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