prefers not to get them at all. "But," objects
the English wildfowl shooter, "suppose the birds are not get-at-able in
any other way?" "So much," the American would retort, "the better for
the birds. They have earned their lives; get them like a sportsman or
let them go."

The time may not be far away--and many Englishmen will be glad when it
comes--when to kill waterfowl at rest with a duck gun will no longer be
considered a "sport" that a gentleman can engage in in England. Perhaps
fox-hunting will become so popular in the United States that foxes will
be generally preserved. The sportsmen of each country will then think
better of those of the other. Meanwhile it would be pleasanter if each
would believe that such little seemingly unsportsmanlike peculiarities
that the other may have developed are only the accidents of his
environment, and that under the same circumstances there is not a pin to
choose between their sportsmanship.

* * * * *

Reference has more than once been made to the quality which looks to
English eyes so much like semi-professionalism in American sport. It is
a delicate subject, in handling which susceptibilities on one side or
the other may easily be hurt.

The intense earnestness and concentration of the American on his one
sport--for most Americans are specialists in one only--does not commend
itself to English amateurs. The exclusiveness, which seems to be
suspicious of foul play, and the stringent training system of certain
American crews at Henley have been out of harmony with all the
traditions of the great Regatta and have caused much ill feeling, some
of which has occasionally come to the surface. Some of the proceedings
of American polo teams have not coincided with what is ordinarily
considered, in England, the behaviour of gentlemen in matters of amateur
sport. On the other hand, Americans universally believe that Lord
Dunraven acted in a most unsportsmanlike manner in the unfortunate cup
scandal; and in one case they are--or were at the time--convinced that
one of their crews was unfairly treated at Henley. Honours therefore on
the surface are fairly easy; and, while every Englishman knows that both
the American charges quoted are absurd, every American is no less of the
opinion that the English grounds of complaint are altogether
unreasonable.

We must remember that after all a good many of the best English golfers
and lawn-tennis players do nothi