The Athletes and Athletic Sports of Scotland

PROFESSIONAL V. AMATEUR ATHLETES. 119 getting to games to compete, is a general holiday or Saturday half-holiday, unless theyput another in their place or work extra time before or after. Is it love of money that leads such men to practise athletic sports? Take any ordinary athletic meeting in Scotland where moneyprizes are competed for, and divideall the competitors into three classes, those who, afterpaying their expenses, have from a few shillings to a few pounds over;those who are just able to pay their expenses ; and those who areout of pocket, and it will be found that the last class outnumberthe other two. Many of the competitors have often hardly the faintest hope ofpaying their expenses; it is pure love ofathletic exercise that brings them forward. They arein the best and strictest sense ofthe word amateurathletes j while many athletes who are classed as professionals by those who profess to be amateurs are to all intents and purposes amateurs, are all who profess to be amateurs actuated solely by a love for athletic sports ? If so, they will refuse to accept anything of intrinsic value. What then of cups, medals, and the valuable considera­ tions included under that fine elastic phrase—necessary expenses? What becomes of all the gate money which amateur runners, jumpers, throwers, football players, and cricketers look after as sharply as the most worldly-minded professionals ?What about the companies of star amateur athletes, who notonly goover all their own country, but all over theworld giving performances for gate money ? They must belong to one of two classes ; either they are men, ofindependent means who pay their own expenses and give the gate money for charitable objects, or they are men who get their expenses paid as payment for their athleticperfor­ mances. If of the first class, amateur athletesmust beconfined to the rich and idle. If not a man of independent means, every athlete who gets his railwayfare, his passage by steamer, and his hotel bills paid for him in return for his athletic performances is simply a man making his living by these performances for the time being. All the difference between the amateur and pro­ fessional in these circumstances is that the amateur's pay is