SPORTSMEN AND SPORTING MEN.

BY HARRY HIEOVER.

THE SPORTING MAN.

I have hitherto only mentioned the sporting man in a certain equivocal position in society, that enables him, with a portion of mankind, to rank in that equally equivocal character of a gentleman; not that with the well-born, well-bred, and right thinking, there really is anything equivocal in the attributes that truly constitute that character, or that there is any real difference in those essentials as regards the gentleman of 1646, or the one of the present era; but taking the world (or at least the population of our country) en masse, that a considerable difference between the opinions of the population existing at these distant periods does exist, I conceive to be quite palpable. Formerly birth, education, a constant devotion to honourable conduct, and constant association with gentlemen, were necessary preliminaries to ranking in that class; and this feeling pervaded all orders of society. But now we go a quicker way to work, and find a shorter cut to aristocracy. Who would now go through the dull routine of education? What younger son will in future cut his way to fame and fortune by his sword, when sharing in the cutting of a railroad can, with talismanic effect, bring him, in the world's eye, to a position once thought the prerogative of a chosen few? Who will urge their weary steps, with toil and danger, up the hill of fame, when he can tunnel through it, and thus render the transit from plebeanism to all the advantages (if not the reality) of aristocracy as sudden as the transit from London to Blackwall? albeit the traveller, on commencing his journey, might be one whose pristine ideas never soared beyond the luxury of a penny-a

miler.

Nor are railroads now the only roads to sudden fortune, and consequently as sudden elevation to its concomitant advantages. Who will, in future, seek the bubble, reputation, "at the cannon's mouth," or hazard life and limb to support the dignity of himself or family, when a little hazard at his own house can raise him to all the dignity now necessary to his comfort? None but the insane.

Our old acquaintance, famed La Manchas, knight, was a man of sane and steady purpose, if compared to the man of our days, who would contemplate leading a life of honest industry, and fighting the good fight to honourable independence, when, by being concerned in "selling a fight," he can jump to such a conclusion at once; and, from the moment the is thrown sponge he up, throw may up his сар, and say 'Io triumphe!" He may pocket his gains; and if an affront may perchance be offered him, in good truth he can well pocket that too.

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Some may be still found who would be hypercritical enough to cavil

at the mode by which such money was secured. What matter? he secures the money. Should the world be uncourteous enough to broadly hint or say rascality had been at work, he stares the world in the face, and coolly says "What's that to you?" Or should it still further hint or say they consider him in person a component part of that rascality, he as coolly replies "What's that to me?" Truly very little, as things

now go.

We will now consider the character of the sporting man in its lower phase; and so far as regards its influence on the morals, habits, and prospects of the lower orders of society, it will be found still more baneful in its effect on this grade than on the more enlightened and independent; for so much less as one mind is capable of reasoning upon and properly appreciating causes and effects and their probable results than another, so much more will that mind be led away by false appearances, specious argument, or bad example.

We will not here discuss the somewhat disputed fact as to whether the infant offspring of the peer and the peasant do or not inherit the same susceptibility of mind, or whether any different inherent qualities are born with them. Sufficient for my purpose is the fact that stability of mind and purpose, and strict moral principle, are necessary to withstand temptation, when that temptation is held out under the guise of interest or pleasure.

The housebreaker may, without any detriment to the success of his practices, be as great a ruffian in manner and outward appearance as he is in mind and habits; but to tempt the ordinary run of men to their own ruin, or to join in concerting that of others, requires a certain specious mode of persuasion and pleasantry of manner that is an indispensable part of the education of the man who intends to live by his own wits and by the want of them in his intended dupes.

There are many worldly considerations that cause numbers of men to be much sought for in society, in whom the vein of pleasantry holds but a very languid course. Many praiseworthy or admirable qualities of mind and intellect render others equally desirable as companions and friends, who may neither set the table in a roar by their broad humour nor excite our surprise by the flashes of their wit; but the confirmed scamp and low leg, or any leg, ought to be a pleasant fellow, and in both senses of the word; that is, in its true and metaphorical senses, very pleasant fellows they are generally found.

