The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-04-18 00:00:00

PSEUDO-HERO WORSHIP.

So long as the public choose to centre their interest
upon • harmless object of attraction, we have no fault to
And with them as regards their own welfare; but we seri-
lously raise the question whether adulation does un-
mixed good to those whom it most concerns—the objects
of &Unction. We in ao way wish to cut a wet blanket
upon modern athletic enterprise, but, on the contrary,
welcome it, as working moral as well as physical good.
He who can do one thing well, with his heart in it, though
It be but a sport of youth, can fight well hereafter the
battle of life, if he lets the same principles of care and re-
straint that tutored his pleasures guide also his duties.
The Bench and Episeopate owe many of their brightest
lights to " old Muse, and in most spheres of life univer-
sity athletes daily ars making their mark. So far we show
our approval of such pursuits; but approval It one thing,
and fulsome public adulation le another. We ask ourselves,
Is it good for a lad or young man to find himself •cynosure
of interest, beyond any merit in his powers, for one brief
season t A man of common menu and mature experience
may afford to laugh at public flattery, and to look at his
own performances in a positive and not a relative light'
but the heads of many younger men may be turned and
they may be induced to think that, because their names
for • week or • month are household words, therefore
they themselves become national necessities. Even in the
pursuit of sport alone, they may be tempted to think more
highly of their performance in the actually minor, but, in
the eyes of the public, major school or University contest
In which they engage, then of some further step lathe
ladder of athletic fame, to which less public interest is
attached. To row ix a University eight does not imply
' any greater merit, if so great, as to win • Henley grand
challenge race; yet what University man would imitate
If he had to choose between the two medals I We trace
the apathy of many University runners with regard to the
champion meeting to the undue fum made about the Uni-
versity sports, which blinds many of them, end deludes
them into the belief that when they have beaten their rival
University they have done all that is required of them.
When, a few yes,, later, their names peas away from
public recollection, and a new generation of athletics springs
up, they awaks to the hallows's, of their fame: but the
awakening may have been too late to prevent the mischief
previously done by undue temptation to self-estimstien.
Whatever remarks here apply to the boat race and sports
refer with even greater force to the school cricket match.
In, however, the latter cue the remedy comes even more
promptly ; for the lad who • year before was patted by •
hundred hands for • solitary catch, or • double figure, be-
gins to realise himself but • drop is the Golan, when, next
spring, be finds Emmett shelved after one trial in a fresh-
man's match, or stands out of a second-rate county eleven.
While on the subject of University competitions, we re-
cord our objection to the principle of the Universities
=thing any parade*, competition in any pursuit in which
they cannot rank in the first flight. The fact that there
should be say inducement for them to do so shows still
more the foolish adulation which stasis& every University
contest If there were a University hopping or smoking
match we believe the people would crowd tome it, and
would crown the winner with bays. In rowing, cricket,
rackets, and athletics, the University representatives
stand in the first flight, and can always contend against
the world without disgrace, even though not always with-
out detest But when they parade their billiards, their
chess, and such like minor einents in public, we ask,
eri tees I They surely do not think to read • lesson by
them, or to set up a standard of amateur merit therein.
Half the counter-skippers who look on at their billiards
can give them points; access of those who watch their
chess can give them pawn and two, and often a clear piece.
May be they are promising sesames for their clue in then
pursuit,; but for public display there should be positive,
not merely relative, merit to admire. With these depre-
cations we qualify the appreval which in other respoctswe
do not refuse to concede to the modern furors for Univer-
sity contests. —Field.