[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR " ] SIR, — The letter of "
Foozler " in last week's Spectator, with its suggestion, interests another foozler who has often been accompanied on the links by an uneasy conscience respecting the caddies whom he has engaged. But he has found his conscience eased, if not wholly quieted, by the consideration that if only these boys are properly controlled by the com- mittee and a caddie-master, at once kind and firm, their temporary work on the links need not be a demoralising one.
The caddies, 'when interrogated, will generally be found to give a ready and candid response as to their future. One will be a soldier, another an artisan, a third, emboldened by his unrecorded successes with his fellows, hope%to be another Vardon or Taylor. Meanwhile, to their own and their parents' advantage, they pass a few intervening years on the links. Here, under healthy con- ditions, they may learn, if they will follow the line of their own interests, lessons of obedience, self-restraint, honesty,.quickness of observation, promptness in action. On the learning of such lessons well depends a measure of promotion within their own ranks. Nor can all this be said to be a bad school for after life and work. In some golf clubs special provision is made for the care of these boys in their spare time ; in all clubs they are under rules, and the penalty for infraction is either dismissal or suspension. In regard to " Foozler's " suggestion, commended as it is by your
editorial footnote, it would have the support of every good golfer but for a practical difficulty. He says : " Those who have injured an arm, are unable to do hard work, or are getting pushed out of their employment by their juniors would in many cases be found able and willing to serve" as caddies. I do not doubt their willingness, but I doubt the ability of the crippled, the infirm, or the aged for the task. To go three times a day round such a course as St. Andrews would be out of the question for these. The remedy for the mischief of the situation, so far as it exists, lies in an interest being taken by all golfers in the moral and educational welfare of these, their keen little servants.
—I am, Sir, ezc., B. WRITEFOORD.
Theological College, Salisbury. •
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