TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 20494, 24 May 1928, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

A quarter of a century ago gymnastics and skittles were the only sports with anything like a vogue in Germany (says E. H. Wilcox in the London Daily Telegraph). They were practised in covered halls and alleys, and had no reflection on the face which the nation turned to the foreigner. The casual visitor to Germany might pardonably return home under the impression that military drill was the sole physical exercise of her people. To-day “all that” has been changed fundamentally, perhaps mord fundamentally than any other German national trait. The least observant visitor to Germany cannot help noticing that sport has now become a universal obsession—one might almost say a universal religion—which permeates both the entire corporate and the entire individual life of the people, and which is common to both sexes and to all classes. In every corner of Germany stadiums and athletic grounds are being built and laid down with feverish haste.

Even in the streets of big towns one meets droves of young men or women doing crosscountry runs in shorts and vests. Football matches and athletic meetings, which but a few years ago were watched by languid hundreds, now bring together enthusiastic thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands. “Six-day” bicycle races in the immense covered arenas of the “sport palaces” which exist in two or three of the chief centres, arouse frenzies of excitement. A fight between well-known boxers will anywhere fill to overflowing the biggest hall in the place, at prices which the public would hardly pay to hear Chaliapin at the opera. Statistics collected by the big sporting federations show that last year German organizations for the pursuit of various types of sport had a total membership of about 11,500,900 (Mr Wilcox continues). If each of these memberships involved a separate individual, this would mean that approximately every fifth member of the entire population belonged to some kind of sporting association. There are, however, of course, many holders of double memberships. But, even when all allowances are made, the figure remains an impressive one. An exact analysis of this 11,500,000, and its distribution among the various categories of sport, is impossible. Many of the organizations are of a comprehensive character, and devote themselves to almost every imaginable form of physical recreation. The following table, therefore, can claim at best only approximate accuracy in its classification. It should be added that the “organizations” are in many cases federations of minor associations. On such points German sporting statistics are still somewhat defective. In most cases the reader will be able to judge for himself from the numbers which of the organizations are clubs and which combination of clubs. Organizations. Members.

On a tail coat are two apparently useless buttons behind. They are a survival of the days when everybody went about on horse back. They then served to fasten up the flaps to keep them clean. This was one of a number of old customs described by Percival J. Ashton at a lecture in London. The ribbon found inside men’s hats, Mr Ashton stated, is another case in point. It is a survival of days when there were only two stock sizes in hats which had to be made to fit by tightening or loosening the ribbon. Dealing with customs of the House of Commons, Mr Ashton went on to say that even to-day no door may be locked there. This is to prevent any secret meetings. He added: “If you are entertaining the King, there must not be any finger bowls on the table, as a Jacobite might drink the health of ‘the King over the water’ (i.e., to a once-exiled Stuart). When the King visits the Channel Islands he does so as Duke of Normandy and not as King of England. The seigneurs ride into the water to greet him as their Duke, thus carrying on the tradition that they are part of the Duchy of Normandy that William the Conqueror came from in 1066. The ceremony of pricking the Sheriffs remained through the old tradition that the King can neither read nor write, and he still pricks against the names with a bodkin. The City of London still pays a quit rent to the Crown consisting of six horseshoes and sixty-one nails for a blacksmith’s shop which ceased to exist in the reign of Richard the Second, and which stood near the site of the present Law Courts. A billbook and a hatchet are paid every year to the Crown by the City for a place called ‘The Moors’ in Shropshire. It was lost sight of in the time of Edward the Fourth.

Juveniles (not difdifferentiable) .. 107 3,750,000 Gymnastics .. ,. 20,944 2,407,000 Athletics 16,405 1,610,000 827,000 Association football 6,380 Walking & climbing 2,092 777,000 Shooting 11,558 606,000 Cycling 11,183 553,000 Horse racing .. .. 2,300 870,000 Swimming 897 143,000 Rowing & canoeing 1,100 126,000 Ski-ing .. 13 90,000 Tennis .. 618 75,000 Skittles 300 65,000 Motoring 500 60,000 Boxing 411 55,000 Hockey 470 31,000 Sailing 265 30,000 Rugbv football .. 46 17,000 Aviation 121 15,000 Tobogganing .. .. 69 11,000 Motor-cycling .. .. 300 10,000 Skating 93 9,000 Motor-yachting .. 8 8,000 Golf 23 3,000 Roller skating .... 11 1,800 Fencing 44 1,500 Jiu-jitsu 18 900 11,652,200