TRUE SPORT AND SPORTSMANSHIP 



THE WORD SPORTSMAN DEFINED ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SPORTS- 

 MEN COMPARED AMERICAN SCHOOL AND COLLEGE SPORTS 



lEFORE we consider hunting as a sport, let us 

 come to an understanding as to the meaning 

 of the words sportsman, sporting man, and 

 " sport." In England a sporting man is one 

 who bets on horse-races, follows the " circuit," keeps game- 

 birds or bulldogs for fighting, or runs a gambling-saloon, 

 and is reckoned in good society as altogether beyond the 

 pale of respectability. On the other hand, to speak of a 

 man as a "sportsman" is to speak of one who is fond of 

 fishing, yachting, shooting, or hunting — hunting in Eng- 

 land always meaning riding to hounds, while going for game 

 with a gun is spoken of as shooting. To say of a man in 

 England that he is a good or genuine sportsman means that 

 in all such games of sport he plays fair and is gentlemanly, 

 honourable, and open-handed. He asks no favours and grants 

 none, winning or losing on his personal merits. In short, 

 a genuine sportsman and a genuine gentleman are synony- 

 mous terms. We are bound to use the words sport and 

 sportsman very often in the following pages, and in every 



3 



