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I allude to the beautiful moral lesson it is capable of teaching if the disposition be not wanting in ourselves to profit by it. Punctuality, energy, quickness of perception and execution, and good temper—these are the cardinal virtues this game is capable of teaching.
I will lift the veil, for a few moments, that shrouds the past. I ask you to let your eyes rest as mine do now in imagination, upon your Cricket ground, in which are assembled a goodly company, a worthy band of brothers, to play the game. What do we see? Look—with what punctuality the wickets are pitched—with what energy they defend them—with what good humor they lose them.
Does this teach us nothing? Oh, yes! Do we not learn from it to be punctual in all our engagements in life? Do we not see the necessity of doing what we have to do with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind? Above all, does it not teach us to show no unmanly passion, no unbecoming chagrin and mortification at any reverses that may overtake us?
There is, depend upon it, a humanizing, a civilizing influence in the game. How different is the conduct of those who assemble to witness a Cricket match, and any other popular pastime? I have been identified a great portion of my life with horses and horse-racing. If I have had one passion greater than another, it is my fondness for the sports of the turf. I have devoted much time to promote its interests; I have written more upon the subject than any other private individual in this country not immediately connected with a sporting paper. Whatever opinion I may express, then, is entitled to consideration and respect.
Candor compels me to say therefore, that whilst I have witnessed occasionally, "a row, a rumpus, and a rioting," on a race field at the North, which we are wholly exempt from at the South, I have never seen aught upon a Cricket ground, but what would seem to result from an acquiesence in, and respectful obedience to, that divine injunction, "Let everything be done decently, and in order."
All American Cricketers are under great obligation to those who first suggested the idea of inviting the "All-England Eleven" to come to this country. I am told we are indebted to Mr. Pickering, of Montreal, and the St. George's Cricket Club, for setting the body and the limbs of the great sport in motion. I have also been informed that the expense of preparing the beautiful ground in this vicinity where the game was played, was liberally defrayed by the
