ATHLETICS IN SCHOOLS. 683 



being athletic journals, contain original compositions, both poetry and 

 prose. They serve a useful purpose, as well as the societies, by fos- 

 tering a mental activity among the class hardest to reach. Many a 

 young athlete must have first been induced to exert his immature 

 powers by writing (say) some reflections on certain aspects of foot- 

 ball. The theme, doubtless, is somewhat humble, but he has to do his 

 best, as his readers know the details of the question thoroughly, and 

 will express their opinion as plainly as any weekly review. Perhaps 

 he learns for the first time that having ideas is not the same thing as 

 expressing them. But to promote the existence of journals which deal 

 entirely with the school-games is dangerous. A very definite impres- 

 sion is made on the younger boys, if they are led to think there is only 

 one subject on which their superiors think it worth while to express 

 their ideas. An indefinite prestige is added to any subject, and still 

 more to any name, by being immortalized in a few lines of letter-press, 

 and it seems advisable that this glamour should not be thrown around 

 one set of interests solely. The periodical should have a double char- 

 acter, and ought to act in the same way as the two kinds of debating 

 society existing together ; the serious portion of the journal would be 

 the field for the literary effort of the studious and the scholar-like, 

 as the literary society would be for their speeches ; while the athletic 

 records can teach athletes to write, just as the debates of the fashion- 

 able club would help them to speak." 



But again, and in another aspect, Mr. Littleton sees that the ques- 

 tion is complicated with outside influences. If public opinion strength- 

 ens excessive athleticism on a grand scale, by making it a popular show, 

 the feeling for it is also fostered in the family, so that boys' heads are 

 filled Avith it before they enter school. Here, also, as in many other 

 matters, the weakness and folly of parents have a baneful efiicacy in 

 hindering educational improvement and school reforms. On this point 

 it is remarked : " But what is to be said about the life at home ? It 

 is a farce to talk of debating societies and the like being available to 

 combat this or, indeed, any other diflSiculty, so long as boys are sent to 

 school primed, since the nursery, with the one idea that amusement is 

 to be sought at school, and that a boy, if he is worth anything, will 

 find it and make the most of it. The efforts of the professional teach- 

 ers depend, to a great and generally unappreciated extent, on the co- 

 operation of the parents. Meantime, the mischief is frequently done 

 before the school-training begins. It is not very uncommon to find 

 parents who have sent their son to a fashionable school, previously 

 urging him to keep out of debt and make suitable acquaintances, but 

 at the same time warning the poor child against getting too fond of 

 books. Others, no doubt, are more cautious ; but the traces of a gen- 

 uine stimulus hence toward useful work are lamentably rare, and more 

 rarely still are habits of reading encouraged away from school. Not, 

 however, that we need always postulate reading ; we may, perhaps, 



