We have been refining and refining, and educating the
people for a good while; yet our popular sports seems to grow more and
more cruel. We do not bait bulls now, but we worry hares and rabbits by
the gross, we massacre scores of pretty pigeons--sweet little birds that
are slaughtered without a sign of fair play.
Decidedly the Briton likes the savour of blood to mingle with his
pleasures. A thousand of ordinary men will gather at Gateshead or Hanley
and howl with delight when two wiry whippets worry a stupefied rabbit.
They are decent fellows in their way, and they generally have a rigid
idea of fairness; but they fail to see the unfairness of hooking a
rabbit out of a sack and setting him to run for his life in an enclosure
from which he cannot possibly escape. Pastimes that do not involve the
death of something or the wagering of money are accounted tame. It is
one of the riddles that make me wish I could not think at all. I give it
up, for I am only a Loafer, and the dark problems of existence are
beyond me.
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