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DEPLORES SUPPRESSION OF SPORT. The Marquis of Quccnsbury, writing recently in the Chicago Tribune, gives expression to sentiments that will forcibly appeal to American lovers of certain forms of wtt that have leen the victim of malicious political attacks In this country, when he says: "Since I have been in America nothing has struck me more forcibly than the misapplication of the words sport and sportsman. To my mind this very misapplication is the key to the reason that the people have been deprived of their legitimate rights in the way of true sporting events, such as racing and boxing. "Where I come from a sportsman means a man who has all the highest qualities of honor, courage-and endurance. It is even applied to other walks of life. For instance, when a man has met with great reverses in fortune and comes to the front battling bravely to preserve his honor and honesty we call him a good sportsman and love to give him a leg up. "Sport also means all that Is best In open competition, both in man and animal, where anything crooked, mean, or degrading, is not entitled to the appellation. Here I have been running the risk of getting a black eye, as according to my vernacular, 1 could quite well refer to a lady friend or relative us a good sport, and mean only that she loves outdoor exercises and pastimes, whereas here with the y added, I would certainly have got that punch. "Again, a man Is called a sport here who Is a gambler, bar frequenter, and frequenter of certain places not blue, and who loves to come home with the milk wagons. My word for him would be a rake. No wonder the legislatures have tried to put down sport, if sport means what It appears to mean here. Mind you, I am not nosing ns a model. I am no better than the rest of them right now, and have made them hum in my time, but I never looked upon It as an addition to my sportsmanlike qualities, but rather a sowing of wild oats, which brought no bars to my escutcheon of sportsmanship. "I think a serious campaign should be started to go back to the old application of the word sport, and the full splendid meaning of the word sportsman. Why, Colonel Newcombe was a grand old sportsman, but 1 am quite sure Thackeray never recorded that he ever went on a tear or painted the town red. Cant we invent some new word for the high Uicr? I have nothing particularly against him. as long as he keeps within bounds and does not call himself a sport. If The Tribune readers will suggest some nomenclature we will try to start a cult of the true rendering of the word .sport. "No doubt if it had not been for some of these so-called sports we might now be having a lovely race meeting, with women in their best dresses as spectators, and all the finest men of all classes who love a horse mcetlug enjoying the sport of kings. Might we not tonight be having a bout between two spleu-did boxers, who fight for honor and glory first and the purse as a necessary adjunct for their livelihood "But no, we cant have any of it, and all because these so-called sports spoiled the game, degraded the ring, and reviled the whole lovely combination by crooked methods. I believe the day will come when Americans will use the word sport as it .is meant to be used, and the word sportsman as the highest pinnacle of everyday life to which a man .or for that matter a woman can reach. That day will see the opening of tine and splendid race courses and well conducted clubs for skillful competitions in the manly arts. "The authorities who have stopped racing and boxing must remember that they have stopped all the legitimate outlets for men to get the reasonable, natural and healthy excitement which all people crave for, especially English-speaking peoples. Fancy an Indian garrison town on the Rock of Gibraltar or the Soudau without a race course.. If such a thing were possible, then it were possible for the British army to go on strike, and sure as I write these words, harm is being done to the people by stopping these self-same legitimate outlets for the animal spirits of the community. "I feel sure that illegitimate forms of sport, perhaps sport of the kind above referred to, will attack our vitals and make the authorities sorry that Instead of closing up nearly all the arenas of sport they did not drastically cleanse them. True sport is the fiuest thing on earth. It is the legitimate reward of good work. Ultimately the people will have it, and those who stand in the way to a regeneration of good sporting events are not true to the best interests of the people."
