297 



reason for this last recommendation being printed in italics, you may have 

 your mouth open, just for once, and get somebody to give you a slight tap 

 on the jaw. Bat you had better take the hint without trying the experiment. 



Before leaving the subject I may impart to my readers the advice I 

 got myself nearly forty years ago from one of the greatest friends I 

 ever had, and a splendid exponent of The Art, the late Pierse Netter- 

 ville Barron, of Waterford : " Kick a cad, snub a snob, beat a bully." 



As I have said there has been a vast improvement brought about 

 in manly gamts during the past quarter of a century, and the youth of 

 to-day have far and away more advantages than were to be had when 

 I was a boy. 



Except handball and rackets, we had scarcely any outdoor game in 

 Ireland carried on under recognised rules. Cricket was only then being 

 taken up. Football was played without rules, and consisted in merely 

 kicking the ball to the goal or the shins of the opposite side for oppos- 

 ing its progress. 



Beyond what we could do on parallel or horizontal bars, gymnastics 

 were very little practised. Even the bars were not to be found in every 

 playground, and if they were, there was no one to teach us how to 

 perform on them. The '' wild cat," therefore, was the extent of our 

 achievements thereon. Boxing we were never taught either, and w^hen 

 a dispute had to be decided by the fists, the performance was nothing 

 but a slogging match in the Ball alley without the least attempt at 

 science. Archery certainly we had, and there was a club of toxophi- 

 lites in most of our counties, but that can hardly be classed among 

 manly games. We had also the ladylike and innocent croquet, not 

 very scientific or exhilarating either ; no doubt if the game was a 

 private match it afi*orded means for quiet flirtation, while it gave a 

 pretty girl the opportunity of showing what sort of a foot and ankle 

 she had. Archery and croquet are now nearly extinct. 



Nowadays, we have public and private gymnasiums in most of our 

 important to^vns, where men and youths are taught by competent 

 masters to develop their muscles and agility, and to use the gloves 

 properly. Cricket is now as great a favourite in Ireland as ever it was 

 in England, and we have men who can handle the willow with aty 

 Saxon. 



Football, too, is played all over the country under regular rules, 

 and there is no game more conducive to manliness. In it, particularly 

 if played under Rugby rules, has to be displayed an amount of courage, 

 endurance, and determined combativeness not required in any other. 



Handball and rackets have, I am sorry to say, nearly disappeared in 

 Ireland, which is a pity for they were rattling good games. I can't say 

 I lament the loss of archery and croquet, for they have been succeeded 

 by lawn-tennis and cycling, both being infinitely more active, healthy, 

 and useful, and are for ladies the very best outdoor recreation ever yet 

 invented. Cycling, from its pre-eminent utility, has become simply 

 universal as a means of locomotion. To people who could never do 



