Ten-pins

See quotation, 1839.

1835.  A ten-pin alley, with three wooden balls of different sizes, not round.—P. H. Nicklin, ‘Letters on the Virginia Springs,’ p. 23 (Phila.).

1837.  An excellent ten pin alley is attached to the establishment.—Balt. Comml. Transcript, Sept. 9, p. 4/2 (Advt.).

1839.  An act was passed to prohibit playing at nine pins, (a very foolish act, as the Americans have so few amusements): as soon as the law was put in force, it was notified every where, “Ten pins played here,” and they have been played every where, ever since.—Marryat, ‘Diary in America,’ iii. 195 (Lond.). (Italics in the original.)

1842.  [At Virginia Springs] for the exercise of the Invalids, there is a ten-pin alley under a shed, at which ladies exercise themselves as well as gentlemen.—J. S. Buckingham, ‘Slave States,’ ii. 324.

1843.  He entered an alley of ten-pin players, and casting aside his coat without a word, joined a grim-looking man who had amused himself with tossing the balls, one over the other, against flies upon the ceiling.—Cornelius Mathews, ‘Writings,’ p. 203.

1853.  Tenpins too, and backgammon, and cribbage, and chess, and whist, and dominoes.—F. Townsend, ‘Fun and Earnest,’ p. 237 (N.Y.).

1855.  

1856.  See SOME.