The Portland daily press., 1892-07-09
WOMAN IN SPORTS.
In EarOpe Many Of the Most Expert
Athletes are Women.
COPYRIGHT. 1892. BY JAMES W. soHNsos)

COPYRIGHT. 1892. BY JAMES W. JoHNsoN)
of this century of enlightenment and
progress is the sporting woman. Even
down to fifty years ago she was a
rarissima ayis, and Diana Vernons were
the exception rather than the rule. To-
day, however. there is scarcely branch
of sport which we have not invaded and
adopted for our amusement. We play
baseball, we shoot, we play cricket and
tennis, we swim, we scull, we paddle
canoes with far more grace than men
and quite as much skill; we fence, we
have become adept anglers of salmon
and trout; we skate, we play golf, we
drive four-in-hand and tandem, and we
even ride steeplechases. Indeed, one of
the only forms of sport to which we
have not hitherto directed our attention
is football, the reason being, l suppose,
that we could not possibly enjoy good,
hearty scrimmage without risking our
beauty
One of the most expert anglers of
the present day is Lady Colin Camp
bell, daughter-in-law of the Duke of
Argyle, sister-in-law of Princess Louise
OF Great Britain, and the principal
figure in the sensational Colin Campbell
divorce case. Lady Colin, who is We ry
beautiful woman above The average
stature, starts gaily to her work dressed
IN pair of tweed knickerbockers kilt
skirt, loose many pocketed coat, wooden
stockings, and thick hobnailed shoes
out of which the water can
''squelch" as easily as it enters.
She starts at low point down the
stream, casts in the pools, tumbles in
up to her waist, kills her fish without
any kSace of tenderness, and then sits
down t6>a ''thimbleful'' of whiskey-
without a llittSs flask of which no wise
fisher, win set out on days fishing.
The champion lady cricketer is Lady
Miner, wife of Sir Frederick Miner, of
Nun Appleton, Yorkshire, and many are
the magazine articles and essays which
she has published concerning her
favorite sport. Some of them constitute
very amusing reading, especially one in
which she }aments that "a favorite
form of TELLING with some ladies is
stopping The Aall with their petticoats. !"
She likewise complains that cricketers
belonging to our sex do not 'sdare to
stand up to fast ball when fielding"
1t seems, however, that when we are
batting at the wiekets the fielder known
by the name of cover-point becomes I'M
necessary, as owing to the presence o.
CD ;,+e HI
of us throw well,' says Lady Miner
sadly. Most of us, it seems, do not
throw but bowl the ball Stays, accord
ing to Lady Miner, are great draw
back to feminine cricket, and to base
ball as well, should imagine. For
women wearing corsets dislike to stoop,
and stoop we must if we wish to become
good fielders.
In Austria ladies' steeplechases
have for long time been. one
Of the favorite amusements of the
great ladies. and both at Gmun-
den Gratz, Meran and numerous other
popular resorts, steeplechases take place
over quite difficult courses, where all
the riders are ladies Of rank, who wear
with the ordinary riding skirt, the COL
ored silk jacket and peaked cap in true
jockey style. The champion steeple-
chase rider in Europe is the blonde
Countess Ugarte, one of the ladies in
waiting of the Empress of Austria, and
who is married to Count Hector Bal
tazzi, uncle of the Baroness Marie Vel
sera, who played so distr essing a role in
the tragedy at Meyerling, where Crown
Prince Rudolph met with his death.
Last year for the first time on record q
ladies' steeplechase was got up in Eng
land at Melton Mowbray, which turned
out great success.
Among the best sporting shots of our
sex are Lady Florence Dixie, who has
killed all kinds of big game; Countess
Octavius Kinsky, Princess Metternich
and the Duchess Dues I should also
add the name of Lady Eva Quinn, who
has slaughtered with her rife several
tigers during her stay in India Lady
Florence Dixie, who is the eccentric SIS
ter of the equally eccentric MARQUIS of
Queensberry, has likewise couple of
grizzly bears, shot in the Rocky Noun
tains, to her credit. No longer content
to restrict ourselves to merely putting in
an appearance at luncheon on the days
when our husbands, brothers and mas
culine relatives are out covert shooting
or attending "game drives" we nowa-
days claim our place among the gums"
endeavor by fair and even foul means
to secure particularly shot corner,''
and furnish quite respectable proper
tion of the days slaughter. The cos
tune which we don on these occasions is
particularly fetching, " onr object being
not only to divert the attention of the
men from the game, SO as to leave us
the larger share thereof, but also to
quench, by means of the admiration
which we inspire, those feelings of irri-
tation which the men quite naturally
feel at our depriving them of the larger
share of their sport.
The three best lady four-in-h hand dri-
vers on record are Queen Marie Henri
cite, of Belgium; the Countess Spare,
of Austria, and Lady Brooke, of Eng
land. Whenever the Prince of Wales
comes to pay his annual visit to Easton