SHUFFLE-BOARD, or SHOVEL-BOARD. An indoor game played by two o• four persons with iron weights. These weights are slit] along a board sprinkled with fine sand. The board is about thirty feet long; the weights o• pieces used in the game are two sets of four each, weighing about a pound each. The players are divided into oppo,,ing sides, each side using one of the sets of pieces. The board is sprinkled with fine sand and has lines drawn across it five inches from each end, one for the starting line and one for the finishing line. Each player in turn slides his piece o• pieces along the board. which if it projects partly ever the edge of the board scores three points for the player, and if it lie on the finish line or between it and the edge of the board it will score two points. and is said to he 'in;' the piece nearest the line scores one. In every round the players change ends. The game
is for twenty-one points. When played on the decks of ocean steamers a figure is chalked on the deck and wooden weights are used. Instead of being pushed by the hand, a long staff with a curved end is used, each player taking his turn, but nothing being scored till the end of the round. In both games an enemy's weight may be knocked out of the game altogether o• a friend's shoved hi by a blow from the succeeding player. In the steamer game the winner must make exactly fifty points, all in excess of that number being subtracted instead of added.
The origin of shuffle-board is probably similar to that of bowling, quoits, and curling. An evi dence of its strong popularity is seen in the fact that during the reign of Henry VIII. of England it was forbidden by law because it turned the people from the practice of archery.