The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-01

bS t4lc iTelllSS Ol the ldlheI pL d SVSN cessful candidate when he reflects that he has spent at least a couple of thou sand pounds on his sons education only to make a policeman of him? More than once the war office has declined to enrol regiment of gentlemen cadets, There are certain obvious, though not perhaps insuperable, objections to such @ course. But there would be no l difficulty in enlisting the men. Tn three months it would be easy to raise, not one or two, but twenty or thirty, such regiments, which would make the basis Of such an army corps as the world has never seen, whether for hard fighting or the patient endurance of hardships- men who would take to discipline as kindly as to cricket and to whom the honor of the regiment would be as dear as was the credit of their school-as chiValrous company as ever was sent to be food for cannons. But what a waste of educated manhood!
 Even in the field the merely physical qualities developed by athletic games and sports are of little use. The troop | VI o " ilO lONlt llllu lIe II ldllSN cttil llll Dr. Jameson and Sir John Willoughby were as pretty a set of men as any of flcer could wish to command. Nor is there any doubt that if they had been decently led they would have achieved their immediate object. It is perhaps as well that they failed. But the fault did not lie with the rank and file, or | wifi, bo Frhn icr- nominious affair at KrugersdOrp was no disgrace to English pluck or endu- rance, but simply one more proof that modern warfare is game which should only be played by those who have studied the rules; that you might as well try to give a violin recital by the light of nature as to invade a hos tile territory without some rudimenta- ny acquaintance with the principles of strategy and tactics Hunting, no doubt has helped to the making of bril- liant leaders of cavalry. But they are not sportsmen of the "cutme-down- captain class. It is not hard riding and gold jumping that train man for the greater game of war; but that "eye
 
 ing g-field-Which enables him to guess what the enemy is doing on the other size of hill.'
 It is the same in every walk of life. In the army, officers who go through their drills and garrison duties with just the indispensable amount of off, ciency, and then hurry off to their polo l me tph e.tnan1a.phasa pn1nnict e who have walked a Highland gillie off his legs, or ridden in the first flight in the shires, but have no idea how to mend their boots or shoe their horses; barristers who take up patent case without even smattering of chemistry or mechanics; actors with a pretty turn fer sentimental elocution who cannot hold foil or send their voices to the dress circle; clergymen who get a sore throat after three services on a Sunday, or find themselves cornered by the To- cal shoemaker on a point of Christian evidence; young men in the city fit for nothing but adding up rows of figures and running messages about the streets; journalists who want to write
 
 the rules of the House of Commons these are but a few examples of the gentlemanly failures whom we meet at every turn.
 The question would not be so serious If young men were left to themselves. They might be trusted, those who have sense, to find out their mistake in time q nd tn kaarl bo nh a energy which, in the sophisticated con- ditions of modern civilization, is almost as dangerous to success in life as sheer mental indolence. But they are posi- lively encouraged in their pleasures by leaders of public opinion At every academical function it has become a platform commonplace for the distin- guished person who makes the speech of the day to snub the successful can didates and inform them that there is something higher than mere proficiency in their studies So, no doubt, there is; but it does not lie in the pursuits of the rivals they have beaten in the class room. It is not the purpose of the wri- ter to deprecate outdoor sports or any other form of amusement It is well for everybody to take as much enjoy ment as he can afford to pay for whether in money or in time But the taste is natural almost universal among Englishmen, and does not re- quire artificial cultivation. What is the good of one class of advisers warning us that our commercial supremacy is slipping away from us, that we must fight our hardest to retain the neutral markets of the world, that we are be- ing gradually supplanted by more en- terprising and self-adapting rivals, if another sect of preachers go about ex- pounding a more agreeable gospel, and insist on the merit of getting all the fun we can out of life? The national need is all for longer hours and closer application, while the popular cry is for short hours, more holidays and plenty of recreation. In many parts of the country, in occupations that permit the artisan to do his work in his own way very little is done between Friday night and Tuesday morning. The middle class have not yet risen to that apolaus- tic ideal-they cannot afford a solid slice from the week. That is reserved for the worker" But they are pro- gressing in that direction-on their bi- cycles.-S. H. Jeyes in the FortnightIy