Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-19
BRITISH FAIR PLAY

That British spirit OF fair play re-
centiy axampltned again IN the domain Of
sports b. the protests of the Engiish COM
testants over certain e. the events won
by the Americans ct tn O1ympian kAm4a -
aiso being nlustratsd~in . renkMaf latsly
OF the vicious attacks By Epelish NrrttinS
women upon American women, indiv1du-
ally and collectively observed q WASH
ington clubman who apsnds q ccusiderahfa
portion OF his time on the other side.
These Engiish pen women are more than
scorching the American girl just now.
They appear to b particularly sore over
the success OF the American girl In Eng
land. Some Of them appear to be just
about tearing out large quantities Of their
hair because OF the natural attention which
travelling Americans women attract.
That old. ovsrworlked phrase, British
fair play may sound pretty good to
mellowed-up Britishers. but after twenty
Isles have failed to run across enough OF
It to Garry me on my feet. have 6eund,
on the contrary, that the very hardest
losers on the globe are Engiishmen. y
grinds them right to the center OF their
midrin to lose out In any old sort Of 9
contest, and they accept defeat with all
the grace OF rampageous rninocero.
with hide stuck full of Congo hunters
berbs. It 10 tho simple and unvarnished
TACT that they are unGenerous and grumpy
and protesting and snarling ana Kicking
losers, no matter what the event nor now
or where 1t u pulled OF. I've seen en-
lose at everything from hockey to push
ball. and from cricket to polo. both in their
own land and elsewhere. and have rarely
seen an Englishman accept defeat gra-
ciously or gracefully.
you'll observe that when the avetage
representative competing American gers
downed In any sort OF contest. he skates
right to the center and owns up to bis
defeat. Fellows, he says, in essence. m
licked. I've had blamed good druoplng.
/ won't do. I'm not in It. I'm not one.
two, three 30 to speak. I'm Just pulyer-
iced, that's what. I ought to be playing
bean-bag with the little girls out In the
back yard or he says something equaAy
outspoken, generous, manly and convinc-
TIE doesn't NOPE or sulk over his defeat.
He doesn't question the referees decision.
He gets right under the calcium ana aa-
mits to all hands that he got 1t where
Ethel wore the fichu, 30 to speak, ana tnat
closes the incident with him.
Nov, in victory the average Britisner ID
Just as gloatful and offensive as ne -
snarling and sullen in defeat The TIL
opponent, Well, the next time we go at II,
you'll most likely wipe up the ground with
me, old man. and he'll really have
certain feeling Of sympathy for the beaten
man.
But the triumphant Englishman cackles
gloatingly-I've heard him do 1t. and l
know-that he had sort OF feehnS I0W
the start that he wasn't going to be able
to lose out at his own game to YANKEE
and that's the difference,
And, as the English men are IN their
way Of viewing these matters, 90, naturaliy
enough. are the English women The
English women are sore, hard losers, TOO.
The simple fact, OF course. IL that the
American girls have got them reduced 70
an infnitessimal portion Of the merest
frosting on the cake in looks, style, Drains
manner carriage, common sense. womanh-
ness-the whole works, to put 1t IN lump
and this knowledge irks the English wom-
en-. most particularly the English pen
women
sThey know it thoroughly, but instead
of admitting that they've got thing or
two to learn from the American girl they
take it out in these wholly futile, put
nevertheless Irritating, knocks about the
American girls fippancy. her love OF dress.
her extravaganee: ner eo,on less ,n egr
and ali that sort Of pure humbug and
smoonshine.
NOW the American girl can't help It II
her English cousin 10 a trump ana q
average English woman to look dowdy
and to conduct herself with high degree
Of stiltedness and affectation. Not one In
forty English women knows how to array
herself becomingy, even II she's got all
the wealth Of India upon which to draw,
and the typical English woman Is naturally
angular and awkward and hatrooteo ana
1erky in her movements.
This, OF course In not to say that
English women are quite beyond rehabni-
tation All they've got to do. you know.
Is to follow, or do the best they can 10
follow, the self-training and self-cultivat-
ing methods OF the American girl. ana
maybe in the course OF five or SIX genera
lions, a small class Of them may be able
to at least approximate the dash and go
and brains and looks and style OF the
average American girl.
But as It Ii now, everybody with an
open mind knows that they've lost out
totally. I've seen every one of the So
termed raging beauties Of England, and
beg to say that there isn't one of them
that can remember to be compared with
what we call just hne-looking average
girl over here.
"No. the Englishman hasn't got any
thing on his wife or his sister when 1t
comes to being hard and powerful loser
The one difference between the hard-iosing
Englishman and the hard-losing Enghsh
woman IL that the men, when they're beat.
are generally too sulky and sullen to write
about their defeats. whereas the losing-out
English women, when they think they
know how to write, rush into print with
all OF their give-away hysteria about the
American girl and make themselves COM
pletely ridiculous.