306 SPORTING STORIES 



indeed there is not much in the exhibitions of professional 

 football to fire the imagination. The football of the old 

 time, as described in Tom Brown's Schooldays, was far 

 more healthy and exciting than the spectacle of one band 

 of hired professionals contending against another band of 

 hireling experts. The spirit of professionalism in modern 

 football seems to me utterly inimical to the interests of 

 true sport. But I have hopes of better things in the future, 

 for I remember that cricket was once blighted by the same 

 mildev/, and yet has come out cleansed and wholesome. 

 Cricket has risen superior to such shows as a match 

 between two teams of professionals. Amateurs and pro- 

 fessionals have become amalgamated in county cricket, 

 and the game is all the better and purer for the amalgama- 

 tion : it is not, as it once was, associated with betting 

 and bribery, and there is no longer among professional 

 cricketers that sordid mercenary spirit which degrades 

 professional football. Until amateur and professional 

 footballers are similarly amalgamated and bound by 

 restrictions as to residence and qualifications resembling 

 those imposed upon county cricketers, I see no hope of 

 football becoming a really healthy and popular sport. 



