Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-08-02
By
Frederic j.
H0Skin.

mind. But no man may deny that fox
hunting is real sport, and every man
must acknowledge that the English are
the best hunters in the world. Every
pack of hounds In England is as we'll
known all over the nation as the base
ball clubs OF the major leagues are
known all over America. There is no
position within the reach of an Amer
lean sportsman which carries with it
even a hint of the honor attaching to
the office of master of a famous coun-
try hunt. The English hunters. men
and women, are hard-riding. sturdy. out
of-door athletes who represent in them
selves all that is cleanest and best in
the conventional notions Of British
craftsmanship.
1t is in the realm of sports that the
Englishman demonstrates his tradition
al love of fair play. English crowds
do not cry out for the umpire's blood
when he gives a close decision against
the home team, nor do they accept in
approving silence a palpably rank decis-
ion when it is to their advantage If a
baseball umpire in America were given
by the rules of the game, as much lee
way as is the umpire of an English
cricket match, there would be a riot
with every game But the law-abiding
Briton accepts without dissent the judg-
ment of the official
One reason for this difference may be
the fact that cricket is nothing like as
swift as baseball, and it does not so DOW
erfully appeal to the emotions of spec
tators, even supposing the spectators
were possessed of the emotions. Base
ball has been tried in England, cricket
has been tried in the United States. Both
were dismal failures. Baseball is a game
a Arf off r~vs%
rapid thought and versatile ability-alI
Of which are more or less American
characteristics; while cricket demands
steadiness, GOODNESS. calculating judg-
ment, deliberate campaigning and monu-
mental patience-all of which are more
or less British characteristics.
The entire British empire may be wait
ing on the tip-toe of expectancy for the
final score from an International cricket
match, and yet the cricketers will stop in
the middle of the game for cup of tea.
Nobody is impatient, nobody is fustered,
nobody complains. Imagine the post
series major league baseball champion
ship game, with the score l to 1, in the
seventh inning. suspended to permit the
players and their lady friends to babble
over a cup Of Sir Thomas Lipton's best
brew.
The difference probably Is that Ameri-
cans play games for the sake OF winning,
considering the sport in itself an incl
dent, while the English play for the sake
of the sport and consider victory or de-
feat merely an incident to the main busi-
ness In hand. American-trained ath-
letes often may defeat British competitors
in trials of skill. but that is a virtue of
the American habit of specialization
Take any hundred Englishmen at ran
dom and any hundred Americans, and
the chances are that the Americans would
not be able to compete successfully in
athletics.
Certain IL Is that the English believe
that the vast amount Of money they ex-
pend every year for sport is we'll spent
Wellington said that the battle of Water
loo was won on the cricket fields of Eton
and most Englishmen believe that all the
battles of the future will be won in like
manner. The English are a nation of
sportsmen. And, as a rule, they are
sportsmen in politics