Various

“ Lord Fairfax was already there, and breakfast was soon despatched.
"I hope, George," said the Earl, as they rose from the table, "that you have the excellent habit of learning something every day. As a beginning, you may have Lance's services every morning for two hours to teach you fencing—not only with the rapier, but the sword exercise on horseback and afoot. It is not only well for you, as you intend entering a military life, to know this, but it is the finest exercise possible for the muscles and the eye, and also in the art of keeping one's temper. ”

“ The word "professional" means an individual who performs in athletics for the sake of the reward that he is to receive. It does not make any difference whether this reward comes to him in cash, clothing, or pie. And he cannot evade being classed among professionals if he once accepts any kind of remuneration. Of course it seems different to those young men who do not think seriously about the ethics of sport. They think that they are not accepting any remuneration if they allow a hotel-keeper or an athletic club to furnish them with a suit of clothes—a baseball uniform—and pay their expenses. ”

“ Truly, a dog has many attributes that we must admire—affection, constant and lasting; a sense of duty and responsibility; a devotion that triumphs over fear and pain; and a loyalty that never swerves. ”

“ It is his instinct to chase a ball and to tear everything to pieces with his sharp little teeth. His one idea is to have a good time and eat more than is good for him. But now we must take care of his health first, and then show that if he chases a ball it is not to chew it up, but to bring it back to you; that he must not tear things to pieces, for fear of a punishment, and that if he eats things he should not, he is filled with a consciousness that he is doing wrong. ”

“ Any intelligent puppy will learn his name in a few lessons. Once you have given it to him, never change it. Mind you this—when he has once recognized you as being his master, his one idea is to please you and to deserve a pat on the head and a word of praise. Never tussle with him with a stick, and never deceive him under any pretence. More dogs have been spoiled by their masters not playing fair with them than one could reckon. Be honest with your dog, and he will be honest with you. ”

“ When I was a youth I was a very ungovernable one, and I remember chasing a fencing-master, who was giving me a lesson, through the streets of London until I came to myself, and was glad to call a hackney-coach and hide. A skilful adversary will very often test your temper in the beginning, and make some exasperating remark, which, in effect, renders your sword-arm powerless; for an angry man may be a fierce swordsman, but he can never be a skilful one."
George's eyes opened very wide indeed. He glanced at Lance, but the old soldier wore a perfectly impenetrable front. ”

“ If every summer-girl would resolve that to some one, at least, she would come as a summer angel, brightening and helping, what joy would the season bring? Her helpfulness may be of any kind whatever. It may be lending books or papers to such people as scarcely ever have them, or reading to some old person in a busy household.
A dozen wide-awake clever girls who are banded together can accomplish wonders. ”

“ Now, to bring up a dog successfully his master should study the animal's character and individuality, and adapt himself to him the way a teacher should try to adapt himself to a pupil's natural gifts. There are ambitious dogs, bright dogs, lazy dogs, and dunces, and to make anything of the last requires both time and patience. It is a good dog's natural instinct to endeavor to please his master; he is conscious of the encouragement of praise, and knows well when he has not done his duty. ”

“ The elephant plush and the calico cat and my new little pug had a fight,
And though an elephant's great and strong, and a cat has powerful claws,
My little pug-dog came out on top with the aid of his teeth and paws. ”

“ There is a difference in playing at summer resorts for the sport of the thing and in playing for the advantage of it. Young men who like to play baseball, and who can get up a nine wherever they happen to be this summer, should do so by all means, for there is nothing healthier than sport of this kind. But they should not allow any one to let them derive any kind of financial advantage from the fact that they know how to play baseball, and they should not allow any of their friends or admirers to induce them to go to any certain resort because they know how to play baseball. ”

“ I haven't any doubt that next year, no matter under what conditions the National Games are held, the officers of the Association will choose their own officials, and there will be found among them the same gentlemen who for years have helped to make school-boy field days the pleasant affairs they always are.
But it is only just to say to any organization, whether it be in New York or in any other city, which hopes to succeed in the management of school-boy sports, that it must carry out the school-boy idea of the proprieties of things; and school-boys have very distinct ideas of what they want ”

“ Then Mr Hamilton Gibson showed me some monster drawings of flowers—Brobdingnagian ones. The flowers opened and closed when you pulled a string, showing their interior structure. Here were bees or other insects, and they flew into the flowers, collected the honey, and, above all, the pollen, and buzzed out again. He explained to me how plant life would perish were it not for certain insects, which bring a new existence to flowers; for without these winged helpers there would be no longer any varieties of flowers or seeds. ”

“ At the National Games, however, it was different, and there are many who resented the change.
In the first place, school sports—and college sports, for that matter—are supposed to be somewhat different in tone from other sports, even from those of amateur athletic associations. We try to conduct them on a higher plane, and we try to give to them a purer spirit of amateurism and comradeship than can be obtained by other organizations. And in carrying out this idea it has always been the custom to have school or college graduates act as officials. ”

“ Every boy is togged out in the uniform of a naval apprentice, and he is very proud of his ship and of the name on the ribbon of his cap.
Life on a sailing-vessel, that depends entirely upon the wind for her motive power, is very different from the life on board a steamer or one of the steel cruisers of Uncle Sam's new navy. ”

“ No puppy should ever feel hungry. With an old dog it is different; he has stopped growing. It is better to have a dog that has attained his full growth underfed than to give him all that he can eat. Milk and bread, or a little corn meal and a little finely chopped meat, should be given to a puppy, and plenty of it; but if you would have a healthy, wide-awake, grown-up dog, feed him sparingly. One meal a day is all-sufficient; more than that is unnecessary to his health. Prepared dog's food, made in the way of biscuit, is easy to procure. ”

