The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-07-30
British Athletes.

recently funCn mao n NJ OF Jne DlueS
over the results of certain athletic con-
tests in England in which Britons did
not come off best. Punch insinuated
emphatically that his c%ountrymen were
degenerating into m~ollycoddles and
cynically consoled himself with such
reflections as these:
W are still the nation which lives on the most
meat ana the few est ideas"
The spirit OF the locker on Is with US and We
shall soon engage none but the best gladiators
from overseas 10 make sport before u.s."
May we console the little gentleman
in the peascod bellied doublet by sug-
costing that he is illogical? The loss of
some prizes to foreigners is not neoes-
sarily a proof of British degeneracy.
May we even plead that to regard the
matter thus ia not altogether gracious
to the foreigners? Many other British
journals have been uttering laments.
An Australian editor even gives the
question an imperial significance.
There are enough disintegrating in
huences at work in the empire, he says,
without the loss Of this supremacy"
We are ignorant Of the mental charac-
teristics Of these other plaintive sheets,
but from Punch We have been used to
expect common sense, not to speak of a
n OF humor, when matters Of sport
are concerned. Has Punch forgotten
how recently foreigners have taken up
these games In which they now meet his
countrymen v equals and sometimes as
victors? The retrospective supposition
that Britons were superior to Gauls at
golf, for instance. when there were no
French golfers to be superior to, ia some
what Elusive. Not so very long ago the
Scots had the game all to themselves.
Then the Englishmen "butted in" and
began winning the championship occa-
sionally. The London papers did not
therefore ccuse the Scots of being de-
generate. and this instance covers the
whole case. The rise Of foreigners, not
the fall OF Britons, is the moral Of the tale.
To find in it a proof Of British deteriora-
ton 1t would have to be shown that their
present performances compared I'M
favorably with their own feats in the
Dh5U. n COLllpdI " ~ JLAC bWO bLIOWS
on the contrary a very distinct upward
progress.
The Saturday Reriev, intervening earn
estly in this debate, raises a point which
incidentally has some interest for us.
How often have our college youths been
told that their British compeers do not
play to win, but for love Of the camel
How often have they been urged to
follow this unnatural examplei The
British collegian 10 somewhat misrep-
resented by these moralists. Once the
game is on he does play to win. Else
were he a ~mollyQoddle or a seraph or
both. What is rue is that he does not
play to live.
A remark Of the Saturday Reuiev about
Henley suggests this emendation. II
complained that the English crews had
to face what may almost be called I'M
fair competition '-meaning thereby that
they do not prepare so long or so elabo-
rately for the races as some Of their for
eign rivals do. This is doubtless true.
Compared with it's opponents a Leander
eight, for instance, is usually a very
scratch" combination. II it has been
together for a. many weeks az they have
been for months the length Of its prep
aration is above its average. This point
really involves the whole English con-
ception Of amateurism, and through that
the peculiar social conditions Of the
countryS The distinction between an
amateur and a professional as il origi-
mated in England was essentially a class
distinction.
The amateur belonged to the leisure
class; the professional to the working
claSs and a rigid caste system strongly
emphasized the separation. Among Eng
lish amateurs as members OF the leisured
class there has never ceased to be a
strong social prejudice against taking
their sports like work. II is not victory
which they shrink from, but the banausic
spirit Of a social grade to which winning
means livelihood and which may there
fore sometimes he greedy or even in
clined to sharp practice in pursuit Of its
unitarian end, just as traders are apt
to be in the game Of business. This
prejudice naturally extends to prepara-
tons for the game. Too much zeal and
labor in preparing smacks. to British
taste, OF the professional, of the man
seeming gain. The British amateurs
ideal would be to win without any special