquet it hard so that it proceeds for a considerable distance in a desired direction. This stroke requires absolute accuracy and often considerable force, which must be applied in such a way as to drive the player's ball evenly; otherwise it is very liable, especially if the ground be not perfectly smooth, to jump the object ball. The rush stroke is absolutely essential to good play, as it enables croquet to be taken (e.g.) close to the required hoop, whereas to croquet into position from a great distance and also provide a ball for use after running the hoop is extremely difficult, often impossible. To "rush" successfully, the striker's ball must lie near the object ball, preferably, though not necessarily, in the line of the rush. By means of the rush it is possible to accomplish the complete round with the assistance of one ball only. To "cut" a ball is to hit it on the edge and cause it to move at some desired angle. "Rolling croquet" is made either by hitting near the top of the player's ball which gives it "follow," or by making the mallet so hit the ball as to keep up a sustained pressure. The first impact must, however, result in a distinctly audible single tap; if a prolonged rattle or a second tap is heard the stroke is foul. The passing stroke is merely an extension of this. Here the player's ball proceeds a greater distance than the croqueted ball, but in somewhat the same direction. The "stop stroke" is made by a short, sharp tap, the mallet being withdrawn immediately after contact; the player's ball only rolls a short distance, the other going much farther. The "jump stroke" is made by striking downwards on to the ball, which can thus be made to jump over another ball, or even a hoop. "Peeling" (a term derived from Walter H. Peel, a famous advocate of the policy) is the term applied to the device of putting a partner's or an opponent's ball through the hoops with a view to ultimately pegging it out.

The laws of croquet, and even the arrangement of the hoops, have not attained complete uniformity wherever the game is played. Croquet grounds are not always of full size, and some degree of elasticity in the rules is perhaps necessary to meet local conditions. The laws by which matches for the championship and all tournaments are governed are issued annually by the Croquet Association; and though from time to time trifling amendments may be made, they have probably reached permanence in essentials.

See _The Encyclopaedia of Sport; The Complete Croquet Player_ (London, 1896); the latest _Laws of Croquet_, published annually by the Croquet Association, and its official organ _The Croquet Gazette_. For the principles of the game and its history in England, see C. D. Locock, _Modern Croquet Tactics_ (London, 1907); A. Lillie, _Croquet up to Date_ (London, 1900).

_Croquet in the United States: Roque._--Croquet was brought to America from England soon after its introduction into that country, and enjoyed a wide popularity as a game for boys and girls before the Civil War (see Miss Alcott's _Little Women_, cap. 12). American croquet is quite distinct from the modern English game. It is played on a lawn 60 ft. by 30, and preserves the old-fashioned English arrangement of ten hoops, including a central "cage" of two hoops. The balls, coloured red, white, blue and black, are 3(1/4) in. in diameter, and the hoops are from 3(1/2) to 4 in. wide, according to the skill of the players. This game, however, is not taken seriously in the United States; the _Official Croquet Guide_ of Mr Charles Jacobus emphasizes "the ease with which the game can be established," since almost every country home has a grass plot, and "no elaboration is needed." The scientific game of croquet in the United States is known as "roque." Under this title a still greater departure from the English game has been elaborated on quite independent lines from those of the English Croquet Association since 1882, in which year the National Roque Association was formed. Roque also suffered from the popularity of lawn tennis, but since 1897 it has developed almost as fast as croquet in England. A great national championship tournament is held in Norwich, Conn., every August, and the game--which is fully as scientific as modern English croquet--has numerous devotees, especially in New England.

Roque is played, not on grass, but on a prepared surface something like a cinder tennis-court. The standard ground, as adopted by the National Association in 1903, is hexagonal in shape, with ten arches (hoops) and two stakes (pegs) as shown in diagram 2. The length is 60 ft., width 30, and the "corner pieces" are 6 ft. long. An essential feature of the ground is that it is surrounded by a raised wooden border, often lined with india-rubber to facilitate the rebound of the ball, and it is permissible to play a "carom" (or rebounding shot) off this border; a skilful player can often thus hit a ball which is wired to a direct shot. A boundary line is marked 28 in. inside the border, on which a ball coming to rest outside it must be replaced. The hoops are run in the order marked on the diagram, so that the game consists of 36 points. Red and white are always partners against blue and black, and the essential features and tactics of the game are, _mutatis mutandis_, the same as in modern English croquet--i.e. the skilful player goes always for a break and utilizes one or both of the opponent's balls in making it. The balls are 3(1/4) in. in diameter, of hard rubber or composition, and the arches are 3-3/8 or 3(1/2) in. wide for first- and second-class players respectively; they are made of steel 1/2 in. in diameter and stand about 8 in. out of the ground. The stakes are 1 in. in diameter and only 1(1/2) in. above the ground. The mallets are much shorter than those commonly employed in England, the majority of players using only one hand, though the two-handed "pendulum stroke," played between the legs, finds an increasingly large number of adherents, on account of the greater accuracy which it gives. The "jump shot" is a necessary part of the player's equipment, as dead wiring is allowed; it is supplemented by the carom off the border or off a stake or arch, and roque players justly claim that their game is more like billiards than any other out-of-door game.

