70 IDLEIIURST : 



learning which makes a man a clean shot with a 

 revolver may not prove profitable during the next 

 few generations. The Rector never shuts his eyes 

 to facts : even when arguing on the other side, he 

 frequently presents me with evidence a good deal 

 stronger than my own. He says that the boys are 

 wholly without a sense of honour ; chivalry we should 

 not expect, but there is not even fair play. When 

 the Sunday-school-ma'ams explain that strength 

 ought to respect weakness, the little tyrants are 

 puzzled by the proposal to throw away a natural 

 advantage ; and they continue to bully the girls, to 

 mob daft people, to harry the brute creation with- 

 out truce. Further, he says that even the virtues we 

 judged traditional are dying out ; mere brute courage 

 seems to be going. Many of the boys will not play 

 football, for fear of knocks. Last Summer he took 

 a boys' eleven over to a cricket match at Tisfield ; 

 and as he had damaged a finger, asked for a volunteer 

 to take his place as wicket-keeper. Not one of the 

 louts would put on the gloves, from tenderness 

 towards their knuckle-joints. And when they fight, 

 there is no honest punching or wrestling, but pre- 

 liminary hurling of flints or any missile that comes 

 to hand, followed by a wild-beast worry on the 

 ground, with tooth and nail, and inarticulate noises 