“ When a boy has been graduated from this school, if he has paid attention to his duties and his studies, he is competent to navigate a vessel, he understands thoroughly dead reckoning, and he knows how to find the latitude and longitude by the sun, moon, planets, or stars, and besides this, he knows the duties of a seaman from beginning to end. ”

“ No boy who has ever read any of Marryat's stories, or those from the pen of Clarke Russell, but has been filled with a desire to try the sea for himself, and if he is able-bodied, and a boy with a good record and a desire to learn, he can step back, as it were, into the time when Marryat's or Russell's heroes lived and had their adventures. ”

“ All of the colleges now, I think, with the possible exception of Brown, have rules forbidding the playing of baseball on "summer nines," the penalty being that any member of the college who does this becomes ineligible to any university team. And thus summer playing for college men has been effectively put a stop to.
The colleges, however, cannot legislate against players who are not members of their institutions, and they have found it difficult to prevent sub-Freshmen or school-boy players from accepting the favors of hotel-keepers or others in return for belonging to the hotel's nine. ”

“ He may admit of friends and acquaintances, but if he is a proper dog he knows but one lord and master, and but one person does the well-brought up dog serve with all his heart.
LEARNING TO LOCATE A BIRD WITHOUT FLUSHING IT.
Let us take a puppy and bring him up in the way he should go. He comes to you a little, good-natured, roly-poly thing, with a wide grin and an uncertain gait, and absolute unconsciousness that he may be of any use or value, the same as a child. You can do almost anything with him if he is a bright puppy. He can be taught to fetch and carry in a dozen lessons. ”

“ Mary's then been in existence, her boys would have given accounts of themselves, and there is no question that, should at some future time a war arise, there would be places aplenty for them to make use of the knowledge they have gained, or to win laurels in the service of their country. Not long ago a big sailing-ship, returning home from a long cruise, had the misfortune to lose, by death and accident, all of her officers fit to navigate and command her. ”

“ The boys had all they could do to handle the boat in consonance with the shark's movements. As he madly rushed ahead, the line began to smoke from its friction with the rail at the velocity it paid out, and Harry again had to leave his helm to bail water and pour it upon the hempen coils, so quickly snaking out, with the threat of possible disaster when the tub should be emptied. Walter's hands were burned and blistered and raw in spots from contact with the flying line, in a vain endeavor this time to grasp it and get a turn around a pin. The fish went too fast. ”

“ Rather odd, too, is the fact that the people who leave most of these things in the cars are old travellers. Excursionists and others unfamiliar with the ways of travel look after their possessions. It is the confident man or woman who leaves the car and leaves his or her valise or lap-dog behind.
If your friends are coming to New York soon, tell them that the value of articles forgotten by passengers entering this city every year foots up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that they will do well not to contribute anything to this wasteful fund. ”

“ They might even help to cure a lame horse or dog on his own account, if they are real summer angels. They can send magazines all the year round to special "shut-in" people whom they discover.
They can have a very good time among themselves too. They can compare and exchange specimens of pressed wild flowers or sea-weeds or shells. They can write to the Round Table, and tell what they are doing, and perhaps their letters, if they are fairly well written, and show a serious purpose, will be printed. Then others may join the "summer sisterhood," and form small circles in out-of-the-way places. ”

“ To leave the city on the westward, cross the branch of the Chicago River, and run from the Court-house out Washington Boulevard—which is partly asphalt and partly macadam—pass through Garfield Park, and thence out of the city.
On the south from the Court-house and post-office is one of the famous runs in the vicinity of Chicago, or, as a matter of fact, in the middle West. This is a fifteen-mile run to Pullman City. It is a capital road all the way; it makes a good thirty-mile ride, and is one of the best roads for a road race that can be had. ”

“ And so the two lived together, drawing closer and closer to each other, each of a silent, strong nature—the man of the world wearied of courts and camps, and the boy in his white-souled youth knowing nothing but the joy of living and the desire of living rightly, and both were happy in their daily and hourly companionship. ”

“ But aside from the penalties that are to be incurred for playing on "summer nines," there must be a number of other reasons that will prevent school-boys from running the risk of being looked upon as semi-professionals. I say "semi-professionals," although there is really no half-way house between amateurism and professionalism. If a young man accepts reduced board at any time, or a uniform, or a pair of shoes or stockings, or in fact anything that has any commercial value whatever, as a reward for [Pg 959] any kind of services rendered in athletics, he is a professional. ”

“ To-day I paid a visit to the room in which are stored the articles left by passengers on one of the great railways entering New York. People leave many articles in the cars, and forget to call for all of them. Indeed, not more than one-third of the things found in the cars are ever claimed by owners. On the other hand, very few things that are claimed and accurately described fail to be recovered. Every railway keeps a store-room for lost articles, and employs are under strict orders to send all articles to it. ”

“ Gardening is said to come natural to Japanese boys and girls, but there is no reason why our amateur gardeners should not rival them.
Spring has been well named the "mother of the flowers," for then indeed nature wakes. The previously hard soil softens, gentle showers fall, the long sunny days follow one after the other, and serious mistake must indeed have been made at the time of planting if the cheerless winter garden is not readily transformed into beds and bowers of delicate [Pg 955] richest color, and bewilderingly beautiful flowers do not send lavish and grateful odor. ”

“ All who regularly attend interscholastic track and field games, especially graduates of the New York schools, and those who watch their young brothers and cousins in their indulgence in sport, were much surprised when they looked over the programme of the National Games and saw the list of men who had been invited to act as officials. ”