28. Boxing and Athletics. 



really a prize fight. Great care should be taken that the 

 world is not getting too soft. In former times fighting 

 was as natural to a boy as quarrelling : boys fought at 

 school, boys fought in the street, and men too, for that 

 matter ; and say what they will, the knife and kicking are 

 not only coming in, but have come in. 



I am not crying down the present in favour of the past ; 

 but we are getting more effeminate in many things. Pads 

 and gloves were invented rather more than forty years 

 ago, and capital things they are ; but pads now are like 

 mats, and double the size of the leg, and many of the 

 modern school, if the ground is not like a billiard-table, 

 make such a fuss about it, that you would think they were 

 going to storm the Redan. I quite agree with the present 

 cricketers, that it is madness to stand against a man who 

 throws as hard as he can on a rough ground, and calls it 

 bowling. The gjime is not worth the candle, and it is not 

 cricket, but I think sometimes they cry out before they are 

 hvirt, and many of them are much averse to taking the 

 rough with the smooth. It is a great pity now that School 

 Board education is carried to such an extent, that manly 

 sports and gymnastics do not form part of the curriculum. 

 Oar friend, the working man, cried out not long ago against 

 drilling, as tending to warfare and military pursuits. I 

 went to an admirable institution, the Polytechnic Young 

 Men's Christian Institute, not long ago ; in fact, we had a 

 talk on manly sports that night. It is, I believe, an Eton 

 mission, where young men and youths have the advantage 

 of classes, preliminary instruction in trades, fine arts, and 

 also a good deal of religious instruction — but one great 

 feature is the gymnasium, where every means and appliance 

 are to be found for manly exercise of all kinds, not forget- 

 ting the noble ai-t of self-defence. 



And now I want to ask this — why are not swimming. 



