As the court on the one side of the net is exactly similar to that on the other, if you grow tired of measuring and driving stakes, you may mark the lines of the one court before completing the laying out of the other. This you must do with "whitening" and a brush not less than two inches wide. Each line that is to be marked must be shown by a string stretched over it as a guide: otherwise the lines will be far from straight. As each line is finished, the string is taken up and used to guide the marking of the next line. Care should be taken to mark all the lines equally distinct, and to renew them as they get worn out.
Here is a handy table of distances from point to point in the diagram.
| Double court | { Base line E to F = 36 feet. |
| { Side line F to D = 78 feet. | |
| { Side line E to C = 78 feet. | |
| { Base line C to D = 36 feet. | |
| Single court | { Base line G to H = 27 feet. |
| { Base line J to K = 27 feet. | |
| { Side line G to J = 78 feet. | |
| { Side line H to K = 78 feet. | |
| Service court | { Net to service lines = 21 feet. |
| { Central line, L to M = 42 feet. | |
| Between net posts | A to B = 42 feet. |
[PARSEE MERCHANTS OF BOMBAY.]
BY THOMAS W. KNOX.
Among all the races and religions of India there are none more curious than the Parsees. They are sometimes called Fire-Worshippers, on account of their reverence for the sun, and consequently of the fire that comes from it. The founder of their religion was Zoroaster, who was supposed to have brought fire from heaven, and placed it on their altars, and to this day it is kept burning in their temples.
The Parsees belonged originally in Persia, and were persecuted by the Saracens more than a thousand years ago, so that many of them embraced the Mohammedan religion. The few that clung to the worship of the sun were driven into the most barren parts of the country, or compelled to leave it altogether. Many settled in the province of Guzerat in Hindostan, bringing the sacred fire with them. They were again persecuted by the Mohammedans, but for the last two hundred years have enjoyed religious freedom.
It is thought that there are about two hundred thousand of them now in India. In Bombay alone there are seventy thousand Parsees, and the rest are principally in Guzerat and along the western coast. They are intelligent and enterprising, pay great attention to the education of their children, give liberally to all public charities, and their merchants are considered the shrewdest business men in the world. More than three-fourths of the business of Bombay is in their control, and for this reason the place is often called "the City of the Parsees."