The game of roque is opened by scoring (stringing) for lead from an imaginary line through the middle wicket (cage), the player whose ball rests nearest the southern boundary line having the choice of lead and balls. The balls are then placed on the four corner spots marked A in diagram, partner balls being diagonally opposite one another, and the starting ball having the choice of either of the upper corners. The leader, say red, usually begins by shooting at white; if he misses, a carom off the border will leave him somewhere near his partner, blue. White then shoots at red or blue, with probably a similar result. Blue is then "in," with a certain roquet and the choice of laying for red or going for an immediate break himself. The general strategy of the game corresponds to that of croquet, the most important differences being that "pegging out" is not allowed, and that on the small ground with its ten arches and two stakes the three-ball break is usually adopted, the next player or "danger ball" being wired at the earliest opportunity.

See Spalding's _Official Roque Guide_, edited by Mr Charles Jacobus (New York, 1906).

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This was largely the work of W. T. Whitmore-Jones (1831-1872), generally known as W. Jones Whitmore, who subsequently formed the short-lived National Croquet Club, and was largely responsible for the first codification of the laws.

[2] The words "roquet" and "croquet" are pronounced as in French, with the t mute.

CRORE (Hindustani _karor_), an Anglo-Indian term for a hundred _lakhs_ or ten million. It is in common use for statistics of trade and especially coinage. In the days when the rupee was worth its face value of 2s., a crore of rupees was exactly worth a million sterling, but now that the rupee is fixed at 15 to the L1, a crore is only worth L666,666.

CROSBY, HOWARD (1826-1891), American preacher and teacher, great-grandson of Judge Joseph Crosby of Massachusetts and of Gen. William Floyd of New York, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born in New York City on the 27th of February 1826. He graduated in 1844 from the University of the City of New York (now New York University); became professor of Greek there in 1851, and in 1859 became professor of Greek in Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey, where two years later he was ordained pastor of the first Presbyterian church. From 1870 to 1881 he was chancellor of the University of the City of New York; from 1872 to 1881 was one of the American revisers of the English version of the New Testament; and in 1873 was moderator of the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church. He took a prominent part in politics, urged excise reform, opposed "total abstinence," was one of the founders and was the first president of the New York Society for the Prevention of Crime, and pleaded for better management of Indian affairs and for international copyright. Among his publications are _The Lands of the Moslem_ (1851), _Bible Companion_ (1870), _Jesus: His Life and Works_ (1871), _True Temperance Reform_ (1879), _True Humanity of Christ_ (1880), and commentaries on the book of Joshua (1875), Nehemiah (1877) and the New Testament (1885).

His son, ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY (1856-1907), was a social reformer, and was born in New York City on the 4th of November 1856. He graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1876 and at Columbia Law School in 1878; served in the New York Assembly in 1887-1889, securing the passage of a high-licence bill; in 1889-1894 was a judge of the Mixed Tribunal at Alexandria, Egypt, resigning upon coming under the influence of Tolstoy; and died in New York City on the 3rd of January 1907. He was the first president (1894) of the Social Reform Club of New York City, and was president in 1900-1905 of the New York Anti-Imperialist League; was a leader in settlement work and in opposition to child labour, and was a disciple of Tolstoy as to universal peace and non-resistance, and of Henry George in his belief in the "single tax" principle. His writings, many of which are in the manner of Walt Whitman, comprise _Plain Talk in Psalm and Parable_ (1899), _Swords and Ploughshares_ (1902), and _Broadcast_ (1905), all in verse; an anti-military novel, _Captain Jinks, Hero_ (1902); and essays on Tolstoy (1904 and 1905) and on Garrison (1905).

