Sporting notions of present days and past

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ROWING AT PUTNEY 217
catch cold, appear to take delight in courting
danger; but on the whole the metropolitan
division do act much more sensibly than the
Dark and Light Blues. It seems to me that the
style of work we have seen so many years when
Oxford and Cambridge come to Putney—the
pulling a bit and getting warm, and stopping a
bit and getting cold, and the neck-muffling (which
I never could believe in)—means, in the language
of the ring, putting the men on a good hiding to
nothing; " nobody gives you anything if it comes
off." Which is to say, that if a man catches cold,
nowadays commonly rendered influenza, he has
received the " good hiding " asked for, while on
the other hand successful issue from the ordeal
as regards health does not carry with it any prize.
So, considering that there are no advantages, but
very serious disadvantages in the course indicated,
the most sensible plan appears to be to minimise
the risk as far as possible, after the manner of
professionals. I really am not a believer in molly-
coddling, not even a little bit. "Doing hardy"
is, as I have found, very often the same as hum-
bug, so I am not an advocate of that former.
All the same, I do think that it is a mistake to
go against common sense. Our machinery wants
so much fire in the furnace to keep the hot water
in the pipes in circulation, a fact athletes should
bear in mind, because, if they expose themselves
to chills, the warming, which is also the motive
power, gets used up when it is wanted to rattle
the machinery along, in fighting the cold.
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