Sport in Russia [pp. 422-425]

4Sport in Russia.
be something of Venetian freedom in his
pages. Freedom there certainly is, not
seldom carried over into license. He
has as little reticence as an anatomical
atlas. Hence he is not safe reading for
those to whom an anatomical atlas would
offer unsafe pictures.
But the indictment must go no farther.
If he is as free from conventional restrictions as an anatomical atlas, he is also
as rigidly scientific. There is not in all
his works a licentious page. He describes sin, but he has no sympathy with
it. Not a guilty scene is so depicted that
the reader could wish to have been a
participant. It is not merely that nemesis will follow,- there is a certain fascination to youth in the thought of purchasing an hour of bliss at the cost of
indefinite after punishment: but to
Zola's mind the guilty hour is not blissful. A pure man in his private life, he
personally detests and despises sensual
indulgence. Hence when he describes
vice, he describes it a physician would
describe the manifestations of a disease.
To my mind such passages are blots,
artistic blemishes. But beneath this
fungus there is a vigorous oak, and only
an eye in search of it will be fixed upon
the fungus.
Certainly the oak is masterly. A comprehensive observer, a keen analyst, a
luxuriant word painter, Zola is, above
all, a conscientious artist. He believes
in his work; he has wrought into it his
life and heart and soul; and with all its
blemishes I believe he has accomplished
the greatest literary achievement of the
younger men of this generation.
C. 14H Bardeer.,
SPORT IN RUSSIA.
SPORT, as it is understood in these
United States and in England, is in Russia practically limited to the huntingfield. The games and pastimes of the
lower classes are of too primitive a character to be dignified into sport. Among
the upper and middle classes, boat and
horse races are patronized to a certain
extent, but they are only comparatively
recent importations, and cannot for a
momnent be compared to our own races.
The Russian Anglomaniacs pretend to
be deeply interested in horseflesh and
yachting, but their learned discussions
on these subjects would cause an English jockeyor an American crack yachtsman but a weariness of the flesh and
vexation of spirit. Foot ball, croquet,
lawn tennis, cricket, base ball, bicycling
as a fine art, pedestrianism, prize fighting, running contests, are either entirely
unknown, or else have but a very limited
circle of adepts. The ultra-fashionable
affect some of the English out-door
games, but it is merely a fad, a passing
"wrinkle."
The colleges and universities, which
among the Anglo-Saxons take so prominent a part in the athletic pursuits of
their countries, are in Russia excluded
from all sports, unless the game that
most frequently has for its goal the
mines of Siberia or the halter, can be
called by that name.
The shooting matches and horse races
for the private and commissioned officers of the army are under the control
of the government, and form, to a certain extent, a part of the regular drill.
This, of course, takes away much of the
zest they may have otherwise possessed.
Yes, taken all in all, sport is unknown
42'
[October,