Sporting notions of present days and past

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MORE CRICKET 157
carried to their present extent is rather a serious
matter. Partisanship runs to undue limits,
and on one side or the other sentiments are
nurtured which are extremely undesirable." Quite
so, good on ye, Mr
Truth.
Never was truer
word said, and I may add that for years and
years the
Referee
has been preaching moderation
in this regard and deploring the forced, unnatural,
abominably fictitious stir built round such
business, to the detriment of whatever sport
is touched, because it becomes more or less tainted
in the contact. I do not quite like to say what
I want, because I may be supposed guilty of
personal animus and playing the Pharisee as
well. However, risking such charges, let me
now speak for myself, and, I am sure, a very
large proportion of our sportsmen, in declaring
that the way in which what we may call an
innocent competitive enterprise is worked up
" in the papers " is absolutely sickening. Anyone
who reads his times must see that booms never
do any game permanent good, for after the boom
the slump, and inordinate difficulty in settling
down to everyday-life living. Another feature
of the practice, at the same time very bad and
consolingly good, is that the fuss, the suggestion
of squabbles and quarrels—nearly all the ferment
—is introduced from outside. The papers do
the undesirable work what time the players
themselves respect wholesome traditions, giving
and taking fair-mindedly. That is so, and
makes all the more lamentable the light in
which
they are caused to figure. ' The catchpenny—or
halfpenny—poster headlines do us a power of
harm with Colonials and foreigners.
These are not to know and understand that