CROSS, and CRUCIFIXION (Lat. _crux_, _crucis_[1]). The meaning ordinarily attached to the word "cross" is that of a figure composed of two or more lines which intersect, or touch each other transversely. Thus, two pieces of wood, or other material, so placed in juxtaposition to one another, are understood to form a cross. It should be noted, however, that Lipsius and other writers speak of the single upright stake to which criminals were bound as a cross, and to such a stake the name of _crux simplex_ has been applied. The usual conception, however, of a cross is that of a compound figure.

Punishment by crucifixion was widely employed in ancient times. It is known to have been used by nations such as those of Assyria, Egypt, Persia, by the Greeks, Carthaginians, Macedonians, and from very early times by the Romans. It has been thought, too, that crucifixion was also used by the Jews themselves, and that there is an allusion to it (Deut. xxi. 22, 23) as a punishment to be inflicted.

Two methods were followed in the infliction of the punishment of crucifixion. In both of these the criminal was first of all usually stripped naked, and bound to an upright stake, where he was so cruelly scourged with an implement, formed of strips of leather having pieces of iron, or some other hard material, at their ends, that not merely was the flesh often stripped from the bones, but even the entrails partly protruded, and the anatomy of the body was disclosed. In this pitiable state he was reclothed, and, if able to do so, was made to drag the stake to the place of execution, where he was either fastened to it, or impaled upon it, and left to die. In this method, where a single stake was employed, we have the _crux simplex_ of Lipsius. The other method is that with which we are more familiar, and which is described in the New Testament account of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In such a case, after the scourging at the stake, the criminal was made to carry a gibbet, formed of two transverse bars of wood, to the place of execution, and he was then fastened to it by iron nails driven through the outstretched arms and through the ankles. Sometimes this was done as the cross lay on the ground, and it was then lifted into position. In other cases the criminal was made to ascend by a ladder, and was then fastened to the cross. Probably the feebleness, or state of collapse, from which the criminal must often have suffered, had much to do in deciding this. It is not quite clear which of these two plans was followed in the case of the crucifixion of Christ, but the more general opinion has been that He was nailed to the cross on the ground, and that it was then lifted into position. The contrary opinion, has, however, prevailed to some extent, and there are representations of the crucifixion which depict Him as mounting a ladder placed against the cross. Such representations may, however, have been due to a pious desire, on the part of their authors, to emphasize the voluntary offering of Himself as the Saviour of the World, rather than as being intended for actual pictures of the scene itself. It may be noted, however, that among the "Emblems of the Passion," as they are called, and which were very favourite devices in the middle ages, the ladder is not infrequently found in conjunction with the crown of thorns, nails, spear, &c.

From its simplicity of form, the cross has been used both as a religious symbol and as an ornament, from the dawn of man's civilization. Various objects, dating from periods long anterior to the Christian era, have been found, marked with crosses of different designs, in almost every part of the old world. India, Syria, Persia and Egypt have all yielded numberless examples, while numerous instances, dating from the later Stone Age to Christian times, have been found in nearly every part of Europe. The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times, and among non-Christian peoples, may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of nature worship. Two of the forms of the pre-Christian cross which are perhaps most frequently met with are the tau cross, so named from its resemblance to the Greek capital letter [Tau], and the _svastika_ or _fylfot_[2] [svastika], also called "_Gammadion_" owing to its form being that of four Greek capital letters _gamma_ [Gamma] placed together. The tau cross is a common Egyptian device, and is indeed often called the Egyptian cross. The _svastika_ has a very wide range of distribution, and is found on all kinds of objects. It was used as a religious emblem in India and China at least ten centuries before the Christian era, and is met with on Buddhist coins and inscriptions from various parts of India. A fine sepulchral urn found at Shropham in Norfolk, and now in the British Museum, has three bands of cruciform ornaments round it. The two uppermost of these are plain circles, each of which contains a plain cross; the lowest band is formed of a series of squares, in each of which is a _svastika_. In the Vatican Museum there is an Etruscan fibula of gold which is marked with the _svastika_, but it is a device of such common occurrence on objects of pre-Christian origin, that it is hardly necessary to specify individual instances. The cross, as a device in different forms, and often enclosed in a circle, is of frequent occurrence on coins and medals of pre-Christian date in France and elsewhere. Indeed, objects marked with pre-Christian crosses are to be seen in every important museum.

