LEADERSHIP 211 



driven to invent some other way of breaking 

 their necks to let off surplus energy. 



For rich people there is no cleaner or healthier 

 form of pleasure, no better training in nerve 

 and all that makes a man. 



The training for leadership among the 

 Germans is a matter of beer and fencing, 

 among the Americans of office work, among the 

 British of field sports. Which method is best 

 to save leaders of men from corruption, and 

 decadence ? The mettle of our pastures gives 

 cool judgment in administration, leadership in 

 affairs, and in times of peril a sterUng worth of 

 manhood proof against disaster. 



Far be it from me then to deride the British 

 horsemanship. Any horseman who can tole- 

 rate so slippery and unreliable a contraption as 

 the EngUsh saddle is greatly to be envied and 

 admired. 



Always a timid horseman but emulous, I 

 made two attempts to ride the damned thing, 

 and came to grief without the least delay. The 

 third try was quite a success, the occasion 

 being a cavalry charge into a converging fire at 

 point-blank range. I was much too scared to 

 fall off, and so came to the conclusion that any 

 fool could ride anything if his attention were 

 sufficiently distracted by a hail of bullets. 



