New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-08-20


affected the American spectators. To
a little group of us heather it was no
longer mere game of tennis we were
looking at. | was sitting next to
Young man who graduated from the
same university in Toxic as Kumagae
did and in the same class with him. He
will enter Harvard this fall.
"Domo kanshin desu ne" said he to
me. 1--WE may brag as much as we
please about what we can do in Japan.
But >. but that is beyond us. There
is a bigness about the American that
dwarfs u.s."
He was not talking about six foot and
some inches of Murrays altitude either:
he was simply overwhelmed with the
splendor and majesty of the American
sense of fair play"
And who shall say just how far this
sort of thing would not go? This
single incident made an impression upon
the young Japanese student which the
Declaration of independence and the
Sermon on the Mount repeated by a
thousand missionaries to Japan could
never make-not in thousand years.
Doubtless this same young man, as ne
goes through his academic course at
Harvard, will read some of the antl-Jap-
anese editorials of Hearst papers. But no
power on earth can convince him that
a real American is writing such stuff.
More than once Harvard graduate has
held the portfolio of Cabinet Minister
in Japan. Suppose this same young
student who saw the match were to de-
velop into future Foreign Minister OF
Japan? Suppose, also, a critical climax
in the Japanese-American relations
were to come to 2 head while ne is at
the helm of state? There is no prophet
wise enough to tell us how small or big
is the meaning of little incident such
as we saw in the Murray-Kumagae tilt.
Having this sort of thing in mind,
asked Kumagae how he had been
treated since he came to America.
He grinned in answer.
"Of course, had heard lot about
the American sportsman before
sailed" said he; "his sense of fair play
and square deal, and all that, you know.
The American doesn't play fair at all,
as a matter of fact. He cheats himself
right along. The sternest knocker OF
the American is the American. Ameri-
can spectators seem to be always hunt 4
ing for the smallest excuse to applaud \
my play. Most certainly they applaud
me ten times more than they applaud
the play of any of their own country
men. You know things are not like
that in Japan. When l played Mr..
Griffin at the Toxic Club the crowd did
applaud some exceptional exhibitions of
Mr.. Grif1in's skill But it seemed to go
hard with the crowd to do so. Here /
always get the benefit of a doubtful
point. l do not speak English well:
do not wish to make myself ridiculous
in protesting. But | feel like doing it
often"
Well, Kumagae has been beaten four
times now. But it must be great
satisfaction-indeed, a positive pleasure
to be beaten by such clean sportsman
as R. Lindley Murray, for example.
With all that, taking it by and large,
Kumagae has been playing the game
like a man of genius. Consider the cir
cumstanceS: consider also the youth Of
his tennis career. There is no question
about it: his tennis is commanding the
respect of the mystic topmost ten of
the ranking players in America.
Besides, he is doing corking good
work in another line. He is showing
some of our good American friends that
the Japanese are not altogether race
Of spies and sneak thieves, wife-beaters,
infantile paralysis incubators, liars and
donkeys and enthusiastic lunatics, as the
Hearst papers are telling millions of
Americans almost every day. He has
shown himself human being-just a
human boy who suffers from the en-
largement of the dome under the hat