SPORTS AND PASTIMES
I had not been in Washington a month before I received invitations to a
"country club golf" tournament, to a "rowing club," to a "pink tea," to
a "polo game," to a private "boxing" bout between two light-weight
professionals, given in Senator ----'s stable, to a private "cock-fight"
by the brother of ----'s wife, to a gun club "shoot," not to speak of
invitations to several "poker games." From this you may infer that
Americans are fond of sport. The official sport--that is, the game I
heard of most among Government officials, senators, and others--was
"poker," and the sums played for at times I am assured are beyond
belief. There are rules and etiquette for poker, and one of the most
distinguished of American diplomatists of a past generation, General
Schenck, emulated the Marquis of Queensberry in boxing by writing a book
on the national game, that has all the charm claimed for it. It is
seductive, and doubtless has had its influence on the people who employ
the "bluff" in diplomacy, war, business, or poker, with equal tact and
cleverness.
Middle-class Americans are fond of sport in every way, but the
aristocrats lack sporting spontaneity; they like it, or pretend to like
it, because it is the fashion, and they take up one sport after another
as it becomes the fad. That this is true can be shown by comparing the
Englishman and the American of the fashionable class. The Englishman is
fond of sport because it is in his blood; he does not like golf to-day
and swimming to-morrow, but he likes them all, and always has done so.
He would never give up cricket, golf, or any of his games because they
go out of fashion; he does not allow them to go out of fashion; but with
the American it is different.
Hence I assume that the average American of the better class is not
imbued with the sporting spirit. He wears it like an ill-fitting coat. I
find a singular feature among the Americans in connection with their
sports. Thus if something is known and recognized as sport, people take
to it with avidity, but if the same thing is called labor or exercise,
it is considered hard work, shirked and avoided. This is very cleverly
illustrated by Mark Twain in one of his books, where a boy makes his
companions believe that white-washing a fence is sport, and so relieves
himself from an arduous duty by pretending to share the great privilege
with them.
No one would think of walking steadily for six days, yet once this
became sport; dozens of men undertook it, and long walks became a fad.
If a man committed a crime and should be sentenced to play the modern
American game of football every day for thirty days as a punishment,
there are some who might prefer a death sentence and so avoid a
lingering end; but under the title of "sport" all young men play it, and
a number are maimed and killed yearly.
Sport is in the blood of the common people. Children begin with tops,
marbles, and kites, yet never appreciate our skill with either. I amazed
a boy on the outskirts of Washington one day by asking him why he did
not _irritate_ his kite and make it go through various evolutions. He
had never heard of doing that, and when I took the string and began to
jerk it, and finally made the kite plunge downward or swing in circles,
and always restored it by suddenly slacking off the cord, he was
astonished and delighted. The national game is baseball, a very clever
game. It is nothing to see thousands at a game, each person having paid
twenty-five or fifty cents for the privilege. In summer this game,
played by experts, becomes a most profitable business. Rarely is any one
hurt but the judge or umpire, who is at times hissed by the audience and
mobbed, and at others beaten by either side for unfair decisions; but
this is rare.
Football is dangerous, but is even more popular than the other. You
might imagine by the name that the ball is kicked. On the contrary the
real action of the game consists in running down, tripping up, smashing
into, and falling on whomever has the ball. As a consequence, men wear a
soft armor. There are fashions in sports which demonstrate the
ephemeral quality of the American love for sport. A while ago "wheeling"
was popular, and everybody wheeled. Books were printed on the etiquette
of the sport; roads were built for it and improved; but suddenly the
working class took it up and fashion dropped it. Then came golf,
imported from Scotland. With this fad millions of dollars were expended
in country clubs and greens all over the United States, as acres of land
were necessary. People seized upon this with a fierceness that warmed
the hearts of dealers in balls and clubs. The men who edited wheel
magazines now changed them to "golf monthlies." This sport began to wane
as the novelty wore off, until golf is now played by comparatively few
experts and lovers.
