LE JEU DE LAWN-TENNIS.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10410, 29 July 1899, Page 7

LE JEU DE LAWN-TENNIS.

- ||b Frenchman's attempts at'athletics have

' bog heen tbe amusement of perfidious jjjhbn. Generations have held their sides N v «jfhirreverent mirth at "Punch's" cricketfrg Parisian, who pitifully relates how the wOog English barbarians try to teach him to play. "Be give mc a stick. And mc? I stand. *He go off a little. He throw * bail I run away. And zat is vat zey all je crickets." In football, if they hare &m little, at least they (the French) have Mtde praiseworthy attempts at success. Jfoay now and again an Oxford or Cam* oridge fifteen plays a French team at Paris Mln England. But the match is always ens of two things, a fraud or a farce—that ' ttr'th* team is either only ostensibly French, :■ bcs really consists of English and Americans . (indent in Paris, in which case a good - game may result; or the team is genuinely . franco, in which case the playing is fljnalntly French too, and all the scoring gnjlish, So far as the game consists in cseotiug and gesticulation, the French team 1 wfll do excellently, but so far as it is a . matter of hard work and sound judgment ts*y will be useless. Nothing is more fcoUah or more unphilosophicol than national pride. If our race excels our Gallic neighbours in these characteristics, that is our endowment, not our merit. But the fact , ttmkOM. The Englishman has par excel- . fence those qualities which are most indisftinsable in the football field—energy, enter- . prise, loyalty, pluck and endurance, in most of which the French are more or less lucking. jldtwn tennis, however, undoubtedly makes less severe demands alike upon the physique sad the character. And we are not sur» ■. prised that in this admirable, if less excellent, game the French are beginning to show themselves more successful than in either cricket or football. We have before us the catalogue of a Parisian firm of dealers, in lawn tennis material for the current year. In addition to the advertisements, the brochure contains tbe rules of the game, together with some general remarks. The rules look rather odd in their French dress. Thus rale 5 reads: "Lea adversaires se - tiundront de 1 chaque c&tA dv filet j . le premier 4 lancer la bails s' oppelle le ' servant,' celui gui doit U reoevoir le ' Belanceur.'" , Tho advertisements, too, hare their amusing side. Thus the firm's "raquette sur commands" is stated to be without fear of contradiction "le meUleure raquette «lv ~. monde." Moreover, it keeps its condition "plus longtemps que n'importe quelle • raquette Anglaise." This racket can be Ipecially prepared "pour lea matchs imporv tints." Some players, the writers of the

brochure are grieved to find, do not think

. they have a good racket unless it bears an .English stamp, but, this we need hardly - . lay, "Cfest una grease erreur I" In the preliminary remarks Jacques Bon- \: fcoxnme is strongly advised to try the de- ;,,';' lights of lawn tennis. "Le jeu de lawn ~f( he is told, "est dcs plus attrayants." Hs is feelingly warned not to be afraid of '.;,_/: the apparently complicated nature of the -.";' rake. The game is really, he is assured, y\Jt*r easy, and at the end of two or three ', games "toutea ces soi-disant difficultes sont ? aplaum." But tihe author rises almost to 'A' eloquence in the following sentence: "L'ex--v ttcice sanitaire qu'il procure, Tinteret cos i '-*. Hut qu'on y prend en mesurß qu'on y ":,-;. .fayienfc de plus en plus experimente, en . font un jeu favori et trea goute t"' So far :/ aft had hem'plain sailing. But we must | Gwtfees our editorial French, was puzzled by |' v He last word. " Gouty "we know it would P\ bo* be, for tennis has never, so far as we •new, been recommended for that complaint, "lasty* did not seem appropriate either. •Wiu.'the dictionary we gathered that the *>*er wished to assert that the game was a «ach liked." We wish the enterprising tea all success. Lawn tennis may not be , ..fte noblest of games, but at least it involves „■,:,. of fresh air; and fresh air is a good -tains;.to recommend to any nation, espefe ; ,?|*% when recovering from an attack of