The sun., 1902-01-12
EIpLING'SaPOOLS" "OAPS"
rExrs ON WHICH HI WROTE Hrs
POEM sTHB ISLANDBRSs b

<, -BrminsAam's Craze for Football
sport OF Omccrs In South Africa
Local circumstances In the nsighborhood
where Rudyard Kipling does his writing
In England offered him Q tolerably apt
occasion for the nout In his latest poem.
'The Islanders at tho "nannelled fools of
the wicket
For the last four years, since his return
10 England after his serious Illness here,
an unpretending isolated farmhouse close
to tho English Channel at nottingham
has been his domestic headquarters. He
has now gone on his third voyage to South
Africa since q state OF war has bean the
condition there. Between last winter and
this he was q moving. practical spirit In
organizing the first rife club near his homo
on the SUSSEX coast. Nobody can say
that he took the matter up In any frame Of
mind other than that Of plain, serious
citizen. The curious stranger was not
encouraged. not permitted. indeed, near
the ranges; and the members themselves,
when they met once or twice week, were
there for strict attention to the business Of
learning 10 be as good marksmen as they
could with the rife.
They were young man Of any occupation
with the time to spare and genuine taste
for the work, and their practising butts
lie along the downs close to the Channel,
where his own scoastwise Lights Of England
watch the ships OF England 60 Nobody
doubts that the club will last, or that II VIII
qualify for a good report from the regular
army district inspector Of musketry.
But Mr.. Kipling had TO 60 only short
distance to get out OF his ideal training
grounds for imperial citizens into the crowds
Who are scontenting their souls' with tho
wrong thing. Less than five miles away
b the Sussex county cricket ground at
Brighton, the easiest ground for high
scoring In England.
Here X. s. Ranjitsinhji. the Parsee
Prince, has done his brilliant battling
for the ten seasons since he left Cam
bridge University here @. B. Fry. the
greatest century maker IN English cricket,
has performed for almost as long since
be left Oxford University, and here W; L.
Murioch, who captained an Australian
team that visited England twenty years
ago, has settled down and become q county
naghate entirely on the strength OF his
oricketing prowess
All three are leading spirits IN SUSSEX
cou nty's eleven And to the greater part
of Young England they and suoh as they
are accounted by far greater than her
statesmen OF Generals. q,
A whole-hearted indorsement OF school
and college cricket should not, according
to Mr.. Kiplings friends Of the rife club,
prevent them from protesting against
the national nonizing OF men OF physical
skill, leisure and education whose only
use Of their opportunities at present is
their reappearance summer after summer
In the cricket fields and nowhere else,
until the stiffness of approaching age lays
them aside to make way for other gentle-
men amateurs, who. In turn, Will end their
opportunities with a similar record.
For them, say the rifemen, the name
sfannelled fools fits. They are the very
men wanted, quick. skilful and hardy
and after them should follow as practical
workers In the more serious business which
Mr.. Kiplng advocates the crowds who
are now spectators at what Is properly
Q youngsters game. The rihemen want
them and think that hard words may bring
them TO see the truth.
Tho 'muddied OATS Of the goals are
not In quite the same category. They
attract vastly larger crowds to watch
their performances than the crtcketers.
but the principals do not constitute such
q loss Of good material from the rifemen's
point Of view.
A football game takes up a couple OF
hours onco a week. A frst-class cricket
match demands three days and all the
hours from mid forenoon on as long ss
daylight holds
As Mr.. Kipling's Susser neighDors are
probably the chief transgreesors In glori-
lying the lifelong picnic idea OF cricket
as a national game. 80 II happens 70 be the
neighbors Of that other and dinerent I'M
perialist, Joseph Chamberlain OF Burning
ham. who have broken loose In recent years
IN a mania for football.
All the players In the counties which he
dominates are paid professionas Ihey
oon1e In for about ms much hero worship
and about one-hftieth part OF the pay that
pugllist get elsewhere
Fifty thousand people viii squeeze their
way all the afternoon 10 catch GLIMPSE OF
leading 20 the grounds the stores are shut
for tho afternoon every day that game
h on; partly from prudence, partly be-
cause tie shopkoeper has usually gone Oh
70 the Rams himself. but partly beoause
no customer could possibly cToss hs door
The whole district 10 given over 70 tho one
thlpg football
fownrd tho end Of tbs seeson when the
tine " limited for playing on tias 20 decide
the chAmpionship. the games AIe - down
10 10 pla we'd GA weekdays instead Of. as
,.sSsg SsSs Tae,arlo.. % ifonSoris. cosl ninss
mad on fooilal
KipllnSs nhemsn are in hops that the
tau.fs l,o Lac called thsm may give tlisee