[To TER EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIR, — I should like
to tell two stories of the past, and to add a few words on the present situation. One day during the darkest phase of the Boer War I saw, on a railway platform,
three or four young men whom I knew eagerly scanning the contents of a newspaper. "Any fresh war news ? " I asked.
"No, Sir," replied a young man. "We are looking for the result of the football match between such-and-such clubs."
Disgusted and sad, I turned away. Sever al years ago, some- where about that time, I was asked to become a subscriber to the county cricket club. My answer was that it seemed to me that too much attention was being given to games, that the young men would be better employed in learning to defend their country, and that I preferred giving my money to Rifle Clubs and Cadet Corps. At this, the greatest crisis in our history as a nation, it is the plain duty of every young man to be exercising for the defence of his Fatherland. Surely the time has arrived for putting away childish things.
Who just now wants to read cricket scores or football results? When peace comes there will be plenty of time for games. Will our young women not help their country by showing plainly their disapproval of and their contempt for the loafing and, so far, useless young men who are standing aside when that country is calling on them? Some of us may remember those lines of Macaulay which thrilled our youth :— "Shame on the false Etruscan Who lingers in his home When Porsena of Clusinm Is on the march for Rome."
As an old public•sebool boy, I lave no dislike for games in proper season and under reasonable conditions. I subscribe to small country cricket and football clubs, but when the large matches as commercial undertakings, with gate-money and paid players, are still carried on at a time when our soldiers, alongside of our gallant allies, are on Continental battlefields shedding their blood and giving up their lives,
while our gallant sailors are keeping weary watch on the North Sea, then it seems to me, and probably will to many others, that the time to protest has arrived.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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