28 LIVING OUTDOORS 



cubical fact. In America, college teaching may be better, but 

 our athletics are not yet on a right basis. We are simply crazy to 

 win. Some of our games make men hate one another, "slug" 

 one another, cheat one another, and try to buy one another. 

 Base-ball, much as I love it, is, in my opinion, a school of sharp 

 practice. There is a moral line that no one can cross without 

 debasing himself. An English boy is taught to lose cheerfully 

 rather than win by an unfair advantage. 



Now, golf embodies this spirit, and of all the games England 

 has given us it is the only one that has spread like wildfire in 

 America. I believe it is the best game for people over thirty, 

 and I hope that it will give us that check in our competitive spirit 

 which we need so sorely. 



There is only one other game in England which I think ought 

 to become a universal passion with us and that is lawn bowls, or 

 bowling on the green. Cricket takes too long; fox-hunting requires 

 a leisure class; but bowling on the green meets every requirement 

 of our peculiar conditions. It needs little space, takes little 

 time, does not require a change of clothing or a long journey by 

 train or trolley, is not too violent, as tennis is for elderly people, is 

 not namby-pamby, like croquet, and costs so little that poor men 

 can enjoy it every day of their lives. Its most serious limitation, 

 so far as I know, is that it requires four to play a game, but usually 

 this is not serious, for there are generally plenty of men at a club 

 to start a number of games, and if one has to wait there are plenty 

 of games to watch. Ladies can play it with enjoyment, and 

 without special dress. 



Plates 13, 14 and 38 illustrate the charming environment 

 which this game may enjoy without the great cost involved 

 in getting a big tract of land, such as golf, cricket, and 



