entlemen" in fact. Any loss which the nation
can have suffered from the tendency to sit on benches and applaud
professional players must have been made up a thousand times over in the
benefit to the national physique from the spreading of the game into
wide classes which formerly regarded it, much as they might fox-hunting,
as a pastime reserved only for their "betters."

It is none the less interesting and instructive that in this field as in
so many others the directly opposite tendencies should be at work in the
two countries: that just when America is beginning to learn the delight
of being a game-loving nation and amateur sport is thriving, not yet to
the detriment of, but in proportions at least which stand fair
comparison with, professional, the cry should be raised in England that
Englishmen are forgetting to play games themselves in their eagerness to
watch others do them better. Here, as in other things, the gap between
the habits of the two peoples is narrowing rapidly. They have not yet
met; for in England the time and attention given to games and sports by
amateurs is still incomparably greater than on the other side. But that
the advancing lines will meet--and even cross--seems probable. And when
they have crossed, what then? Will America ever oust Great Britain from
the position which she holds as the Mother of Sports and the athletic
centre of the world?

Some things, it appears, one can predict with certainty. America has
already taken to herself a disagreeable number of the records in track
athletics; and she will take more. On the links the performance of Mr.
Travis, isolated as yet, is only a warning of many similar experiences
in the future. In a few years it will be very hard for any visiting golf
team of less than All England or All Scotland strength to win many
matches against American clubs on their home courses; and the United
States will be able to send a team over here that will be beaten only by
All England--or perhaps will not be beaten by All Britain. At polo the
Americans will go on hammering away till they produce a team that can
stand unconquered at Hurlingham. It will be very long before they can
turn out a dozen teams to match the best English dozen; but by mere
force of concentration and by the practice of that quality which, as has
already been said, looks so like professionalism to English eyes, one
team to rival the English best they will send over. In lawn tennis it
cannot be lo