men _first_, and aristocrats, gentlemen,
or anything else you please, _afterwards_. If we are not men, in the
larger and better sense of the word, let there be no talk of gentle
blood or lengthy pedigree. The nation is what it is through the pluck
and energy of individuals who have put their shoulders to the wheel in
bygone days--men who have laid the foundation of a glorious empire by
sturdy personal efforts--efforts, unaided by the state, emanating from
those higher qualities of the character, relying on itself, and on
itself alone, for success or failure.

From the earliest times, and in the most primitive forms of animal life,
physical efforts to obtain the mastery have been incessant.

Whether it is in the brute creation or the human race, this struggle for
existence has always required the exercise of offensive and defensive
powers. The individual has striven to gain his living, and to protect
that living when gained; nations have paid armies to increase their
territories, and retain those territories when acquired.

The exact form of weapon which first came into use will always be
doubtful, but one would think that stones, being hard and handy, as well
as plentiful, might have presented irresistible attractions to, say,
some antediluvian monster, who wished to intimate to a mammoth or
icthyosaurus, a few hundred yards distant, his readiness to engage in
mortal combat.

Are there not stories, too, of clever little apes in tropical forests
who have pelted unwary travellers with nuts, stones, and any missiles
which came handy?

Then, coming nearer home, there is the lady at an Irish fair who hangs
on the outskirts of a faction-fight, ready to do execution with a stone
in her stocking--a terrible gog-magog sort of brain-scatterer.

When man was developed, no doubt one of his first ideas was to get hold
of a really good serviceable stick--not a little modern masher's
crutch--a strong weapon, capable of assisting him in jumping, protecting
him from wild beasts, and knocking down his fellow-man.

To obtain such a stick the primitive man probably had to do a good deal
of hacking at the bough of a hard oak or tough ash, with no better knife
than a bit of sharp flint. Having secured his stick, the next thing was
to keep it, and he doubtless had to defend himself against the assaults
of envious fellow-creatures possessed of inferior sticks.

Thus we can imagine that the birth of quarter-staff play--not much
_play_