LONDON CHAT.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12897, 31 August 1907, Page 4

LONDON CHAT.

«_oh or* owk cowu.sro._Knr.) LONDON, July 19. The King and Queen have returned from their Royal tour of Ireland and Wales, leaving loyal and loving hearts behind them everywhere, savo in the cases where it is a matter of mere personal trod© to be disloyal and offensive. It is pleasant to be able to add that in Ireland everything passed off well and with entire freedom from all manifestations of political or international Animosities. Already the ««illy Season" has beE ,inl It* has opened with a characterise correspondence . terribly solemn but extremely diverting, about Our slack youth," the text being tho numerous defeats which __ngland has recently sustained in various sports, on beating at Henley, on the water, by Heigh, m being taken as a kind ot climax. Naturally. England's defeat at football by New Zealand and South Africa, at tennis by Australia and Now Zealand. in various athletic . strngg es »»> Vmerica. at cricket by South Africa to tho tune of ft dozen county defeats •i"i ; n-t a single close-shaven win, ana won are fully quoted in fciipport. 'inihnrv set up by a convenient "oorresncndrr.t" of the "Daily Telegraph' w {.!,..♦■ :' n .Anil's yong men arc too ••shirk'' r..'r.v.::'.r.v.K tney love ease ana pica's up ; tin v'don't care to boiner .ii .lit exerting themselves. They prefer, like the J.omans of degenerate days. to look on while other people piay games. They are, decadent, and so on, again. Naturally this, ns was anticipated anil planned, instantly excited to almost insane fury crowds of people of tho old "'John t_ull" type who now shriek themselves hoarse daily in violent protest against tins disparagement of England's youth. It makes ruthor amusing reading, many of tho letters being distinctly, though unwittingly, funny. I don't suppose tho controversy does either good or harm, but it provides "copy," and uils up columns which long have been needlessly spacious for a slack period, however readily they may iiII during "the season.'' The only real "point which has been mado in the correspondence is tho reminder of _miyard Kipling's jibe as to "flannelled fools" and '•muddied oafs. - ' That, it is observed, was made a text for condemning young men's undue devotion to sport at tho expense of more serious duties. Xc.w tho unhappy young men nro again slated, this time for insufficient devotion to sport. They ought it is implied, to be muddier oafs and flannelled-er fools. It is scarcely surprising that the poor fellows foel hurt at getting it both ways. As a mutter of fact, all this talk about England's decadence—is simpiy pifflo! The last Australian cricket eleven that came Home could not win a single test match ; England won the last rubber from Australia. In cricket and in other sports there is no real falling off in English capacity or vigour. What has happened is that other communities and nations have caught us up, and can now meet us on level terms in most branches of sport. Such being tho circumstances, it inevitably follows that now and then some mere casual advantage will turn the scale on either side. Tho winning of the toss admitte _y meant tho winning of the la6t Australian rubber by England. Tho trivial indisposition of a single member of a cricket or football or boating or athletic team may similarly turn tho evenly-balanced cale. Incredible a., tho fact may seem, the crickot champipn of all tinu-., Dr. W. G. Grace, entered upon tho 00th year of his age yesterday. Moreover this is his cricket jubilee year, for be played three or four innings for tho West Gloucestershire Club in 1857 when he was a boy of nine When he was twelve he scored 51 for West Gloucestershire against Clifton, and at fifteen he played for All England, and going in tenth ho made 32. On 1m 50th birthday ho made top score of 74 for tho "Gentlomen" against tho "Players" at the Oval, and three years ago he ran in the 100 yards mouthers' handicap at the London County Cricket Club sports—and won ' Dr. Grace is among tho celebrities who are periodically chased by autograph hunterw. Onco when playing at Brighton a schoolboy brought him an autograph l>ook and a fountain pen and asked for his signature, which was duly given. A few weeks later, at Lord's, ho was again approached. Same boy, same bonk, same fountain pen. "But I gave you my autograph last month «t Brighton, said the Doctor. "Yes," replied tho boy, "But I swopped that for Dan Lono and a bishop." That boy should go far 1 Donizetti's old-fashioned, but always pretty opera, "Lucia di Lammermoor," has just been revived at Covent Gar. den for tho special advantage of Madame Mcl ha. Its "Mad Scene" is that ropnlar prinpi donna's special warhorso. She achieved hor. usual success in the melodious string of vocal exercises, and ".ho had as her Edgardo Sign or Bonci, one of tho newer Italian tenors who h estimated in standing second in rank to' the supreme Caruso. He hns a voice of pleasant quality and fair power and is a very skilful singer of his class,, but the effect is ■»_dly marred by persistent wobbles—his tremolo is, indeed, woreo than that of the majority of his countrymen and countrywomen. Which is saying a good_ deal! He labours under the nhysical disadvantage of exceedingly limited inches; indeed, in his lloroio .••cones with the Lucia of the evening he . cemed barely to reach her shoulder. Tin's is rather a disadvantage for such a- part. The use of specially made •■tilts has Wen suggested as one means of overcoming the disparity in elevation, but the idea so far has not met with much favour. It always seems rather hard on tho "Edgardo"' of "Lucia" that his only song docs not come on until the very last moment of the opera when, as has been accurately observed, the tenor "kills himself first <:nd -sings a long scena afterward!" A marvel indeed! Wo have had a whole week of fine weather and generally bright sunshine. So, of course, Mith a maximum shade temperature of only (5!) to 71 degrees, simpletons are beginning to talk about a "heat wave." forgetting that last September the thermometer stood at 20 degrees higher! The match between Eton and Harrow was a memorable struggle. In olio „ r - st , in , nin K 3 Harrow had made _.__, _ ird, the captain, scoring a capital 100 not out. Eton beat this by 110, making 291. Then Hirrow -went in again, and had lost three wickets while still 43 runs short of Eton's first .nnings total, when the play closed for the day. Cowley had plr.yed two fine innings of 50 and 75 respectively and but for his performances being eclipsed by his captain's remarkable rword he would have been the hero of the match But on Saturday, when Bird, the Harrow captain, and Anson were together, tho play was most brilliant especially that of Bird, who directly his side had got into a very strong position, hit out at everything with delightful vigour, his off-driving being particularly fine. Anson, when he had made 12, gave a rather hard chance m the slips. It was missed, with disastrous consequences to Eton's chance, and I fear also to the unhappy "misser's" memoir after tho great match. For now the fierce hitting went on with never-abating vigour, and the score mounted apace. The bowling did not strike mc as very difficult, but the fielding was admirable, heaps of runs and many boundaries " being saved as by conjuring tricks. Then a crisis was felt to be approaching. Bird had made 97 and Anson 49. The total was 298. Another boundary would make the Harrowtotal 300, and would give either Bird his 100—his second century, tool—or

