Page 199 - YB1899

ENNIS, representing lighter Athletics as opposed to football and baseball, hasjalways had a very fair number of adherents at Western Maryland College. In fact, the number of players each year seems to be proportioned to the num- ber of courts that are kept in goo 1 condition, and this has been the great problem at the College-how to get the tennis courts into condition and keep them so. The present writer can remember the time when there were only two courts-one owned and controlled by the professors, the other by the students. K atural ly , the tennis players were rather few in number. But four years ago, the professors re- signed their claim and turned the court over to the Athletic Association of the Col- lege; enough ground was levelled and put into condition to make five courts; back- stop nets were put up; equipment of various kinds was provided, and tennis seemed to be on a permanent basis. But most of the five courts were greatly damaged by a surface so pebbly that it seemed impossible ever to get them into really first-class condition. The pebbles could be swept off and carted away, but another crop always came to maturity.in a short time. In addition to pebbles, these courts always in summer became covered with a thick growth of grass and weeds, so that when College opened in the fall an expense of eight or ten dollars had to be incurred before the courts could he used. The tennis players felt that something should be done. A committee was appointed, and, after due delibera- ton decided that if the courts were thickly covered with ashes and rolled. the ashes would make a fine surface to play on and would, moreover, entirely stop the growth of weeds and grass. But, alas, the committee in its deliberations had failed, it seems, to consult either the ashes or the grass; so the ashes refused to pack in a satisfactory manner, and the grass insisted 011 growing up through the ashes with 189