Society introduced the automobile, and we have the same thing--more
magazines, the spending of millions, the building of the _garage_, and
the appearance of the _chaufeur_ or driver. Then came the etiquette of
the auto--a German navy cap, rubber coat, and Chinese goggles. This
peculiar uniform is of course only to be worn when racing, but you see
the American going out for a slow ride solemnly attired in rubber coat
and goggles. The moment the auto comes within reach of the poor man it
will be given up; but it is now the fad and a most expensive one, the
best machines costing ten thousand dollars or more, and I have seen
races where the speed exceeded a mile a minute.
All sports have their ethics and rules and their correct costuming.
Baseball men are in uniform, generally white, with various-colored
stockings. The golfer wears a red coat and has a servant or valet, who
carries his bag of clubs, designed for every possible expediency. To
hear a group of golfers discuss the merits of these tools is one of the
extraordinary experiences one has in America. I have been made fairly
"giddy," as the Englishmen say, by this anemic conversation at country
clubs. The "high-ball" was the saving clause--a remarkable invention
this. Have I explained it? You take a very tall glass, made for the
purpose, and into it pour the contents of a small cut-glass bottle or
decanter of whisky, which must be Scotch, tasting of smoke. On this you
pour seltzer or soda-water, filling up the glass, and if you take enough
you are "high" and feel like a rolling ball. It is the thing to take a
"high-ball" after every nine holes in golf. Then after the game you
bathe, and sit and drink as many as your skin will hold. I got this from
a professional golf-teacher in charge of the ---- links, and hence it
is official.
The avidity with which the Americans seize upon a sport and the
suddenness with which they drop it, illustrating what I have said about
the lack of a national sporting taste, is well shown by the coming of a
game called "ping pong," a parlor tennis, with our battledores for
rackets. What great mind invented this game, or where it came from, no
one seems to know, but as a wag remarked, "When in doubt lay it to
China." Some suppose it is Chinese, the name suggesting it. So
extraordinary was the early demand for it that it appeared as though
everybody in America was determined to own and play ping pong. The
dealers could not produce it fast enough. Factories were established all
over the country, and the tools were ground out by the ten thousands.
Books were written on the ethics of the game; experts came to the
front; ping pong weeklies and monthlies were founded, to dumfound the
masses, and the very air vibrated with the "ping" and the "pong."
The old and young, rich and poor, feeble and herculean, all played it.
Doctors advised it, children cried for it, and a fashionable journal
devised the correct ping-pong costume for players. Great matches were
played between the experts of various sections, and this sport, a game
really for small children, after the fashion of battledore and
shuttlecock, ran its course among young and old. Pictures of adult
ping-pong champions were blazoned in the public print; even churchmen
took it up. Public gardens had special ping-pong tables to relieve the
stress. At last the people seized upon ping pong, and it became common.
Then it was dropped like a dead fish. If some cyclonic disturbance had
swept all the ping-pong balls into space, the disappearance could not
have been more complete. Ping pong was put out of fashion. All this to
the alien suggests something, a want of balance, a "youngness" perhaps.
At the present time the old game of croquet is being revived under
another name, and tennis is the vogue among many. Among the fashionable
and wealthy men polo is the vogue, but among a few everything goes by
fads for a few years. Every one will rush to see or play some game; but
this interest soon dies out, and something new starts up. Such games as
baseball and football, tennis and polo are, in a sense, in a class by
themselves, but among the pastimes of the people a wide vogue belongs to
fishing, and shooting wild fowl and large game. The former is universal,
and the Americans are the most skilled anglers with artificial lures in
the world, due to the abundance of game-fish, trout, and others, and the
perfect Government care exercised to perfect the supply.
As an illustration, each State considers hunting and fishing a valuable
asset to attract those who will come and spend money. I was told by a
Government official that the State of Maine reckoned its game at five
million dollars per annum, which means that the sport is so good that
sportsmen spend that amount there every year; but I fancy the amount is
overestimated. The Government has perfect fish hatcheries, constantly
supplying young fish to streams, while the business in anglers' supplies
is immense. There are thousands of duck-shooting clubs in the United
States. Men, or a body of men, rent or buy marshes, and keep the poor
man out. Rich men acquire hundreds of acres, and make preserves.
