fashionable class. The Englishman is
fond of sport because it is in his blood; he does not like golf to-day
and swimming to-morrow, but he likes them all, and always has done so.
He would never give up cricket, golf, or any of his games because they
go out of fashion; he does not allow them to go out of fashion; but with
the American it is different.

Hence I assume that the average American of the better class is not
imbued with the sporting spirit. He wears it like an ill-fitting coat. I
find a singular feature among the Americans in connection with their
sports. Thus if something is known and recognized as sport, people take
to it with avidity, but if the same thing is called labor or exercise,
it is considered hard work, shirked and avoided. This is very cleverly
illustrated by Mark Twain in one of his books, where a boy makes his
companions believe that white-washing a fence is sport, and so relieves
himself from an arduous duty by pretending to share the great privilege
with them.

No one would think of walking steadily for six days, yet once this
became sport; dozens of men undertook it, and long walks became a fad.
If a man committed a crime and should be sentenced to play the modern
American game of football every day for thirty days as a punishment,
there are some who might prefer a death sentence and so avoid a
lingering end; but under the title of "sport" all young men play it, and
a number are maimed and killed yearly.

Sport is in the blood of the common people. Children begin with tops,
marbles, and kites, yet never appreciate our skill with either. I amazed
a boy on the outskirts of Washington one day by asking him why he did
not _irritate_ his kite and make it go through various evolutions. He
had never heard of doing that, and when I took the string and began to
jerk it, and finally made the kite plunge downward or swing in circles,
and always restored it by suddenly slacking off the cord, he was
astonished and delighted. The national game is baseball, a very clever
game. It is nothing to see thousands at a game, each person having paid
twenty-five or fifty cents for the privilege. In summer this game,
played by experts, becomes a most profitable business. Rarely is any one
hurt but the judge or umpire, who is at times hissed by the audience and
mobbed, and at others beaten by either side for unfair decisions; but
this is rare.

Football is dangerous, but is even more popular than the other. You