Athletics and Football (extract)

238 ATHLETICS by the earliest ' gentleman-amateurs' was, however,that it was degrading to run for money,and that amateur athletics should be confined to gentlemen. Possibly the eventual solution of the present problem will be a return to the old practice, and the gentlemen whorun and jump in matches will be able to confine the amateur competitions in which they take part to their own class. Such social distinctions, however,are very hard to preserveanywhere, and particularlyhard in sport, and the difficulties of defining an amateur are nothing compared to the difficulties of defininga gentleman. One thing is certain : the attempt to confine open competitions to gentleman-amateurs broke down. In the country especially, where the sports were promoted by the help of subscriptions from the neigh­ bourhood, people naturally declined to see the money they subscribed devoted to prizes to be competed for solely by gentlemen, and the gradual stream of public opinion from 1870 to 1880 flowed steadily in the direction of allowing any one to compete for a prize, whatever his social position might be, provided he cared to run for prizes in preference to running for money like a professional ' ped.' The result has been as we have seen, that with the rapid extension of the athletic movement throughout the kingdom, a large number of those who in former times would have become professionals have turned amateurs because amateurism is more lucrative. Of this class it may be safely said that theywill never abandon the amateur ranks until they find there is more money to be made as professionals. The recognition and encouragement of an honest and open professionalathleticismthroughout all districts of the country would be the best possible means of purging the amateur ranks of those who have no business to remain in them. As soon as the large number of the mechanic classes, who cannot afford to despise the money which they can make out of their athletic powers,find that it is just as lucrativeand just as honourable to compete as professionals, they will cease to call themselvesamateurs, and amateurismwill be the better for their departure.