The death of Christ on a cross necessarily conferred a new significance on the figure, which had hitherto been associated with a conception of religion not merely non-Christian, but in its essence often directly opposed to it. The Christians of early times were wont to trace, in things around them, hidden prophetical allusions to the truth of their faith, and such a testimony they seem to have readily recognized in the use of the cross as a religious emblem by those whose employment of it betokened a belief most repugnant to their own. The adoption by them of such forms, for example, as the tau cross and the _svastika_ or _fylfot_ was no doubt influenced by the idea of the occult Christian significance which they thought they recognized in those forms, and which they could use with a special meaning among themselves, without at the same time arousing the ill-feeling or shocking the sentiment of those among whom they lived.

It was not till the time of Constantine that the cross was publicly used as the symbol of the Christian religion. Till then its employment had been restricted, and private among the Christians themselves. Under Constantine it became the acknowledged symbol of Christianity, in the same way in which, long afterwards, the crescent was adopted as the symbol of the Mahommedan religion. Constantine's action was no doubt influenced by the vision which he believed he saw of the cross in the sky with the accompanying words [Greek: en touto nika], as well as by the story of the discovery of the true cross by his mother St Helena in the year 326. The legend is that, when visiting the holy places in Palestine, St Helena was guided to the site of the crucifixion by an aged Jew who had inherited traditional knowledge as to its position. After the ground had been dug to a considerable depth, three crosses were found, as well as the superscription placed over the Saviour's head on the cross, and the nails with which he had been crucified. The cross of the Lord was distinguished from the other two by the working of a miracle on a crippled woman who was stretched upon it. This finding, or "invention," of the holy cross by St Helena is commemorated by a festival on the 3rd of May, called the "Invention of the Holy Cross." The legend was widely accepted as true, and is related by writers such as St Ambrose, Rufinus, Sulpicius Severus and others, but it is discounted by the existence of an older legend, according to which the true cross was found in the reign of Tiberius, and while St James the Great was bishop of Jerusalem, by Protonice, the wife of Claudius.

In recent times an attempt has been made to reconcile the two accounts, by attributing to St Helena the rediscovery of the true cross, originally found by Protonice, and which had been buried again on the spot. A change was made in 1895 in the _Diario Romano_, when the word _Ritrovamento_ was substituted for that of _Invenzione_, in the name of the festival of the 3rd of May. After St Helena's discovery a church was built upon the site, and in it she placed the greater portion of the cross. The remaining portion she conveyed to Byzantium, and thence Constantine sent a piece to Rome, where it is said to be still preserved in the church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, which was built to receive so precious a relic. It is exposed for the veneration of the faithful on Good Friday, 3rd of May, and the third Sunday in Lent, each year.

Another festival of the holy cross is kept on the 14th of September, and is known as the "Exaltation of the Holy Cross." It seems to have originated with the dedication, in the year 335, of the churches built on the sites of the crucifixion and the holy sepulchre. The observance of this festival passed from Jerusalem to Constantinople, and thence to Rome, where it appears to have been introduced in the 7th century. By some it is thought that the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross had its origin in Constantine's vision of the cross in the sky in the year 317, but whether it originated then, or, as is more generally supposed, at the dedication of the churches at Jerusalem, there is no doubt that it was afterwards kept with much greater solemnity in consequence of the recovery of the portion of the cross St Helena had left at Jerusalem, which had been taken away in the Persian victory, and was restored to Jerusalem by Heraclitus in 627. Pope Clement VIII. (1592-1604) raised the festival of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross to the dignity, liturgically known as that of a Greater Double.

Before leaving the story of St Helena and the cross, it may be convenient to allude briefly to the superscription placed over the Saviour's head, and the nails, which it is said that she found with the cross. The earlier tradition as to the superscription is obscure, but it would seem that it ought to be considered part of the relic which Constantine sent to Rome. By some means it was entirely lost sight of until the year 1492, when it is said that it was accidentally found in a vault in the church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme at Rome. Pope Alexander III. published a bull certifying to the truth of this rediscovery of the relic, and authenticated its character.

As regards the nails, a question has arisen whether there were three or four. In the earliest pictures of the Crucifixion the feet are shown as separately nailed to the cross, but at a later period they are crossed, and a single nail fixes them. In the former case there would be four nails, and in the latter only three. Four is the number generally accepted, and it is said that one was cast by St Helena into the sea, during a storm, in order to subdue the waves, another is said (but the legend cannot be traced far back) to have been beaten out into the iron circlet of the crown of Lombardy, while the remaining two are reputed to be preserved among the relics at Milan and Trier respectively.

The employment of the cross as the Christian symbol has been so manifold in its variety and application, and the different forms to which the figure has been adapted and elaborated are so complex, that it is only possible to deal with the outline of the subject.