Related article:
writer of pure prose, unpedantic
prose, in these days than the Earl
of Rosebery, and he has the ad-
vantage of being able to speak it
also. Oh ! why should not he
wield his pen now and again on
sporting topics ? Would not then
the scoffers cease their scoffing,
and the critics be at rest ? Poli-
tics may pale, but sport will not.
Great Britain cannot afford to
lose her record in sport. The
game must be played out.
Sporting writers and their sub-
jects are necessarily various, and
their styles are equally diverse.
Many of them suffer from having
to rush their ideas into print at
the earliest possible moment, often
by wire or telephone, in order to
satiate the public appetite for
news the next morning. Some of
them have little or no insight into,
or taste for, their subject, and
very absurd are some of the
hashes that are thus served up
for sportsmen's breakfast-tables.
Then, again, the influx of daily
and weekly papers do much to
swamp the afterthoughts, as it
were, of the monthly magazines.
Often have I turned away from
an interesting sporting subject
because it has been hammered at
by the sporting papers ad nauseam,
and 1 have felt that to have dis-
cussed it in your magazine after-
wards would not be favoured by
your readers, who would naturally
conclude that the article was
merely a rechauffe of already
thrashed • out opinions, although
in this we are probably too apt
to forget that the contents of a
magazine are likely to survive
those of a newspaper. There is
also the fact which tells against
magazine writing, and that is
that it is not so remunerative as
ordinary press work, that is, sup-
posing a man has regular press
employment. Thus a clever news-
paper writer, unless he be entirely
a leading-article writer or editor,
cannot atford the time to sit and in-
dite a careful and well- though tout
article on a subject — although he
might be able to do it — if he chose.
That our objects are good and
of true and honest intent of a
surety we may proclaim, ^nd ia
this matter may I not be allowed
to quote the words of the afore-
said ^* Gentleman in Black,*' which
are as true and fresh to-day as ia
May, 1864, when he wrote them.
He says: — "An educator of the
public taste is sure first to regard
the direction in which it goes,
and an acute journalist will be
said to direct rather than form.
Sportsmen are more refined Nootropil Australia than
formerly and embrace a much
larger circle of persons ; so jour-
nalism meets the feelings of the
age, and persuades itself too often
that it lias created that for which
it only catered. Success will
probably attend the man who is
acquainted with the subject on
which he treats, and the more so
if he keeps Buy Nootropil his mind in communi-
cation with the age in which he
lives. It is as dangerous to be
too much before, as behind. He
should endeavour after truth ;
candour is the soul of criticism.
Journalists should Nootropil Canada remember the
powers they wield, and that every
subject is not equally fitted for
the crucible any more than it
would be desirable to pass by
anything from fear of Nootropil 400mg handUng it.
As the main study of the writer
should be to do good, he would
rather succeed Nootropil Uk by suaviter in modo
than by the fortiter in re. He
should always be sure of his
ground, and although it is hon-
ourable to retract when wron^,
it is more honourable never .to
have cause for doing so." There
we have in plain, unmistakable
language what made me, and
probably others, humble disciples
of that elegant writer.
I90I.]
ARS SCRIBENDI.
265
I shall never forget old Dr.
Shorthouse, the original editor of
The Sporting Times ^ pulling me up
in his usual abrupt and crusty
style for something 1 had ven-
tured to say that he considered
not according to "Cocker;" when,
however, he found that I took
what he said in good part, we
became the best of friends, and
he asked me to come and visit
him down in Surrey. Mr. Willes,
better known as •* Argus," and
for many years the Van Driver
in your magazine, was another
writer from whom, as a young
man, I learnt wisdom ; he was a
curious and eccentric man, but
clever and quick in his profession,
quite worthy of imitation.
After all, the old Latin motto,
Scribendi recte sapere est et principintn
et fons, which, being interpreted,
means, " the principle and source
of good writing is to think rightly,"
is the goal to which we should
apply ourselves; and let it not
be said that our exercise of Ars
Scribendi on sporting subjects is
not of sufficient importance. Do
not we sing most of that which
we love best ? And if sporting
tastes are worth encouraging at
all, are not their essential details
worthy of the best prose, as well
as verse, that can be brought to
bear upon them Ucb Nootropil ?
How useful it has been in after
life to have treasured up in me-
mory tit-bits of advice given by
men of note successful in life ! As
an instance of this the great
contractor, Mr. Brassey, once
said to me, ** Young man, let me
advise you to trust to your head
in matters of importance, and
when that fails you, it Buy Nootropil Online will be
time to depend on notes." It is
well known that when his won- Nootropil Tablets
derful head, in which he carried
for years the biggest pile of
figures, did Nootropil Buy fail him, he never
touched another contract. On
the other hand, I know another
eminent writer now living, and
whose name for this reason I for-
bear Nootropil Ucb to mention, who, through a
long life, has pigeon-holed his
facts and indexed them, so that
they can be marshalled on any
given subject with Nootropil Tablets 800mg wonderful
rapidity, and he is the envy of his
brother penmen. And then there
are those critics ! Do not be
afraid of them, my dear fellow
scribes ; they are as the salt on
the earth ; they fertilise litera-
ture. It is only sportsmen, who
can really criticise sporting litera-
ture, and critics are seldom sports-
men ; hence in a great measure
the degeneracy of genuine sporting
books ; they are too often thrown
on one side as not worthy of their
sugar or vinegar.
I once had the temerity to write
a novel, which I sent to an editor
to review. Judge of my feelings
when I soon after received a note
from him : — ** Please send me a
review of your book." It was
with difficulty that I refrained
from resenting such a snub, and
writing in reply, ** Damn you."
But I didn't. I always think that
there is a warm corner of kindli-
ness in the eye of the critic that
will some day beam upon me, and
to quarrel with him is one of the
most fatal mistakes an author can