312 The Hunting Field With Horse and Hound 



described in this chapter had the shghtest fear. He simply- 

 realised the moment had come and faced the conditions without 

 a quiver, head erect and eyes that saw all that was going on. 

 This stag had been fleeing from real and imaginary enemies 

 from the day of his birth, so that the mere act of being pursued 

 or fleeing for safety was second nature. He practised all the 

 craft of the race as his instinct taught liim with a clear head 

 and a cool judgment and finally when it did not prove to his 

 advantage as it had on all former occasions, he accepted the 

 fall and died in his tracks without fear. 



To the writer's mind, there is no way or form of taking 

 wild game animals that is so sportsmanlike, so human, and at 

 the same time, so consistent with their natural environment, as 

 to take them in pursuit. 



What have we in America to compare with the chase in the 

 upbuilding of the nation or of individual character? Perhaps 

 the western critic would suggest billiards or pool or poker amid 

 clouds of tobacco smoke and the reeking odours of the bar, 

 in preference to the degrading influence of the chase. He 

 might suggest croquet; or if that is too fatiguing for warm 

 days, he might prefer a pound of candy and a game of tiddle- 

 de-winks under an electric fan. 



No, we don't know how to play in America. The nearest 

 most of us come to it after we leave school and college is to buy 

 a ticket to the grand stand and shout ourselves hoarse at a lot 

 of hired men playing baseball. It is, to the writer's mind, 

 nothing short of a national calamity that we have no game, Hke 

 the chase, suitable for men. We are by this so-called liigher 

 civilisation, to which the critic points with so much pride, 

 degenerating in build, lacking in endurance, stamina, courage, 

 nerve, health, nearly everything except book learning that 

 goes to the up-building and perpetuity of a noble race. What 

 schooling have we in this country to make a true sportsman of 

 a boy? Almost nothing. He will certainly not acquire it in an 



I 



