The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-05
THE POLITICS OF ATHLETICS.
How Useful Is the Training of the
Playground in Winning of Battles.
From the london Daily M

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From the London Daily Mail
Was the battle of Waterloo won in the
playing fields of Eton? and is England's
colonial empire result of our, or our fore
fathers, devotion to athletics?
Canaan Lyttleton, who is headmaster of
Haileybury College, last evening declared
that the Iron Dukes dictum was nonsense.
and put the second question forward as
deserving consideration.
The Canon was talking about 'aThe Use
and Abuse of Athletics" to a small COM
pany of school teachers at the college of
Preceptors, Bloomsbury square, at one OF
the series of winter meetings extending
over fortnight. He had found he said
that there were two sides to the question
of athletics, and he had thought too much
about the subject to be brilliant. In favor
of athletics people said:
% That the greatness of England was
entirely due to them:
81 That our imperial progress was due tC
the wonderful and unique training Eng.
lishmen got as distinct from foreigners;
from immortality:
"a That they produced character
He thought the Duke made a wild as
sumption in claiming Waterloo as a victory
for Elton. What was the proportion of boys
who went in for athletics at Elton at the
beginning of the century? And how many
of them were officers at Waterloo? Canon
Lyttelton put the margin at a dozen, and
assured his audience, amid laughter, that
the more they looked at the Dukes saying
the greater nonsense they would find it.
Since Waterloo there has been a vast
spread of athletics in the country, but he
doubted if even now, taking the men only
the proportion who went in for athletics
was l per cent Spectators were not The
same thing as players
Then the reverend headmaster preached
his own pet suggestion.
He pointed out that before James rs
reign outdoor games were much more pop
ular than ever. The Puritan influence
killed many popular outdoor games For
couple of hundred years the athletic
spirit of the nation was dormant 1t al
length became more lively, and about the
time of the battle of Leipsic the third
stump was added to the game of cricket
Qaughter)
But during the time there was less ath-
leticism in England England began to
expand as a colonial power Now" ask
ed the canon, was it the surplus energy
that had been bottled up all those years
that burst forth in the form of colonial
enterprise? Did energy diverted from
cricket and other outdoor games into the
path of conquest make us a colonial pow
err AT any rate, he believed that the
same qualities which made boys play
games made men fight and win empires.
and the imperial instinct in men might
be little more than the athletic instinct in
boys, grown heavy.
Having condemned golf as a game for
boys and girls because of the impossibiIitv
of introducing the element of co-opera ton
into it, Canon Lyttelton laid stress upon
the value of athletics in producing charac-
ter, and urged that the headmasters of
public schools should be able to nominate
boys for the army. He was convinced
the army would get better officers in the
way than by the present method which
was the stupidest ever devised by the
brain of man.
He condemned the fashion which sur
rounded school athletics. There must be
mischief where 10000 West End people
combined for two days to make fools of
themselves sly dig at the Elton and
Harrow" crowd, which was thoroughly
enjoyed.
The canon advocated the proper restric-
ton of athletics in schools among the
over-energetic and their promotion among
the laggards, in due proportion to other
studies.