Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-08-11

Bri iSh athletes have returned home 3 beaten, and have slunk away into oblivion, the English people are still :, smartng under the blow which their pride received at Stockholm and . which most of the newspapers tried as far as possible to conceal or at
 least explain away. What the daily foreign press in Europe as well as : in America wrote about English in- : feriority in sports created compara-
 lively little sensation, as the majority of people here are firmly convinced
 that it is these papers purpose al-
 ways to expose Englishmen to hatred
 and ridicule; and their criticism of
 the English Was generally believed
 to be the result of their hatred
 against really superior race If
 the English athletes brought home no
 laurels and if their few victories
 were practically all won by Colonals,
 everybody on John Bulls little island
 remained convinced that among the
 competitors of all countries who eX-
 hibited their skill at Stockholm the
 English were the only real gentleman,
 the only ones who really loved sport
 for sports sake and would far rather i lose than think of trying to win by
 unfair means.
 Alas, this pretty bubble has burst
 it's scintillating colors no longer dag gle the eyes of the British people.
 The foreign daily press has ceased to white about the Olympic games, but
 the monthly sports magazines, which Fare not so easily accused of bias,
 have begun their summing up of the great trials at Stockholm and before
 their cool, dispassionate criticism
 the last prop of British pride crum-
 bles away and the naked truth is seen
 by the English, who, on general prin- ciples, hate everything naked. In
 this summing up nothing is heard of the gentlemanliness of the English,
 who, on the contrary, when they saw they were in danger of losing dis played a good deal of the original
 brutes in man, and who repeatedly came very near being disqualified for :, their iRungentlemanlike tactics, espec- iallyein the water polo match and in , ftheir, football match with the Danes where, they deliberately and brutally Ii crippled their most dangeroups op- [ ponent and did their best to cripple 1.-two more.
 The criticism of the sporting press ! abroad has been so severe that it has heen penetrated the thick skin , of the British and while no more is sad here about British gentlemanli-
 ness voices are raised saying in plain language that England will either
 have to stay away from the next :, Olympic games, in Berlin in 1916, or :. she will have to adopt the American system of training, which was so con- temp.iously criticized few short weeks ago.
 An interesting side light upon the way things are conducted at the War
 Office is thrown by an incident that is
 being widely discussed in the little
 Kentish village of Rye.
 When barely twenty-one, John Day ] Q nofix ,Of irtp ch rt-
 ly afterwards he was sent out to the Crimea. He went through all the
 hardships of the war and took his
 part in the trenches before Sebasto- pol He suffered so severely that he was invalided home at the conclusion of the campaign.
 The Governor at that time awarded Day a medal, together with the one ], shilling day that the decoration car ried with it. The medal remained un-
 issued, although Day was told that it was all right, and that it was com ing along later. For years Day sent } in request that he should have his 4I NuS. ~AI AooC Ac SOU IilCO, AOWCNCi ! and forty years ago gave up the seem ingly hopeless task.
 Some friends got to know recently that the old man was being kept out of h;s rights, and a number, of gentle men of Rye took steps to enforce the claim. Pressure was brought to beal
 on the War Office, and a question ! was asked in Parliament. It was ther ! admitted that there were no fewer ? than 1000 medals to be issued, the
 men who won them on the field o
 battle being in many instances dead As the result of all the bother the I War Office opened its eyes, made n. s qulries, and ultimately sent the medal l along.
 The ppvf runcfiOu that will no r nj