FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 189 



"sports" do, I am told, make a feeble attempt to 

 attain proficiency, but an early start and unremitting 

 practice during a long apprenticeship are indispens- 

 able preparation for the dexterity, nothing short of 

 marvellous, with which the champions of the game 

 wield the curved basket, which, so to speak, 

 prolongs the right arm into an imitation of an 

 elephant's trunk. 



While it would be difficult to overpraise Jai 

 Alai as a spectacle, there is little doubt that it is 

 heir to all the evils that beset purely gladiatorial 

 games. One of the matches that I witnessed was 

 (unless I am much mistaken) a clear case of sold 

 to the bookmakers, or Corradores, who, easily dis- 

 tinguished by their red caps, are too much in 

 evidence in the arena and right in the way of those 

 in the front row, lisping the odds as each point 

 goes up on the board in a most infernal din. A 

 very courteous Spaniard, who sat next me in the 

 front row, had enough English and good nature to 

 explain the game to me, and the fact that I knew 

 its peculiarities already did not make his intentions 

 less kind. In the course of his running commentary 

 on men and things he gave me a shock. I asked 

 whether my suspicion that the last game had been 

 " pulled" might by any chance be correct. He 

 shrugged his shoulders and said that the whole 

 display was for gate-money and gambling. In a 

 rich country like England, he added with a sigh of 

 envy, we could afford to play our games for pure 

 love of sport and not for business. I half thought 

 that he must be laughing in his sleeve, but he spoke 

 in obvious and genuine admiration of the austere 

 purity of all English games. With some attempt 



