36 Among Men and Horses. 



commissions, which, formerly, were the coveted prizes for the 

 Sandhurst cadets. As the keeping of ' pleasure horses ' 

 means the possession of money ; knowledge of riding and of 

 horses is becoming rarer and rarer among the last joined 

 officers, who, if they be wise, should try their best to go out 

 to India. 



Admirable as cricket, lawn tennis, golf, and other kindred 

 games may be, I must confess that I am rather prejudiced 

 in favour of those which have a fair share of danger in them, 

 such as hunting, pig-sticking, chasing, and big game shooting, 

 as a means of taking the softness out of young men. Were 

 pluck a common human attribute, its possession, as has often 

 been said, would be accepted as a matter of course, and would 

 not be held up for universal admiration. Of the many mean- 

 ings embraced in the term ' sportsman,' one of the most 

 essential, to my thinking, is that of a good loser — of a man 

 who will face danger and will bear physical or mental pain 

 without flinching ; in fact, a good plucked 'un, to use a 

 colloquialism which is more expressive than elegant. The 

 strain of a desperate struggle to be first in a race, whether 

 on foot, boat or bicycle, demands quite as much pluck as a 

 a prize fight. I may remark that courage, like other mental 

 qualities, requires practice for its high development, and is 

 shared by beast as well as man ; by black as well as white. 

 My experience of the world, of which I have seen a great 

 deal, has made me regard the people in it as ' much of a 

 muchness ' ; one nation not being greatly superior to the 

 other, except by reason of its opportunities. In my young 

 days, we thought Britons and Irishmen could box, row, and 

 play any game which demanded strength, activity, skill and 

 pluck, better than anyone else ; because they were Britons 

 and Paddies. Jack Heenan, J. L. Sullivan, Murdoch and his 

 fellow-cricketers, Hanlon, and other Colonials and Americans, 

 to say nothing of Frenchmen and Dutchmen, have of late 

 knocked a good deal of this nonsense out of our heads. We 

 were boastful about our horses until Gladiateur, Fille de l'Air, 



