Athletics and Football (extract)

ATHLETIC GOVERNMENT 225 those who are familiar with the working of athletic meetings and athletic clubs know that outside the Universities, and a few other similar places, the state of amateurism has never been so bad as it is at the present day. When open races were first hought of, nearly all the competitors were ' g n leman amateurs.' It wassoon fountdhat, hard aitswas todefine an amateur, it was stillharder detofine ' gaentleman ' for athletic purposes. The 'gentleman amateur' was replaced by the am' a­ teur,' who was what his name represented, a man who com­ peted for love of the sport, and respected the rules of honour and fair play.Then came the time when athletics were at hheeight of their popularity, when the 'gate-money' taken at the meetings Was enough to support a club without paying muacthtention to subscriptions of members, and when meetings began to spring up throughout the country. This prosperity has led perhaps almost inevitably to decay. Thousands of men of every claosfs the communityb,ut, foorbvious reasons, chiefly those of the lower class, found that by taking up amateur athletics there were prizes to be wonw, hich were readily ex­ changeable for cash, anodpportunities also couldbe provided for making money by betting in those mysterious ways which had long been so familiar upon the turf and with the profession l pedestrians. The result is that the last state of amateurism is worsethan the first, and thathte rankosf so-called amateurs are crowded with athletes who have absolutely no further thought in entering for races than the amount monfey they can, by fairmeans or foul, extracftrom them. Probably not one tithoef the malpracticetshat acreommitted are so obviou in their nature toas renderit possible theayt can be brought before tnhoetice tohfe Athletic Association ; but we imagine that aenvening spweintht anoyf the committeeosf that body would astonisahn uninitiated patron aothf letic sports, hfoer would discover the existencoef an amount of petty swindling, deceit, and unfair play, which would give him but a poor opinion of the modern amateur. Men who havbeelonged to clubs anhdave run under their club-names refuse ptaoy sub- Q