Indispensable as pleasant and persuasive manners are to the leg, alias sporting man, it must be quite evident that there are many other requisites necessary to form an accomplished artist of this genus. Perhaps the most useful and necessary are a total absence of feeling; a most stoical indifference to every thing that does not affect his immediate pecuniary interest; a perfect remorselessness as to sacrificing friends, the moment he finds it his interest to do so; resolution and courage to face enemies, when necessary, with patience and command of temper; to cringe to insult, when it comes from those it is his interest to be on terms with. He must possess another kind of resolution: no personal pleasures or gratification must have any influence on him when business is to be carried on. He must be able to personate the hilarious companion the liberal, open-hearted spendthrift; propose the bumper toast and exciting song, but contrive to be, in point of abstemiousness in

himself, a perfect anchorite; and should it be necessary or judicious to assume the roisterer in his cups, his eye, like that of the basilisk, must never take its watchful glance from his victim.

The leg, though in point of morality, and indeed effect, robs as much as the bare-faced footpad, depends on his cunning-not his courage for success. His is not the open attack of the lion; but, like the cowardly tiger, he creeps, with stealthy pace, up to his prey, and makes his spring at the favourable moment. If foiled, for a time he quits the quarry; but if a rich one, he has a watchful eye on his whereabout; and the prey, once marked, rarely escapes the joint machinations of himself and his confederates-friends he has none; for no friendship can exist in a clique where each knows he would be sacrificed the moment interest indicated the fitting time.

Reader, I shall congratulate you if, on estimating such a character as I have represented, your habits of life may have been such as to induce you to think the picture too highly coloured, and the description overcharged; but I am aware there are but too many who can with regret recall such characters to their remembrance. There are, of course, various shades in every character, and various degrees of vice, as forming its whole; but take him all in all, more or less, what I have sketched is about a fair average portraiture of the sporting man. That the manners and pursuits of such men vary in accordance with the class of society in which they carry on their avocations, and, in sooth, depredations also, is doubtless the case; but, whether the arena be the drawing-rooms of St. James's or the smoke-dried parlour of the pugilist in the purlieus of Smithfield or Whitechapel, the game is played with the same intent, attended with similar results: the animus of the man will be found the same; and "mutatis mutandis," the system of operation and the rascality the same also.

It can be no matter of surprise, if a man in the low grades of society is induced to play cards or any other game with a man and his coadjutors, who can deceive even the quick-sighted by slipping a pea from under a thimble, that he is sure to get up pillaged to the last shilling; and the only pity such unfortunate wight would get would be, "What business had you in such company?" But do our scions of nobility and aristocracy never lay themselves open to have a similar remark made on some of their associations? Knowledge of the world, mixture with its varied scenes, and candour, must cause us to respond in the affirmative to such a question. Yet a moderate knowledge of the ways of the world ought to make such men au fait of the fact, that if the unwashed hand of the thimble-rigger can slip a card and palm a die, the delicate finger on which the brilliant sparkles is equally adroit in the same species of legerdemain; and both are equally robbers by trade, and villains at heart; for whether the plain farmer is pillaged by the low leg, or the man of family by the fashionable or perhaps titled one, the catastrophe is brought on from the same cause, namely, associating with men whose characteristics ought to tell us to avoid them as banes to society at large, instead of daring our fate and the opinion of the world where ruin and disgrace will be the eventual and certain penalty.

Let us hope there are few minds possessing so little philanthropy as to wish to curtail the amusements of the lower-or perhaps it would be

better to say the poorer-classes of society; but the term poor is a relative, and often a very misapplied one. There are numbers who are really poor, and whose cup of bitterness is filled to its very brim. Cold must be the heart that would not rejoice to see an occasional gleam of sunshine, in the shape of amusement, glad the dark horizon of their fate. But we must not consider men as our poorer brethren because a fustian jacket and an apron show he lives by his labour. Thousands of this class partake of more amusement than those for whom they labour. A pint of porter, a song, and meeting their friends in a pothouse, are as great enjoyment to them, as the opera or the soirée is to those of more elevated mind and taste. The former can indulge much more frequently than the latter. Not but that the amusement of both may, quoad their incomes, bear a similar proportion; but the man of family has a certain appearance to keep up-to hold his standing in the world's eye. The other lives as he likes; consequently such persons can and do get a far greater share of amusement in proportion to their means, than those nominally more wealthy.

