th the rapier supplanted the old broad-sword
play.

Single-stick really combines both styles of fencing. In it the player is
taught to use the point whenever he can do so most effectively; but he
is also reminded that his sword has an edge, which may on occasion do
him good service. It seems, then, to me, that single-stick is the most
thoroughly practical form of sword-play for use in those "tight places"
where men care nothing for rules, but only want to make the most out of
that weapon which the chance of the moment has put into their hands. It
may further be said that as the sabre is still supplied to our soldiers,
though rarely used for anything more dangerous than a military salute,
whereas no one except a French journalist has probably ever seen, what I
may be allowed to call, a foil for active service, the science of
single-stick has some claim to practical utility even in the nineteenth
century, the only sound objection to single-stick being that the sticks
used are so light as not to properly represent the sabre.

This is a grave objection to the game, when the game is regarded as
representing real business; but for all that, the lessons learnt with
the stick are invaluable to the swordsman. The true way to meet the
difficulty would be to supplement stick-play by a course with
broad-swords, such as are in use in different London gymnasiums, with
blunt edges and rounded points.

But gunpowder has taken the place of "cold steel," and arms of precision
at a thousand yards have ousted the "white arm" of the chivalrous ages,
so that it is really only of single-stick as a sport that men think, if
they think of it at all, to-day. As a sport it is second to none of
those which can be indulged in in the gymnasium, unless it be boxing;
and even boxing has its disadvantages. What the ordinary Englishman
wants is a game with which he may fill up the hours during which he
cannot play cricket and need not work; a game in which he may exercise
those muscles with which good mother Nature meant him to earn his
living, but which custom has condemned to rust, while the brain wears
out; a game in which he may hurt some one else, is extremely likely to
be hurt himself, and is certain to earn an appetite for dinner. If any
one tells me that my views of amusement are barbaric or brutal, that no
reasonable man ever wants to hurt any one else or to risk his own
precious carcase, I accept the charge of brutality, merely remarking
tha