YOUNG MEN IN POLITICS AND ATHLETICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11229, 25 November 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

YOUNG MEN IN POLITICS AND ATHLETICS.

Mil. P. A. Atkins, the editor and for nde* n] of the Young Man and other very succt ssful '■ . L-; periodicals, has been giving his opii ions .[y about the young man of to-day in the i sun{'ofe day School Chronicle. He lias, for Jon! • p thing, noticed a great falling-oif durinfrltba |||| last few years in young men's interest ir'oli* tics. He says: — 3 . >3 j|| 'I can remember when young men used Is to argue very fiercely about politics, quarrel * ? about politics, get angrv over politics. But" [ who ever expects anything of the kind in Sjsfe these_ days? One could almost wish that men in these days felt sufficient interest in, - \' great political questions to get angry and yi fight about them. For instance, there lis the iniquitous Clergy Tithes Bill-did ktSg? Show any fight over it? Did the Ffe Church Council get up one solitary public ' • >'' meeting to oppose it?" ; Mr. Atkins does not like to be pessimistic ||| |" --but lie thinks We may as well face tin '■> facts. j As regards athletics, Mr. Atkins would ill not limit a real love for these, which is to &-■ tile good. A man, for instance, cannot cycle -Si on beer, and he believes cycling lias " dfflW § n(ore to promote temperance than all tie <'''{{ total abstinence societies ever started." /%$fM ■But what is so alarming is that a giM proportion of the modern interest in iti'jSS S letics simply consists in witnessing and bet* &s §> ting on sport—not in taking any active i ;art fig in it. You will see 10,000 young men spe nd - ' Si mg their Saturday afternoon at a foot jail - £' match, and someone will remark on the a*<MM traordinary interest in athletics. But tii' shows no real interest in athletics, T Wlf I you have 22 young fellows getting all ilbste i ? exercise and 10,000 foolish youths loungiVg jjj J? around, betting on the result of the matc]V I 1 and then going off to spend the evening. I he streets and) in the gin-palaces, 70$ lr 1 V can t call that interest in athletics." ate I: $ ambling Mr. Atkins believes to bein Il; $ rapidly-inereasing evil" among young ip£ n I | „ i Popular belief that impurity is " the A % entirely wrong th ® * >"* *■ k \ - entirely wrong. . -' u