Possibly the sport of hunting wild fowl is the most characteristic of
American sports. This also has its etiquette, its costumes, its
club-houses, and its poker and high-balls. I know of one such club in
which almost all the members are millionaires. A humorous paper stated
that they used "gold shot."
As a nation the Americans are fond of athletics, which are taught in the
schools. There are splendid gymnasiums, and boys and girls are trained
in athletic exercises. Athletics are all in vogue. It is fashionable to
be a good "fencer." All the young dance. I believe the Americans stand
high as a nation in all-around athletics; at least they are far ahead of
China in this respect.
I have reserved for mention last the most popular fashion of the people
in sport, which is prize-fighting. Here again you see a strange
contradiction. The people are preeminently religious, and
prize-fighting and football are the sports of brutes; yet the two are
most popular. No public event attracts more attention in America than a
gladiatorial fight to the finish between the champion and some aspirant.
For months the papers are filled with it, and on the day of the event
the streets are thronged with people crowding about the billboards to
receive the news. No national event, save the killing of a President,
attracted more universal attention than the beating of Sullivan by
Corbett and the beating of Corbett by Fitzsimmons, and "Fitz" in turn by
Jeffries. I might add that I joined with the Americans in this, as the
modern prize-fighter is a fine animal. If all boys were taught to
believe that their fists are their natural weapons, there would be fewer
murders and sudden deaths in America. I have seen several of these
prize-fights and many private bouts, all with gloves. They are governed
by rules. Such a combat is by no means as dangerous as football, where
the obvious intention seems to be to break ribs and crush the opponent.
Rowing is much indulged in, and yachting is a great national maritime
sport, in which the Americans lead and challenge the world. In no sport
is the wealth of the nation so well shown. Every seaside town has its
yacht or boat club, and in this the interest is perpetual. Even in
winter the yacht is rigged into an "ice-boat." I have often wondered
that fashionable people do not take up the romantic sport of falconry,
as they have the birds and every facility. I suggested this to a lady,
who replied, "Ah, that is too barbaric for us." "More barbaric than
cock-fighting?" I asked, knowing that her brother owned the finest
game-cocks in the District of Columbia. Among the Americans there is a
distinct love for fair play, and such sports as "bull-baiting,"
"bull-fights," "dog-fights," and "cock-fights" have never attained any
degree of popularity. There are spasmodic instances of such indulgences,
but in no sense can they be included, as in England and Spain, among the
national sports, which leads me to the conclusion that, aside from the
many peculiarities, as taking up and dropping sports, America, all in
all, is the greatest sporting nation of the world. It leads in
fist-fighting, rifle-shooting, in skilful angling, in yachting, in
rowing, in running, in six-day walking, in auto-racing, in trotting and
running horses, and in trap-shooting, and if its champions in all fields
could be lined up it would make a surprising showing. I am free to
confess and quite agree with a vivacious young woman who at the country
club told me that it was very nice of me to uphold my country, but that
we were "not in it" with American sports.
The Presidents are often sportsmen. President Cleveland and President
Harrison both have been famous, the former as a fisherman, the latter as
well as the former as a duck-shooter. President McKinley has no taste
for sport, but the Vice-President is a promoter of sport of each and
every kind. He is at home in polo or hurdle racing, with the rifle or
revolver. This calls to mind the national weapon--the revolver.
Nine-tenths of all the shooting is done with this weapon, that is
carried in a special pocket on the hips, and I venture to say that a
pair of "trousers" was never made without the pistol pocket. Even the
clergymen have one. I asked an Episcopal clergyman why he had a pistol
pocket. He replied that he carried his prayer-book there. The Southern
people use a long curved knife, called a bowie, after its inventor. Many
people have been cut by this weapon. The negro, for some strange reason,
carries a razor, and in a fight "whips out" this awful weapon and
slashes his enemy. I have asked many negroes to explain this habit or
selection. One replied that it was "none of my d---- business." Nearly
all the others said they did not know why they carried it.