I fear it is a fact that, of all civilized nations, the inhabitants of Great Britain are the least to be trusted amid scenes of pleasure. Dancing on the green, where youths and maidens trip it on the light fantastic toe, while the elders chat, and feel a parent's pride in witnessing the harmless mirth and beaming countenances of their children, sounds well and pastoral; but such images of the fancy are now only realized in the ideas of the poet or the painter, so far as our country is concerned. On the continent such are daily seen; but here the bull bait, dog fight, or any fight, the fair (or rather the drinking booth at the fair), and the village alehouse, are the beau ideal of the countryman's enjoyment. The gin palace, the pigeon or dog-fancier's crib, gaming, the betting tap or parlour, are the several arcadias of the low Londoner's idea. Should he contemplate a treat to the shilling gallery, it is fixed for a night when it is hoped something will occur that may give opportunity to perpetrate a row; where sticks, cat-calls, and every description of yells are produced, to illustrate that blessed prerogative-his independence; to the humiliation of performers whose talents ought to shield them from his low and beastly ribaldry, and to the utter disgust of those who are thus prevented enjoying an intellectual entertainment.

It may sound philanthropic and patriotic to wish to see the peer and the artizan each participating in the same enjoyment. Such things ought to be, we know; but, constituted as the minds of the generality of the lower orders of our country are, such things cannot be, if decorum is worthy consideration. If the bear possessed the qualities of disposition and the habits of the Newfoundland dog, he might be an equally welcome occasional companion; but he does not, nor has he grace enough to assume the habits of one if placed in the same situation. It may be said that constant association would, in time, make him do this. Maybe so I could make no objection to any one making the experiment; but if I were to be one of the party while the tutelage was going on, I should most earnestly beg the muzzle might be kept on till the reformation was completed; for if bruin is English bred, he will be very likely, if among his superiors, to bring forward all his bearish habits, for the express purpose of showing that he dare do it, and has as great a right to howl as any lord in society. Doubtless he has the

only thing is, lords or gentlemen do not howl in society. If they did, they would be fit companions for bears; but while they are not, bears are not fit companions for them at present. What time may effect I in no way pretend to predict.

In alluding to sportsmen I have expressed a conviction that sporting, when pursued with its legitimate aim-namely, amusement and healthful exercise is beneficial to all those engaged in it, and also to the immediate neighbourhood in which it is carried on: but the perversion of its intent does and must lead to demoralization and ruin, with high and low. If the artizan could afford the time or the money to join in field sports, as sport, his health would be benefited by it, and his morals and habits improved, as it would be the means of weaning him from vicious companions and vicious propensities; but when his predilection (if he has it) for what he calls sport leads him to more than waste his time in the haunts of the dregs of the ring, cock, bear, or dog pit; then his ruin is sealed, and he becomes a vagabond for life; for such pursuits are those of the low sporting man, though the sportsman holds them in detestation.

Among other things likely to lead a weak, somewhat idly-disposed, but perhaps in other ways respectable, member of the lower grades to such scenes, I consider the sweeps now so much in vogue stand preeminent. I care not whether the sweep be five shillings or five pounds: their baneful effects daily, and will continue to (?), prevail, whether it be a Derby, Oaks, Leger, Cesarewich, Cambridgeshire, or any other sweep. The only difference as to the effect is the lower the stake, the lower will be its members; and the lower the members, the easier will they be led to vice in its most hideous form.

Supposing an artizan, earning his two or three pounds a week, is, in his general habits a steady, sober, well-conducted man: the risking five shillings on a sweep may not be a serious affair to him; and, so far as the mere losing such a sum goes, it certainly would not really injure him or his family in fact, losing it would be the most fortunate thing that could befall him. But what is the consequence of engaging in such speculations? True, the five shillings, as regards its probable loss, may not much interest his mind; but the hope of possible gain does. He thus becomes anxious to learn whether his horse is receding or getting up in the betting. In either case, some offer is made to buy his chance. This leads to the calculation of chances; and this is the foundation stone on which the leg, high or low, takes his first stand. The hope and chances of gain without labour begin to flit before his eyes. And where are the chances for and against such a consummation to be learnt? Of course in the house-or other houses of a similar description-where these sweeps are carried on. The associates he meets betting are strong stimu

there cannot meet without drink. Drink and lants his mind and body become accustomed to both habit renders them necessary to him. He may still love his home and family; but his excited mind cannot now do without excitement. The quiet of his home becomes irksome; the presence and details of his family uninteresting he is in heart a leg. But the consequences of such a man's first step in gambling does not end here; for the class of persons who have become his associates are not merely members of a sweep, but are patrons of all the lowest order of sport, and bettors on such events.