No. 110 Prisoner’s Base
This game is also called “Prisoner’s Bars;” but the first name, mentioned in “Cymbeline,” seems the older, from which the latter has arisen by misunderstanding.
The game, which is also popular in Europe, is originally an imitation of warfare. The two armies stand facing each other, and have their bases each on a line parallel with that of the adversary. But in the United States the game has been changed, so that the two parties stand on the same line, and the bases are placed diagonally opposite at a distance of some thirty yards, so that each base is nearer to the enemy’s forces than to those of the side to which it belongs. The game is opened by a challenge given by one leader to the other; each player can tag any one of the opponents who has quitted his line before he has left his own. Any player tagged must go to his base. Any player who can reach his base in safety may release a prisoner.
As it often happens that a half-dozen runners may be pursuing a single fugitive, who is cut off from his friends, the chase may be prolonged far from the point of departure, through streets of the town or fields of the country.