Anson his 50. Uis not n ?f y tl £mS what feature was the _»«*»""££ in this situation—the intense eagtrn«o theplavorthe tremendous excitlent of.the 20,000 ■P«*»jj£ most of whom were P' 1 ™' 1 i ,n (1 ested. Over after over came anl went, and still the .coring-boarf showed unchanged figures. J hen Angras half-century went up amid «■«»"? of cheers. But when a boundary toy Bird sent up 101 against his name, why then tho scene and , u P ro * r **" ranie simply indescribable, body seemed really to go mad. 1 saw one ex-Harrovian quite; out of Ins mind for the time, shouting absolute gibberish at the top of his raucous voice, simultaneously wavins his hot _nd bis arms until I feared they would become separated from Jus trunk and ily away, the whilo his pretty laughing sisters on cither side strove earnestly to pull him by his coat-tails down on his scat and check his too-conspicuous demonstrations. Ultimately ho sat down utterly exhausted, to the obvious comfort of his scandalised, albeit enthusiastic, sisters. But there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of similar cases, and the scene of excitement grew, until when at last Bird was caught for 131 a climax was attained. Never before had two "centuries" been made by any one player in this historic annual event. .It is conceded by the oldest attendants at those matches— and many of them will never see 70, or oven 80, years again—that there never b.fore hus been such « scene of furious enthusiasm —either so tremendous or so protracted, at any previous one of these matches. One had "imply 1o gasp with relief when at length the "hurricane of cheers subsided and the game, which had to be totally suspended for some minutes, could be resumed. By this time everyone Mas literally faint with overexcitement, and quite a subdued air dwelt on the scene. At 382 Harrow "declared" with eight wickets down, leaving Eton three and a quarter hours in which to get the 314 runs needed to avert* defent. A grand effort was made, KTbn scoring 234. H Arrow won by 79 runs on. the very verge of "time." Could tho Etonians havo restrained their excess of zeal they might easily have drawn the match, but they could not. They hit nt everything, and fn spite of Bury's G5 and several other good scores, a series of catches settled the business. A good half-hour of utter wild delirium followed, thousands of people, including the staidest old fogies and the most delicate young girls, cheering and 'waving handkerchiefs, hats, fairly tired out.