ON CADDIES.
rro THE EDITOR OF TEE " SPECTATOR:1 Sin,—I italicised some of the words I quoted in your issue of March 31st from Mr. H. G. Hutchinson in order to emphasise the fact that he, a great authority, deemed it profitable for a boy to quit a profession where ultimately the "sole loves are golf and whisky." I do not think my letter is open to any other interpretation. I 'questioned the soundness of his assumption that, as a matter of course, lads will be able after a course of caddying to become apprenticed to useful trades. Dr. Whitefoord consoles himself in your last issue with the same assumption. Having discussed the future, with the boys in the idyllic conditions he depicts, he finds that they "will" become not only soldiers, but artisans, or even such heroes as Vardon or Taylor. Will they ? Such easy optimism may be a salve to the pricks of conscience. But I fear your correspondent has mistaken the will for the deed, the pious aspiration for the accomplished fact.
Among the correspondence which has taken place on this subject in the Press during the past week are several letters from secretaries of golf clubs, who protest that improvement depending on better pay to the caddies is not feasible on the score of expense: as though the welfare of their clubs depended upon a supply of cheap boy-labour. This is the familiar cry of the sweater, without the sweater's apologetic plea that he is manufacturing an article of public necessity. Some years ago the price of the best golf balls then in use was a shilling apiece. Of late the improved balls have cost two shillings each. The golf player can pay a shilling apiece more for his golf balls ; but if he must give his caddie an extra sixpence the club will suffer! I believe, however, that it will be found that the golfer, if pressed, will be quite content to pay a fair price for whatever he requires, including his caddie, though, like others of the consuming class, he likes to
get his requirement cheap.—I am, Sir, &c., FOOZLER.
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