Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1910 — BAR WOMEN AT HUNT [ARTICLE]

BAR WOMEN AT HUNT

English Sportsman Shows Indig- , nation at Cancellation of Race. Reference to “Marsports” Demon- \ strates Fact That Games Calling for Grit and Determination Are Dwindling in Popularity. London.—The woman’s role on the hunting field has been a continual source of discussiop among English fox hunters, but the close of the present season sees the subject crop up In a new light Point to point races are a regular feature of the winding up of the hunting with most of the packs, and of late years women’s races frequently are included in the program. This year the Essex hunt’s point to point races were to have included a woman's race, but that event > was canceled at the last moment, although five women had entered. The incident caused speculation in ■ hunting circles, and now the affair gets additional interest from a sporting challenge by Sir Claude de Crespigny, (who, although over sixty years old, is a fine, all around sportsman and an adept with the gloves. Sir Claude has sent the following epistle to an Essex paper: “At the point to. point meeting I .was Informed the women who had in bo sporting a spirit entered for the race were furious at the event being struck off the program. I beg to inform them that I share their indignation, and the elimination was without my knowledge or approval. "So far as I can make out some silly old women, not of female sex, set about worrying the honorable secretary, threatening to absent themselves if the race was left in. What difference would their nonattendance have had on the meeting? “A much greater sportsman than any of these marsports offered to produce twelve women from his own hunt who would pound any twelve men of any hunt. “If any of the objectors resent my description of them they will know where to find me.” Sir Claude’s reference to twelve women who would pound any twelve men of any hunt gives a point to the lament raised by a contributor to the Weekly Nation over the decadence of British sport. The games which call for grit and determination, he says, are dwindling In popularity. He dally refers to the fact that while fox hunting attracts larger fields, the standard of horsemanship has not improved among men. This, he thinks, due to the fact that in the rising generation men for the most part devote their attention to motoring rather than horsemanship.

“Fortunately,” 'he continues, “the women seem, upon the whole, to ride better than they used to do, and to be growing keener about it Plenty of men will, of course, tell you that women who ride across country quite fearlessly do so in almost every instance through ignorance of the danger. That theory is a false one. Dozens of times I have seen women, who well know the risks they ran in taking certain lines of country when the hounds are running hard, give men who were hesitating at an awkward fence a lead over, for woman’s intuition and her quickness of thought and decision serve her in the hunting field just as they do elsewhere. “It is curious, but it may be significant, that while the vast proportion of men of the well-to-do class seem to be satisfied with amusements needing neither nerve nbr grit, the women are becoming more addicted to games and forms of sport that call for the risk of limb and sometimes life. "Whether the fashion of riding astride, which steadily has spread since Mrs. Alex Tweedie set the example, is. to be recommended it is hard to say.” When one notes how the Vomen of England are growing taller, stronger and hardier, while there is a general tendency toward physical degeneration in men, one wonders if an Amnzonlan England is a possibility of the future.